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Show Corona Arch is Close to Moab; Easy Trail Rewards Visitors Various areas of the United Sra'.es are famous to hobbyists hobby-ists for numerous things found in nature suitable for collecting collect-ing or listing. In the South bird watching is quite popular. popu-lar. In the Carolinas, rock collecting is king. Activities such as cave exploring are -interesting weekend pursuits to those living in limestone regions such as Tennessee and Kentucky. In Kansas, sunsets and clouds are probably among am-ong nature's greatest displays. In Colorado, the thousands of rocky peaks and alpine settings, set-tings, and skiing invite the crowds. Minnesota's canoeing, California's and Florida's sandy san-dy beaches and ocean waves-each waves-each area is unique. In the canyon country a most popular diversion is arcn The D&RGW Railroad spur emerges from a tunnel in Bootlegger Canyon and intersects the trail to Corona Arch. The trail is fine for family recreation as the Barron family from Rerio, Nevada Ne-vada found out. collecting. Not that you can really collect an arch but you can hang in your white marble halls of memory experiences ex-periences of getting to an arch, and the differences that exist among the indviidual arches. ar-ches. Residents of Moab talk about the arches like Alaskan hunters talk aboyt their favorite fav-orite hunt and like the fishermen fisher-men talk about fish. The one-mile hike to Corona Arch is one of those places in the local region worth talking about and especially enjoyable enjoy-able to out-of-staters. Anywhere Any-where east of the Rockies or west of Utah, Corona Arch and its nearby companions would probably be declared a state park or national monument. monu-ment. Hidden from View Bootlegger Canyon hides three arches actually. It's been several decades since liquor was distilled in the canyon and several things have occurred in those parts since then, mainly to accommodate accom-modate the Texas Gulf Sulphur Sul-phur plant. One of these is the award-winning scenic highway high-way to Potash which brings the mouth of Bootlegger Canyon Can-yon to within 14 miles of downtown Moab. This is perhaps per-haps the most popular scenic drive out of Moab due tg the numerous displays of Indian petroglyphs along the way as well as an Indian corn crib, dinosaur tracks and supero riverside vistas. Formerly the trip to Bootlegger Canyon was a long boat ride or horse trek over slick rock and narrow ledges. The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad spur from Crescent Junction is another relatively recent change to Bootlegger Canyon. The tunnel tun-nel was pushed through 7,062 feet of solid sandstone. A savings sav-ings of some eight miles was accomplished by taking the railroad through the escarpment escarp-ment northwest of town rather than following along the present pres-ent highway route. Trains on the way to the TGS plant emerge em-erge from the hole just a short way east of Corona Arch. If the track had been laid a bit to the north the trains would now be going back and forth directly beneath the attraction. at-traction. Providing a train is not going go-ing by, the hike into Corona Arch is still quite uncivilized and tremendously interesting. The trail is well marked on the Potash Highway. From near the starting point Gold Bar Arch can be seen in the distance. Winds Up the Slope The trail winds up a steep slope to start with, then crosses cross-es the tracks. Tin's makes a fine place to view the work of men in putting a railroad through rugged areas. Precise Pre-cise curves were bored thru ridges of sandstone exposing beautiful layers. If you've hiked the trail to Corona, why not be different and walk the rails to the mouth of the tunnel? tun-nel? From the rails you get a different view of Corona than from the normal method of approach. The trail, however, has the kind of appeal that you never get tired of. Near the highway high-way it goes through hills of rounded rocks, the work of the Colorado river. Many of the pebbles are of a completely com-pletely different type of rock than what is found in the can- yon country, granite, schist, and o!';er magmatic forms. These originated at least 200 miles upstream, perhaps in the Uncompahgre Plateau region re-gion or, getting right down to basic facts, even as far as Rocky Mountain National park where the headwaters of the Colorado begin. Safety Cable A cable has been placed to guide hikers safely across a slickrock slope. Stand at this first cable and look around. The scenery behind you look at it. Western as western can be! Mesas and buttes of every description. Now look in a forward direction, up the trail, beyond the small canyon can-yon in the foreground. There's a dark spot on the wall. No'v do some careful gazing. Analyze An-alyze what you see. Check yourself, then say, "I see it." Your companion will look ahead, then back to you and ask, "See what?" "The arch. Corona Arch, don't you see it?" "No. It's right there, plain as a Viet Cong in a camouflage camou-flage suit in a jungle thicket." You may be lucky, however, and visit Corona in the early morning. At that time it's much easier to see from this point. Oh, it's large enough to see all right. But on a cloudy day especially do the colors of the arch blend so perfectly with its background that it's almost impossible to convince visitors of its presence. pres-ence. Little Rainbow On the USGS topographical maps it's called Little Rainbow Rain-bow Bridge. The original name of the early cowboys is Corona. Cor-ona. But that doesn't detract from the fact that it does resemble re-semble Rainbow, but only : half of a bow. Take a few more steps from that first cable line and you spot another arch, this one closer to you, not so deceiving, deceiv-ing, and easier to see. Bow Tie Arch was formed in a completely different manner than was Corona. Bow Tie originated as a pot hole in the cliff above and finally met an alcove being carved in from below. An Adam's apple is plainly seen right below the tie. Corona, on the other hand, was carved from a fin of sandstone. First came a window. win-dow. The elements of rain, freezing, and wind ate away. Then came the toot of a train. Corona is ready for inspection. |