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Show t, i j v-" 'w. . ':v; j w v x , . r .. , - - i ' 7- A - -I ' - , ' V,'--- , T -, - ' , n 1 . i " - ... - - i . u. .v"- - - l - - - " - . r . , '... . The Devil's Garden foot trail begins 18 'miles miortih' of Arches National Monument headquarters and is excellent excel-lent for. young and old alike. Twin . Devil's Garden Hiking Provides Exciting fin Country Experience BY DICK WILSON Hikers by ! the score could lose themselves in the one thousand or more delights of i Devils Garden. This section of Arches National Na-tional Monument is famous for the carved rock forms that nature has displayed in such concentrated doses. Avenues Ave-nues between the dozens and dozens of fins, opening & ar-ens ar-ens of fins, openings and arches ar-ches of magnificent wonder, t jagged skylines these are a 1 few of the scenes that await the nature observer. Bates Wilson, Canyonlands National Park Superintendent is a walking library of information infor-mation about the Moab country. coun-try. He describes an exciting hike not many folks have taken. tak-en. Leaving your vehicle at , Sand Dune Arch, 17 miles i( from Arches Headquarters, I, walk northeast past Broken Arch. Soon you'll be descending descend-ing into canyons at the monu-I monu-I ments eastern border, canyons can-yons that have been cut into the Salt Wash member of the Morrison formation. Here, said Wilson, are hanging gardens gar-dens and alcoves of interest to those who desire an easy walk. Continuing north on .the highway, Skyline Arch, reclining re-clining at an angle, is the next noteworthy feature. In the year 1940 this arch almost al-most doubled its span when daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Jay (Skip) Meaky choose their destination 'for last Sunday's hike. a huge block of stone dropped from its opening. Before and after photos demonstrate this unique bit of the arch's history. v Picnicing around the corner from Skyline is superb, but the warm February sun did not seem to draw out too many in . that direction, this past weekend. Another few weeks will no doubt change the picture as this scenic wonderland takes its leap into in-to springtime. Where the road makes a loop north of the popular campground is where hikes extraordinary begin. Erosion-al Erosion-al forms beyond the imagination imagina-tion of man line the monument's monu-ment's trail. The first mile is easy enough for those up in years or for those who are short of leg or wind. There are occasional steep places along the constructed pathway, path-way, but these will do a normal nor-mal heart good. At less than a quarter of a mile the trail forks. Take a hundred steps down the right fork and Pine Tree Arch will come into view. Continue on the trail toward Pine Tree and you will notice a huge arch across the meadow to the north. This arch can also be seen after walking through Pine Tree Arch. The pine which gave the arch its name is now dead and rotting but still erect immediately within the opening. Less than 100 i ' " ; Flames lit the midnight skies in Moab Thursday night as they devoured a large trailer home owned by Mr. and Mrs. James Gage. The trailer was park- 1 ed at the Elmer Ellis Park on Center Street ; the owners were in Denver. Moab firemen battled the blaze in vain; the trailer was demolished. The fire was reported by two unidentified youths who had sighted the. blaze, believed to have been started from faulty heat tape beneath the rear of home. (Spencer Photo) yards in the opposite direction from Pine Tree is Tunnel Arch Ar-ch with a miniature arch nearby. . .' . Topping a rise on the main trail about three-fourths, of a mile from the parking' area, an arch with blue shining through comes into view. This is Partition , Arch which has a partition in its opening. From this same ; hilltop something greater is visible-but visible-but deceptively concealed except ex-cept to those who are alert. A thin strand of sandstone stretches from one buttress to another, a sight not immediately immedi-ately noticed at first because of Partition Arch being less deceptive and receiving all the attention. The deceiver is Landscape Arch which blends so perfectly into its landscape that sharp eyes are needed to detect it from the hilltop. Perhaps it's because you're not expecting such a large . arch. Anyway, it doesn't dawn on some that there's another arch in the picture until they move down the slope toward the scene. Then it strikes you with an impact of disbelief. Landscape Land-scape is almost as long as a football field. Its 291-foot thread of rock is suspended delicately, fragilely from its buttresses. It seems that only on-ly a slight earth tremor would be sufficient to obliterate this majestic formation. There is no other arch known with a span longer than Landscape's. It has been said that Landscape is a scientific impossibility. It violates vio-lates the laws of physics and engineering. It breaks the rules of rigid-body dynamics. But it's there! It's also hard to photograph If you could remove the wall' from behind it, its matchless-ness matchless-ness would be proven more adequately. Remove the mountain of residue from beneath be-neath it (which is precisely what the stream did beneath Rainbow Bridge world "s largest) and I'd say that Landscape would have no rivals ri-vals as far as height is concerned con-cerned either. The arch presently pres-ently stretches across the sky 105 feet above the hilllock of debris. See the arch from all angles an-gles for complete enjoyment and understanding of the force of nature. A walk to the wall behind provides different and exciting vistas of the Un-compahgre Un-compahgre Range as Landscaped Land-scaped backdrop. At least two parties have made it across the arch. But these were expert rope climbers and even they narrowly made it. A primitive trail continues north from Landscape. Wail Arch presents itself within a two-minute walk from Landscape. Land-scape. If it were the only arch on the trail, it would still be worth the walk. 2V2 miles of walking from the parking area brings the hiker to Double O arch which makes an almost perfect circle cir-cle 230 feet in circumference Beneath the big O is a smaller small-er one in circular shape. Discoveries are yet to be made in the region at the far northern end of Devils Garden, Gar-den, Bates Wilson believes. It's been only five years since his finding of a 70-foot arch in the Fiery Furnace. The northeastern perimeter of Arches National Monument is seldom hiked due to its remoteness re-moteness and inaccessibility. It is there, says Bates Wilson, that new arches will be found. They're there! Go find them! -- |