stars
Beautiful hike with 3 knee deep river crossings and some very challenging navigation at the end to actually get up the butte to reach the arch. The "trail" on GAIA is only a generic route, it will not direct you to the only way up the butte. My track shows how we searched and finally found the one way to ascend the butte.
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Fun trail. Mid-April on a Friday, the weather was perfect (mid-50s) and just a couple other groups on the trail.
The sandstone sections were my favorite. Not a lot of vertical on this trail, mostly pretty level. The trails are pretty well marked with cairns, but the signs aren't terribly clear, so I backtracked a couple of times when I realized that I was on the wrong trail.
I ran this trail, and I admit that I was a bit slower than I expected. It was hard to keep a good pace in the dry creekbed on the south section of the Big Spring trail (southwest section of this loop.) Also I frequently had to stop to scan for the next cairn. I had a good time, though. I recommend it.
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stars
This was a great hike. Very dramatic scenery. Not at all crowded (we saw two other small groups all day). I would rate this, however, as the most strenuous hike I've ever done in Canyonlands/Utah. We took the loop clockwise because we read that the incline on the finishing couple of miles in that direction was more gradual. While true, either direction offers significant challenges. I still might recommend the clockwise direction, however, because of about 700 vertical feet that have to be climbed through a boulder field about a mile after the intersection with the Upheaval Canyon trail. There were several exposed areas that I would rather tackle on an ascent rather than a descent. A negative to this direction, though, at this time of year is that we spent the last ~2.5 hours hiking in the shade of the canyon wall, and it was fairly cool. Overall a fantastic hike! Would recommend 10/10.
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Did this hike on a Saturday in late September. Got to the trailhead around 7:30 am and we were one of the first few cars there. The trail eventually got a little busier, but it never felt crowded by any means. Took about 5.5 hours to do the 11+ mile loop (including a 30 minute stop), but it never seemed overly difficult. The trail is well marked overall. A few tricky spots along the way, but those spots are a lot of fun to navigate. The landscape is just stunning! Definitely one of the highlights of our nearly week-long trip to Moab. I'd highly recommend putting this hike on your list.
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