Hiking Rifle Arch
Jul. 5th, 2022 05:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerColorado Travelog #5
Rifle, CO - Saturday, 2 Jul 2022, 4:30pm
When we arrived in Glenwood Springs around midday today we found some bad news. Actually, the day would be full of bad news. One piece of bad news pertained to our planned hike at Hanging Lake. It's gone to a permit system, and permits are sold out for today and tomorrow.
I've written before about the importance of being prepared to "call an audible". While we don't plan our trips, per se, with specific Plans B, C, etc., we usually have an awareness of other things we can do if Plan A gets blocked for whatever reason. Today our Plan B started with Rifle Arch, about an hour west of Glenwood Springs.
The 3 mile roundtrip trail starts by traversing high desert landscape. Hard-scrabble dirt is studded with scrub and the occasional stand of small trees. We know the arch is somewhere in those distant mountains, but which one? It's too far off to see yet.
After cresting and crossing one plateau the trail drops through a small gorge and climbing the foot of one of the mountains. Here the arch comes into view. It's in approximately the center of the photo above.
We hiked to the end of the formal trail where there's a nice view of the arch from just below it. From here it's a rock scramble up underneath the arch. Many hikers do it, but we didn't quite have the energy today. ...And we also had a Plan C and Plan D in mind. To replace Plan A we'd need Plan B + (Plan C and/or Plan D).
Rifle, CO - Saturday, 2 Jul 2022, 4:30pm
When we arrived in Glenwood Springs around midday today we found some bad news. Actually, the day would be full of bad news. One piece of bad news pertained to our planned hike at Hanging Lake. It's gone to a permit system, and permits are sold out for today and tomorrow.
I've written before about the importance of being prepared to "call an audible". While we don't plan our trips, per se, with specific Plans B, C, etc., we usually have an awareness of other things we can do if Plan A gets blocked for whatever reason. Today our Plan B started with Rifle Arch, about an hour west of Glenwood Springs.
The 3 mile roundtrip trail starts by traversing high desert landscape. Hard-scrabble dirt is studded with scrub and the occasional stand of small trees. We know the arch is somewhere in those distant mountains, but which one? It's too far off to see yet.
After cresting and crossing one plateau the trail drops through a small gorge and climbing the foot of one of the mountains. Here the arch comes into view. It's in approximately the center of the photo above.
We hiked to the end of the formal trail where there's a nice view of the arch from just below it. From here it's a rock scramble up underneath the arch. Many hikers do it, but we didn't quite have the energy today. ...And we also had a Plan C and Plan D in mind. To replace Plan A we'd need Plan B + (Plan C and/or Plan D).
