Exploring Geological Wonders: A Journey Through the Devil's Garden Trail at Arches National Park

What if a single hike could illuminate the wonders of geological time and the fragility of nature’s masterpieces? Join me, Craig the Natural Medic, as I take you on a captivating trek through the Devil's Garden Trail at Arches National Park. Discover the intriguing story of Landscape Arch, the longest natural arch outside of China, and learn about its uncertain future as erosion slowly takes its toll. Along this iconic journey, we'll explore the ancient forces of nature that sculpted these breathtaking formations, giving you a glimpse into the dynamic processes that have shaped this awe-inspiring landscape over millennia.

As we navigate this rugged terrain together, feel the exhilaration of scrambling over rocky paths and squeezing through narrow gaps, all while marveling at the unique features of Navajo and Partition Arches. Experience firsthand the thrill and challenges this trail has to offer, with stories of significant rockfall events like the one in 1991 that highlight the park's ever-changing nature. Whether you're an adventurous hiker or a curious nature enthusiast, this episode paints a vivid picture of one of America's most extraordinary landscapes—filled with natural beauty, fascinating history, and the promise of adventure.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hi there it's Craig the Natural Medic going to do a hike to part of Devil's Garden Trail here in Arches National Park. It's December 16th 2024 when I'm attempting this and let's take a look at the trail itself. If you look at the board here to the landscape arch is 1.8 miles round trip elevation change of 40 feet 30 to 60 minutes total. It is the second most popular after Delicate Arch or second most well-known in the park. I hope you'll follow me down to Landscape Arch here in the Devil's Garden Trail, arches National Park. Starting off you're looking at these big fins that show you the Devil's Garden. Here you had upward pressure, rainwater erosion and everything like that, causing interesting features to form, sometimes arches. We're gonna go see one. The landscape arch Right here got some signposts showing landscape arch is .65 miles to the left, back to the trailhead is a quarter mile. You can go to some other arches over here Tunnel arch and pine tree arch, both of which are less than two-tenths of a mile away, just to give you an idea of what you're hiking into lots of interesting rock formations everywhere. I guess that's why they call it the Devil's Garden, just because it's so otherworldly looking. If you want to do the entire trail. It's about eight miles, takes between three and five

Speaker 1: 1:44

hours. Here's our first view of the landscape arch. Isn't that cool? Supposedly it's the longest natural arch outside of China. Okay, so we're looking at landscape arch. This is a good overall view. The arch is slightly longer than a football field. Arches, of course, is a living laboratory. Different disciplines are doing different monitoring of different things in the park pretty cool place really is the perfect time to be out here doing this. If you want to continue on the primitive trail, it actually goes over here to the right and loop to trailhead is four miles and does require some scrambling, some route, finding things like that. If you want to go the main trail to double O arch, one way from here, rock scrambling, exposure to heights, etc. Rock scrambling, exposure to heights, etc. Don't think we're going to make it all the way to that today, but may go up here to Navajo and Partition Arch Just to check those out. But for now, look at this lovely view of of landscape arch. Isn't that cool? You can take a look at the arch here and it's very thin compared to some of the other arches. You can see there's a big pile of rubble over here. I believe in 1991 was when a bunch of rock fell. People were actually here to witness it. Nobody was hurt, but it's thought this one is toward the end of its lifespan because of the cracks and, of course, part of it falling off back in 1991. Pretty interesting. This is about as close as views you can get without actually getting in the danger zone. Hey, by the way, if you're liking this video, give it a thumbs up, let YouTube know that it's worth viewing and gets out to other people. Thanks that it's worth viewing and gets out to other people,

Speaker 1: 3:47

thanks. So, coming up from landscape, you scramble up this rocky hill through a gap in the fence. You can see where the trail is because the rock's worn down where people have tread on it Slow going, as you can hear from my breath, seems like a long time. When you go through the rock gap up to the turnoff to Partition and Navajo, they're only .2 and .3 past about a quarter mile past Landscape Arch. If you want to continue on the 00 arch, it's straight ahead, but the trail gets significantly more difficult. There's also Dark Angel and you can come back on the primitive trail if you want, or double back on

Speaker 1: 4:26

the same trail. Okay, I'm inside navajo arch. This is a cooler view. I think there's some really cool trees in this little spot right here, back in this little gap between the rock fins. But this is navajo arch, I would imagine, so-called because it's formed in navajo sandstone, which is prominent in this area. Really cool tree right here hanging out in the entrance of it and it's pretty cool that you can walk through it. There's the little sign for it navajo arch, and here it is from the outside. Very cool, slightly different view of Navajo Arch. And this is from the west side. Cool, interesting thing

Speaker 1: 5:16

to think about. We're here at Navajo Arch. This tree is right here and it's well established. It's probably about 10 feet tall. What impact will this have on the weathering and erosion of the arch in the future? I don't think it's going to get any taller, but what are the roots going to do? I'm actually standing on the other side of there is some railways fencing. You really can't see because of this trees

Speaker 1: 5:50

in the way. Let me get a little closer. I was standing over there where that little patch of snow and ice is, and landscape arch is just on the other side of this ridge here. You just can't see it from this particular angle. If I was able to somehow get down here where this tree is, I could probably see it, but I'm not going down there. If you want to look from this side at the partition arch here, it is Ba-ba Part of the question for this particular geocache. The question for this cache is why is there debris down here and there is a fair amount Rocks that are loose. You have some

Speaker 1: 6:45

branches, some trees. Very interesting, better view of Partition Arch from the uphill side. Landscape Arch is over here to the south, but what a beautiful view through the arch here. If you look behind me, there's a strong slope, so I imagine when it rains there's a lot of stuff that moves through the portal here, which probably contributed to its creation as well as will contribute to its demise in the future. I certainly think it's cooler when you can peer through these arches like windows. This is one of the best views in the park, in my opinion, that I've seen so far. Okay, you can definitely

Speaker 1: 7:38

see the pathway. The rock is pretty worn going down this ridge here to come back towards the landscape arch, which is just around the corner. Partition arch is Just another side of this rock. You cannot really see it from here, but I was just standing there a second ago. Okay, coming back over here, you can see Partition Arch as we are back at Landscape Arch. Pretty cool, didn't know that was going to be where I was going to be standing at one point. All right, you can see landscape arch behind me and partition arches over off of my left shoulder. Hopefully you can see

Speaker 1: 8:23

that as well. And one thing to bear in mind with accessing the park on December, november, january, february no timed entry Park gets heavy 1.8 million annual visitors To a park that's only 76,000 acres. We need a timed entry stamp because it's so popular. I don't know about you, but it's weird to see Yucca with snow on it. Okay, right here is a branch off the main trail going back to the trailhead. We can go to Tunnel Arch, which is this way you can see it from here, right on top of the hillside there. Right now we're going to check out Pine Tree Arch, which is this way Okay, right here, the Pine Tree Arch and the trail ends here, so I can get a little closer and stand under it, etc. I'll do that in a second, but I just want to give you a good view of the arch. Pretty cool. I would assume it's called pine tree arch because there are all kinds of pinyon pines around the area

Speaker 1: 9:30

and underneath it. So our last arch for this video tunnel arch, which is close to the beginning, looks like you've got another arch forming to the left of it. A little bit Pretty cool. You can see right through it like a tunnel, I don't know, maybe more like a window. What do you think? Okay, that was a quick and dirty. Through the devil's garden Saw five arches, five arches. It's crazy. Overall nice Decent hike. Get to the end of it. We're going to be a little bit over four miles, about 4.3 miles, including dilly dally. Time About two hours and 30 minutes Roughly, give or take. Hope you enjoyed this is a lovely view you're treated to when you come out of the Devil's Garden and look at that great view of the La Salle's. If you like this video, make sure to give it a thumbs up. Think about subscribing to the channel if you want to see more content like this. Till next time. See you on the trail.