Elephant Arch

Fellow backcountry ranger David Sanders was in town this weekend chilling with us at 1658 Rim View Drive. We started the day being kind of lazy and since it was Groundhog Day, we definitely watched the movie. We finally got inspired to go out and do something a bit after noon. David hurt his hip a bit taking a fall on the Lava Falls Trail recently, so we could not do anything too strenuous. He decided to take Jacqueline and I out to the Red Cliffs Reserve near St. George. I had no idea that it was even there, so it was nice to make that find. I was also glad to have someone else plan a trip for once. We headed down a dirt road with some horses in front of us. We were able to overtake them before long and make our way down various other dirt roads. David knew where he was going and we finally hit something similar to a trail. It was a dry, sandy wash. The desert really has a lot of these. From there, he was not entirely sure where we were going. Twice, we ran into dead ends before finding the correct path. We even ran into a group of three women coming back from our intended destination. It was not long and there we were at Elephant Arch. It really looked like the head of an elephant. We took a few pictures and goofed around on the rocks. I enjoyed the rock that looked like a Mayan Temple, although no one else seemed to agree with me. Then we headed back. We had to walk in front of five people that were coming back from near the same area that we were at, but not the arch. Also, we got the pleasure of being passed by an ATV. All and all the day was good. It was about a three hour roundtrip, probably around six mile hike. A good way to spend Groundhog Day.