With the excellent break in the weather today, I decided to hustle out to the Gorge and attempt the Rock of Ages Arch hike. Weather was awesome and wasn't even windy, as well as unpopulated since is was Monday morning. The typical approach was from the Horsetail Falls Trailhead, at approx. .30 of a mile to the Arch trailhead, as seen below.
As everyone already know's, this trail isn't maintained by anyone but who hikes on it. If you're short like me, be sure to look up for the sign, as it is higher up on the tree.
About 1/8-1/4 of a mile up you come to a fork. The right fork takes you downhill to the top of the Ponytail Falls/Creek (if that is it's name). You want to take the fork to the left, uphill, very steeply uphill.
The further I ascended the trail, the steeper the trail got. The footing wasn't too bad, I had to knock mud out of the boots a few times, and crawl on my hands and knees a few times, but was climbable. This next pic was the scariest part of the trail for me. It was covered in a slushy mudslide, and the rocks were very slick. I managed to hand and foot it, with my trusty poles in hand too, you know, with that third arm I grew at that very moment.
After about another 1/4 mile, theres another fork in the trial. The straight trail goes up to a huge rock pile with a massive drop off if you climb it too fast, and a nice view looking east. To the right takes you further on the trail. To the left was to the Arch.
The trail to the left:
Thr trail basically treks alongside the mountain side, very steep, and covered in down trees and full of moss. But the trail was still easy to find. About 1/8 of a mile along the trail, was the arch, easily seen now.
There was a couple of trails that lead around the Arch, I followed only one to a viewpoint, since I was solo.
The weather was awesome up there, no wind, and the sun poked around the mountain just as I was getting up there. The Arch area landing had tons of loose rocks, and felt very unstable. The Arch itself looked like it was about to crumble over. I spent about 10 minutes up there, taking 1000 pics just to make sure I got it.
On the decend, I basically did the reverse crab walk down on the very steep parts, I slid a lot, but my trek pole held up well. It took me about 35 minutes to get down, but only 25 to the top. My boots held up well too, and didn't get too muddy.
This by far was the coolest trail I have been on so far. I will do it again this summer, when the trail isn't quite a mudslide. But it made for a good leg and footing workout!!
By the way, anyone know the elevation on this??