With its 42×32 m wide opening, Corona Arch National Recreation Trail provides access to one of the most iconic arches outside Arches National Park. The partly freestanding arch is located in a striking slickrock setting and is sometimes called “Little Rainbow Bridge” on some topo maps.
Wall Street Climbing Area in the Colorado River Valley.The color of the river is the same as the pink sandstone surrounding it.Once there was a lonely guy. He was hungry and built a fence trap to catch and domesticate small animals for meat and milk. One day, on a hike, he met people at another settlement and made friends. Showing them what he knew made them adopt him into their family of hunter-gatherers who lived at the Colorado River. Over time, they had quite a big farm! – Free interpretation of mural by E.A big family! – Free interpretation.Some of the pictograms feature horned people, symbolizing the deceased.And they all sat right here, on the water’s edge, one of them the artist that left us guessing over the meaning of the petroglyphs.Potash Railroad Spur – The railroad track was built in 1964. This spur connects the Intrepid Potash Plant at the end of State Route 279 to the main railroad line at Crescent Junction. Just below Corona Arch, the train enters a one mile long tunnel to emerge near US Hwy 191. The trail runs several times a week, hauling potash to the main railroad line near Interstate 70.Stumbling along the handrail.In sight of the arch! Yeeehaaa!Mini lizard sunning on a stone.A few meters have to be climbed, the rest is just walking on an inclined plane.Much of the roughly 5 km walk is just trailing along a small path up and across a plane, then, after the ladder, it gets really interesting. There are two more arches up there to find.One of which is this pothole arch, a small depression on top of a rock mass merged with an alcove on a rock face. The light opening is smooth and rounded at the top, casting light down into the room-shaped opening below.Water painting along overhanging rock surface.Desert varnish is the thin red-to-black coating found on exposed rock surfaces in arid regions. Bacteria take manganese out of the environment, oxidize it, and cement it onto rock surface. In the process, clay and other particles also become cemented onto the rock. – Referring to the lines on the big wall, not the water trails.Pink lizard. Also living there: Rattlesnakes. Fortunately no pic of the second one.Closing in on the arch.Halloween rock-face.In good old manner – pic from the other side!The tree at the ladder, probably the most touched living creature in a big area, the wood is all smooth and shiny.Since it was such an uplifting walk, we add a few more km to the tab.Looking into the Bootlegger Canyon (where Corona Arch is and also the trail vanishes in a fancy tunnel).Looking up to Pinto Arch (another pothole arch in two stories (The upper rim is way higher and still has a pond on top that seeps through the wall of the cavern below.The Colorado River from the Pinto trail.
