I went out to get a look at a natural arch I spied out here right on a year ago. The summer scene is very different from last year. It has not greened up much whereas last year seems almost lush by comparison. Last year McCall Reservoir was full and overflowing a trickle into the arroyo below. This year, it's just drying mud, although over in Banded Canyon there were small puddles of clear water from a light rain last night. This year, July has been hot, nearly as hot as June. Last year I was able to get out into the desert multiple times and the heat was never really much of a factor.
Hopefully the rains are coming in full force and the situation will be remedied soon
I drove in very close this time and parked in a section of road that's in the arroyo and directly below the red volcanic cliffs on the south side of Foster Canyon that contain the arch. At first I went up to a large alcove, that is developing an arch, only to realize I was in the wrong spot. Not a day to waste a lot of time and energy. I went back down part way and moved over to the west and found an arch, though not the one I had seen last year. So I got a bonus for exploring just a bit closer.
About 30 feet directly above this lower arch is the opening of the upper one which can be seen from the road if you know where to look. The lower arch's opening cannot be seen until you are nearly upon it.I can stand up in the upper one. The lower one I have to stoop a bit
I explored on the top of the hill after visiting the second one, looking for a vantage point to get them both in the same photo, but to no avail.
I explored to the west a bit and found one alcove where someone at some time had built a bit of retaining wall that was now collapsed, but I found no pottery, no lithics and no petroglyphs.
I keep hoping that somewhere in the Foster, Faulkner Canyons area there will be some rock art but, so far I've come up empty.
On the way back I looked down in Banded Canyon at an alcove and found a little cache in a plastic ice cream container. It had 2 bullets, a quarter, a lollipop and a little notebook where people wrote about finding it and what they took out and what they left behind. I wasn't prepared with a pen, so I just put it back into its little hole in the cliff beside a bottle of water. There was mini arch very nearby.
Hi Devon, first time finding your blog and I just had to stop and tell you how amazing I think it is! 😊👏
ReplyDeleteRegarding these arches, do you recommend parking in a certain location and now many arches are there to see along the way? I didn’t find anything on All Trails app and only found a result for Foster Canyon Trail on Google maps. Also is a 4WD necessary?
Thank you so much and please continue to blog!! 👍
You can make it with a two wheel drive pickup with good clearance and dry conditions. I used to, but I'm glad to have 4WD now because these roads have certainly not improved over the years. These "arches" are pretty small and they are on the same hillside. If you have my book " Exploring Organ Mountains- Desert Peaks National Monument" there are good directions there that will get you near to this spot and to what I called Foster Box Canyon( which has a little arch too). This whole area of the Cedar Hills has a lot to offer, so it's worth coming back to several times. There are some bigger, but not exactly huge, arches over in the Doña Ana Mountains. I have blogs about them and a hike to one of them in the book.
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