Capitol Reef - Hike to Cassidy Arch

Today we hiked to the Cassidy Arch.  It's named that in homage to Butch Cassidy.  I'm not sure what, exactly, the relationship between the arch and Butch is, but there you go.  It's a steep little trail.  It starts out pretty steeply, and then levels out some.  Just before you reach the arch, there is sloped slick rock to traverse.  I kept telling myself (hearing Mark's voice in my head) to trust my shoes.  It was giving me the willies to the point that I didn't get many pictures of the sloping slick rock.  Never fear, there are many pictures of other stuff.

This is one of the sets of stairs installed for your climbing pleasure.  The first third of the hike is a lot like stair master.

View from the climbing.

 Looking across a canyon.

 The first view of the arch.  But we're not there yet!

 A dead tree along the trail.  They're very sculptural.

Some of the slick rock.

Once you're at the top, you can see into the valley.

Ta-da!  The arch.  Look at the guy standing on it, it's a big arch.

Some people were rappelling into it - sort of.  Anytime I have been rappelling, my feet have been against the vertical surface, and I controlled the speed of the descent.  The first guy that went down was on his back, and it looked like he was being lowered.  We couldn't see if anyone was on belay at the bottom.

More scenery.

 
The trail back down.

After returning to the truck, we drove down to the end of The Scenic Drive.  Is it not lovely?

That was today.  We're pretty killed.  The walk up to the arch has a lot of up, and the down is tiring, as well.  Tomorrow we're going to rest a little, I think.  We want to go back up to the Rim Overlook, which is very impressive.  It's looking like we may have to do that on Sunday because of the weather.  Fear not, there are other trails and more red rocks to photograph.