Red Canyon Arch

 I asked an employee from the Wyoming State Lands office what the name of this little arch is, and he didn't even know it existed.  So until I can find out its real name, I'm calling it Red Canyon Arch, because it's located in Red Canyon.  I had heard rumors that there was a little arch in Red Canyon, but I didn't know where it was or much about it.  We asked around and got very limited directions, so one day in 2020, my daughter Rebecca and her boyfriend Kaleb spent a day searching for it.  They found a little window, and figured that must be it!  So  they took photos and came back home.  A few years later, in May of 2023, I decided I wanted to see the little window they had found.  So I asked for directions from Kaleb, who was serving a mission for our church in Guatemala at the time, and he gave me directions as best he could remember.  I brought Rebecca and my son Teancum on the hunt.  We parked in the pull-out right before the Red Canyon lookout (if you're coming from Lander), went through the state lands gate, and started following the path.  Rebecca often said, "this looks familiar," or "I think we went this way."  But she wasn't totally sure.  At one point we ended up at a semi-cliff and Rebecca said, "I think Kaleb might have helped me climb over this." So, Teancum climbed over it and went exploring.  Rebecca and I found another way up, walking along a small ledge and then up an incline to the top.  Teancum had explored around enough that he had found a small arch.  I am sure this is the small arch that we had heard about -- and it wasn't the window that Rebecca and Kaleb had found a few years earlier.  The arch is only a few feet big.  It is on the edge of the cliff and somewhat hidden, so I can see why Kaleb and Rebecca didn't find it.  We explored some more, looking for the window that Rebecca and Kaleb had found, but we never found it.  I want to go back and search for that as well.  Several times Rebecca said, "I know I've been here before," and we even went back the way she and Kaleb had gone back -- along the fence line to our car.  If I were to go back, I'm sure I could walk along the fence line, climb under the barbed wire fence where it appears lots of other people have climbed under it, ascend the hill to the edge of the cliff and find the little arch again.  One thing to be warned about -- Ticks!  Rebecca and Teancum both ended up with several ticks on them -- one was even crawling on Rebecca's arm on the drive home, which was pretty scary, since she was driving!  So, if you're going to search for this little Red Canyon Arch, wear long pants and closed-toed shoes, keep your hair under a hat, and check thoroughly for ticks after you're done.  We were walking through brush quite a bit of the time, because we only stayed on the established trail for the very beginning of the hike.

Rebecca and Teancum heading out on the trail

view of where we parked our car from the trail

These are the hills we are headed towards.  The arch was up on top of the very highest red hill (not up on the green)

Teancum leading the way

Teancum by some tiny openings in the rocks

Teancum coming around the ledge to show us a possible way up

It was very hot!

Teancum climbed up onto the cliff, but Rebecca and I went the long way around

view of where we had come from

going around the ledge

Teancum is on the cliff-side of the small arch.  You can barely see his head popping through the other side

That's Teancum peeking through the little arch

You can see why the view of the arch was obscured from the trail.  We wouldn't have found it if Teancum hadn't explored as much as he did.

the arch from the cliff side (Teancum took this photo -- I didn't dare to go on the edge)

back side of the arch

front side of the arch

Rebecca climbing over to the arch

It wasn't too hard to get to - just a little bit of mild climbing

view of the highway from up on the cliff

there are very pretty views up there

there's a tiny little opening

hiking back to the car, a different way than we came

we found this marker, and Rebecca and Kaleb had found this same marker when they found the small window a few years earlier

looking back at the red mountains on our hike back

there was this little paved path for a very short distance of the hike along the fenceline, but it made me wonder if there used to be an established trail here

When I go back, I will walk along the fence line and then right up that top red mountain

The trail on the left is the one we followed when we first got there.  Then when we were in parallel with those mountains, we took a right and started heading to the top.

view from the gate just before we went through it

there's just a chain on the gate - it isn't locked

this is our very squiggly route.  The parts where we circle around a lot is where Teancum climbed up the cliff, and we decided to go around the ledge instead.  Then the next little part with the little lasso is where the arch is.

our full route, starting at the green dot, and then the red dot was after we had started driving and I remembered to turn my tracker off :)  The little part where we hike back in towards the hills is when we were trying to find the little window that Rebecca and Kaleb had found.

in total, almost a two mile hike counting all the searching around

these photos are from Rebecca and Kaleb's search for the arch in 2020

the same marker that we came across in 2023

they found a rattle snake on their hike

There's the little window that Rebecca and Kaleb found.  You can see the highway from it!  We never did find this formation or this little opening, but I am determined to go back and locate it!