Baby Elephant Arch

We went on a family vacation to Saint George and planned an early morning hike to Elephant Arch, which is about a four mile round trip hike.  While looking for other arches to visit, I came upon photos of Baby Elephant Arch.  We discovered that it was close to Elephant Arch that we had visited that morning!  We followed the google maps directions to reach what should have been the trailhead.

Currently if you follow the google maps directions you'll end up in what appears to be a construction zone.  The trail to the arch is no where to be found from there.  We did locate the arch, but there are walking paths all around it, so I suspect there is a different trailhead somewhere that actually leads to the arch, but I don't know where it is.  Our walk from the google maps "trailhead" to the arch was only .14 miles.  But I think pretty soon that area will be covered with houses or businesses.  In fact, I don't know how accessible Baby Elephant Arch will be in the future, if at all.

It is near the Dino Cliffs Trail.  On Google Maps it looks like there are walking trails that go close to the arch.  

The little dirt trails might go right past the arch - there were foot trails all around it, just not from where Google Maps said to park.

This sign is at the beginning of the dirt road that takes you either to the Baby Elephant Arch hike or the Elephant Arch hike.  But driving this road, it is unclear which roads are the alternative routes.

This sign is up on the dirt road.  The Mill Creek direction is what takes you to the Elephant Arch trailhead, and the Dino Cliffs direction is for Baby Elephant Arch.

The road is definitely high clearance, and we actually used our four wheel drive because it's pretty rough.  It is only 1.4 miles of unpaved road from this arch, though.

From where we parked our car, we could see what appears to be a trail for four-wheelers or motorcycles

Following the trail in hopes of finding the arch

Still following the trail in hopes of seeing the arch

There's the hope of an arch up ahead

We continued to head towards what we hoped was the arch

This especially sandy part was at almost the very end before the arch itself

Baby Elephant Arch is in just about the center of this photo

Baby Elephant Arch can only be viewed from this side because of the giant bush on the other side of it.

This gives you an idea of how small the arch is

View from inside the arch looking up - I could have squeezed through the arch if I'd really wanted to, but I would have been down on my hands and knees climbing through the sand, so I didn't attempt it.

Baby Elephant Arch

It was a total of .14 miles, so only about 5 or 10 minutes.  Then we headed back.

Almost back to our car

If we ever go back to Saint George, I think I would try some of those walking trails and see if they eventually lead to Baby Elephant Arch.  Since there are foot-trails around it, I feel like there must be a trail leading directly to it.

Our very short hike- under 5 minutes one way, and only .14 miles

The Dino Cliffs Trail is very close to Baby Elephant Arch

The dirt road is pretty rough and requires a high clearance or four wheel drive vehicle

Dirt trails surrounding Baby Elephant Arch that possibly could lead to it