Camille's Arches

My favorite rocks are the ones with holes in them! My love for arches began during the two and a half years that our family lived in Moab, Utah. We spent many hours every week hiking to arches and other beautiful sites in this red-rock wonderland. Whenever I visit Moab now, I always feel like I'm coming home. This website is a collection of arches that I have visited from all over the world. View this site as a webpage to see the full list of arches in the sidebar!

Sunday, September 20, 2026

Indian Ridge Arch

In 2023 a friend of mine who knows how much I love arches asked if I'd ever seen the arch up Bear Pass in Dubois, Wyoming. I'd never heard of it, so he gave me details. In July of 2024 we attempted to drive Bear Pass in our suburban, in the hopes of seeing the arch. We didn't make it very far before we realized that our suburban definitely could not handle Bear Pass. Over the next couple years we looked for opportunities to find this arch, which I'd never even seen a photo of. Finally, we convinced a friend of ours who had a jeep to take us on this rough 4wd trail in search of this arch. The friend who had originally told us about the arch had been there the weekend before, and had spotted a grizzly bear right next to the arch. He and his buddy were looking up at the arch and saw what they thought was a brown cow grazing under the arch. They laughed, wondering how a cow had ended up high on the mountain, when the bear suddenly stood up on his hind legs. This bear sighting intrigued our friend with the jeep, and made him even more willing to drive us out into the unknown for a glimpse of this elusive arch.

We left Lander on a Saturday morning at 9:30 and headed to Dubois, about an hour away. We turned on East Fork Road, the road leading to Thunderhead Ranch, a right turn before reaching the Military Museum in outer Dubois (the address is technically listed as Crowheart). We followed the dirt road until we came to a fork, and then followed the sign for Bear Creek Road -- not the one for Bitterroot Ranch. My husband and I remembered the route from our attempt a couple years earlier. In our earlier attempt we had asked for directions from a hunter in the area, who directed us to Bear Pass. We knew what the parking area looked like, so we parked there again to air down the tires.

We started up Bear Pass and were very grateful to have the jeep, and to have a driver who has a lot of experience with off-roading. The road is very rough, and his jeep handled it very well. We had the GPS coordinates from my friend, and we had pinned it on google maps before leaving our house. Google Maps wanted us to take a route through Dubois and onto Horsecreek Road, and then to hike for a considerable distance. Don't use google maps for directions to this arch! You can open the pin in google maps before you leave, but then just follow the road as I've described, up onto Bear Pass, and watch as you get closer to the gps coordinates of the arch. The road does eventually lead there, but it is over 10 miles on the rough 4wd trail of Bear Pass. If we had followed the directions from Google Maps, we would never have reached the arch!

Only a little ways into Bear Pass is a gate that you have to open, and then close behind you. Once you've passed this spot, you won't have to open any more gates. Just continue on the main trail and follow the coordinates.

Along the route, we spotted another arch off in the distance. We were still miles from Bear Pass Arch, and I was surprised that my friend had not mentioned this other arch. We were about 1/2 mile from the arch where we viewed it on the road. We got out of the jeep and took a lot of photos. We determined that it would probably be possible to hike to the arch, but we didn't want to take the time that day. Another time we'll need to go back and hike along the ridge or along the slope to at least get a closer look at the arch. It appears to be quite a large arch. We named it Indian Ridge Arch. It isn't on any maps that we have seen, and no one else seems to have noticed it. We realized on the way down that we had caught the arch at just the right moment, when sunlight was shining through it, because on the way back down the arch appeared to only be a cave on the mountain. If the lighting hadn't been right, we would have just continued on our ride, never noticing the majestic arch off to the side. The google maps location of the viewpoint for this arch is here: Indian Ridge Arch The GPS coordinates are:

43°40'57.9"N 109°31'33.2"W

Again, don't use google maps for directions to this arch. Like the Bear Pass Arch, Google Maps tries to send you through Dubois and onto Horsecreek Road from where you would have to hike up a mountain from the valley below. Just open the gps coordinates in google maps and watch as you get closer to it while driving up Bear Pass. This is the best spot to view the arch, because as you continue to drive up Bear Pass, the opening in the arch disappears as it looks more and more like simply a cave on the mountain.

This google maps screenshot shows the Indian Ridge Arch viewpoint on the bottom, and the Bear Pass Arch near the center.

On the way back from Bear Pass Arch, we watched for Indian Ridge Arch again, and this time could not even tell it was an arch. It simply looked like a cave. It is not surprising that others have not noticed it. We passed the parking area for Bear Pass, and this time decided to go left because our friend knew that it was a loop road and had very pretty views. We were glad that we had taken this alternative route, which was about the same distance as our first route and brought us to the same entrance to the highway that we had left that morning.

We pulled over to air up the tires again. While we were doing this, half a dozen people stopped to ask if we were all right and needed any help. We were impressed by their willingness to help, although we explained that we were just airing up after our ride.

We decided to head to the restaurant at the Military Museum to eat lunch, which was actually dinner at this point, because it was 5:30 p.m. by the time we got there. The restaurant is called The Canteen, and I highly recommend it. Its google maps location is here: The Canteen You don't have to pay an entrance fee to the museum to eat there. It is a bit pricey, but the food is excellent. It is now my favorite place to eat in Dubois. After we were full, we headed back to Lander, quite happy with our day. We had reached the arch that I had wanted to see for years, and we'd found a bonus arch in the process!

Here are photos from our journey to Indian Ridge Arch:

heading onto the dirt East Fork Road, towards Thunderhead Ranch

this portion of the road is flat and easy, not requiring 4wd

Thunderhead Ranch, the Spence Law firm's campus for trial attorneys

When you reach these signs, take the fork on the LEFT, not on the right. Don't go towards Bitterroot Ranch. Take the Bear Creek Road.

This is the correct road -- up Bear Creek Rd

This is the parking area before Bear Pass

We pulled over into the parking area at the Bear Pass turn so that we could let some air out of our tires

view of the parking area at the beginning of Bear Pass - when you come to this junction, turn left onto Bear Pass. There are not any signs

This is the left turn

our jeep for the trip

getting ready to head up Bear Pass

our aired-down tires

heading to the gate that we had to open and then close behind us. This is near the beginning of Bear Pass

my husband opening the gate for us

This gives you an idea of what the beginning of Bear Pass is like

beautiful view into the valley

Indian Ridge Arch

This was our first view of the Indian Ridge Arch - if you look closely you can see the light through it

You can clearly see in this photo that it is an arch

we parked the jeep on the road so we could take photos and get a closer look at the Indian Ridge Arch

The surrounding area

this view is just to the left of the arch (the arch opening is barely visible at the edge of the photo)

more views of the arch - it appears that we could climb along the ridge to stand above the arch, or we could hike along the slope to stand underneath the arch. The arch was a half mile from the road. We decided we didn't want to take the time to hike to the arch this time.

This is where we were parked while looking at Indian Ridge Arch: Google Maps location

this photo is to the right of the arch

some of the surrounding rocks

a closer view of the arch

Indian Ridge Arch

the surrounding rocks

It looks like there's a large bolder or two resting underneath the arch

the cave below the arch looks interesting

The slope of the landscape does look like we could walk along it to get closer to the arch

the surrounding rocks

As we continued to drive up the road, the arch started to look more and more like a cave, with no light shining through the opening anymore

At this point the arch looks mostly just like a cave

This photo was taken on the way back down in the late afternoon, after we had been to Bear Pass Arch. You can't really tell it's an arch, it just looks like a cave in this lighting

In this photo you can tell that it's an arch -- you can see the shadow of the arch on the ground below it. I look forward to going back and hiking above and under this arch.

beautiful views on the way down

Other Arches in the Dubois Area

Bear Pass Arch (Dubois, Wyoming)

Blackwater Natural Bridge (Cody, Wyoming)

Sheep Mesa Arch (Cody, Wyoming)

Warm Springs Natural Bridges (Dubois, Wyoming)

Yellowstone Natural Bridge

Clear Creek Natural Bridge (Green River)

Elephant Arch (Lander, Wyoming)

Field Station Arch (Lander, Wyoming)

Morton Arch (Morton, Wyoming)

Red Canyon Arch (Lander, Wyoming)

Indian Ridge Arch (Dubois, Wyoming)

Places to Eat in Dubois:

There are a few places to eat in Dubois, including at the new bowling alley, but my very favorite place to eat in Dubois is The Canteen at the military museum. That's where we ate after visiting the Indian Ridge Arch and Bear Pass Arch. Their food is excellent! Their google maps location is here: The Canteen