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| La Madre Double Arch |
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Pinnacle Canyon
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White Rock Wash
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Trail toward La Madre Mountains
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It had been almost seven years since I made my one and only trip up to the La Madre Double Arch. Why? Too cold. Wrong hike leader. Wrong speed. Something along those lines. However, today, our whittled down pod of three AtBF hikers made the trip and added a canyon that had caught my eye on that first endeavor. At the top of the trail portion of the hike, I had looked over the side of the ridge to the right and seen a beautiful deep canyon with pinnacles sticking up within. It never left my imagination. Another idea I had on that same hike was to make the descent through the La Madre Wash. I had asked Don Caldwell, RIP, what that was like and he indicated that it wasn't too much of a problem. Not being sure what that means, I added it to our hike today.
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View back to Turtlehead and Sandstone Quarry
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Also on today's hike, Mike, had not done the climb up to the arches for several years as well. It sounded like he has several of his own route loops that he has experienced in the past.
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Mike, Ralyn and the Sandstone Bluffs
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And, our last but not least member of today's team, Ralyn, had never done the hike before. Always ready for a good hike, she enjoyed the day, weather, scramble, hike and not quite getting to the arches! (To be explained below.)
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Trail down to Pinnacle Canyon (Challenge! Find Stag! Middle Right!)
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Starting up Pinnacle Canyon
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From the Scenic Loop, we drove up the White Rock Road to begin our hike at the top trailhead where the restroom is located. The road seems to be a little worse for wear. It is best to have a fairly high clearance vehicle or be very good at avoiding large embedded rocks. The latter was my personal strategy. Either start at the top or add 1 mile to the hike by parking at the bottom of the spur road and walking up. The hike started up the White Rock and Keystone Thrust Trails on a slow climb, passing a large agave roasting pit as the trail circled around to the left and right. Cactus Hill rose up to our right and, at the ridge, there is a trail that turns to the right to climb up. If you continue straight, the trail leads down into the Keystone Thrust above ground fault area. This is one of a handful in the world.
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Good Scrambling in Pinnacle Canyon
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At this junction, we turned to the left and continued hiking up the ridge following the trail. After about a third of a mile, we saw the small forgotten agave roasting pit on the right side. For many years, hikers have hiked right over the diminutive pit but, now, there is a trail that goes around it.
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More Good Scrambling
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This is where we turned to follow the trail down into the wash below. As we descended, we saw a large dark colored stag and doe making their way up into the hills among the trees. Before I knew he was there, I caught a photo of the stag but it is very difficult to find him. (See four photos above. You might need to magnify the photo!)
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And ... More Good Scrambling
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Dropping into La Madre Wash
(Up from Entry Junction)
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There was a game trail to our left that we took down and over the next lower ridge and wash junction. This put us into the lower end of Pinnacle Canyon. We turned to the left and started up. This wash had flooded out a few years ago and it was beautiful with sandstone and limestone rocks. It wasn't long before we entered into the tall walls and pinnacles as seen from above on that previous hike. Then, we were faced with some great scrambling opportunities. Since this canyon is not well known, the scrambles are not worn down and there are small handholds and footholds that help. After a tenth of a mile of scrambles, we started leveling off and, soon, there was a good easy place to climb out on the left side. At the top, we saw the vague trail that we had exited from earlier and, immediately, began descending to the large wash on the other side.
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View back from narrowed La Madre Wash
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This is when the hike gets to the nitty gritty slog up the gravel wash sprinkled with some boulder hopping. After about one third of a mile, the wash makes a bend to the right and we started seeing the Double Arch appearing above. It is on the side of a small wash high on the hillside.
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Small Wash leading up to the Arches
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We saw it. We talked about it. We kept climbing. And, then, ... we passed its small wash without noticing. Hmm. We climbed a couple of fun walls. We lost sight of the arch. Turned up the very steep loose hillside. Clambered over to the right to see if we could see it. Got some outstanding views down canyon. Then I realized our mistake and came down the steep hillside and back down the walls.
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Steep Off Course Excursion
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Incredible Views down Canyon
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Yep. There it is! One more canyon wash over. Of course, by that time, we no longer had the desire to climb any more steepness! So, we took our break at the arch wash junction and just looked at it ... way up there! I found some archive photos from that previous hike in 2014. These show how large the bottom arch is. The other arch is a small window laying on top of the large limestone arch. From where we were on break, we could only see the upside down teardrop shape of light that indicated the opening. (We have already decided to make another trip up there in a few months.) After the break, we started down the wash from boulder to boulder. After the wash bend to the left, we found a wash route that Mike had used in the past as he followed Don. It was another very steep loop route.
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Meanwhile, Don Caldwell (RIP) waits for us at the arch! (Archive Photo)
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We came to the entry junction where the bank on the left side flattened out then we kept going down the gravel wash. Coming up, was another exciting exploratory. (New stuff is always exciting!)
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Don's View from the Arch (Archive Photo)
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The first "obstacle" was a limestone wall with an overhang. There was a trail on the right side of the wash that showed the preferred route around the wall. Next, the wash started to deepen a little.
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Returning from Excursion
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Break at Arch Wash Junction
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As it deepened, it also narrowed. This was a pretty area. Then the wash dropped down about ten feet into a limestone narrows. There were probably ways around the obstacle but we decided to drop down with it and go through the nice slot. Those were the two obvious obstacles but there was also a little bit of easy scrambling, too. We made quick time of the 1.25 miles of the La Madre Wash before the White Rock Hills Trail crossed our path. Choosing to complete the wash descent, we crossed the trail and hiked on down to the White Rock Wash that flows at the base of the White Rock Hills. A left turn into this wash showed a gorgeous change in rock and colors. Here, there was red and white (mostly white) sandstone leading us down toward the trailhead.
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View up to Arches
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We enjoyed the colorful sandstone display for almost half a mile before we hit the White Rock Hills Trail again and climbed out on the right side.
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La Madre Wash Narrowing
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Dropping into Narrows
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At the trailhead, there were a lot more hikers milling about and I lifted up my buff over my nose. It is Thanksgiving week and Red Rock is already buzzing! Carefully, I drove my car down the spur road and rode around the remaining of the Scenic Loop. This is a good hike made better by adding Pinnacle Canyon and the La Madre Wash descent. I'm already looking forward to our repeat hike this winter!
Stats: 5.4 miles; 1950' gain; 4.5 hours
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