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| Edmaiers Secret |
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| Fins at Edmaiers Secret |
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| Expansive West Clark Bench |
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| Starting out from Trailhead |
On the second day of our road trip, the Fab Four visited Edmaiers Secret. I had secured a day use pass from the national parks website, the Wire Pass parking pass, before leaving home. At the trailhead, we started out the trail that had been trampled by horses only the day before. It was a cool early morning. The trail led us in a more or less straight line for ~1.5 miles as it crossed the wash several times. Finally, after passing through a narrow rock opening, we came to the fence. Our trail continued along the fence and up to the Edmaiers Secret plateau with the first landmark being the Fat Fin Rock. There are thousands of delicate fins located in this large area of sandstone. It must be mentioned that these are fragile and must be respected upon anyone's visit.
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| Petroglyphs found off Trail |
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| David and Tim Exploring |
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| Trail continues along Fence |
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| Fat Fin Rock |
From the Fat Fin Rock, continue across the crossbedded sandstone until you find the vertical fins that I refer to as the icons of Edmaiers Secret. (See photo below.) Passing these, the route continues down into the wash of the wide valley. Admire the finned rock from below as you pass and avoid stepping on fins along the way. The wash, itself, is sandy and safe. At this point, Tim and David found a safe roundabout way to hike up the wash while Rita and I climbed straight up the steep middle waterslide. When we met at the top, Tim decided to hike partially up the Dome, a sandstone peak rising on the right side of the area. Fins stopped him from continuing all the way up. Next, we hiked to the end of the wash where there is a pourover into the canyon below. Tinajas sat in the crossbedding here.
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| Vertical Fins |
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| Hiking the Valley Wash |
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| Waterslide Climb |
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| Healthy Tinajas |
The route that we followed took a left turn here. We hiked along the contoured sandstone with the canyon on our right side and the hills and wall on the left side. A couple of times, we drifted down to the cliff edge and took in the very expansive overlook. About half way along this section of the hike, we stopped for a snack break and sat on the lumpy crossbedding. Our view faced down to a section of sandstone that appeared like a model of DNA. After our break, we continued along the wall and came to a hill that connected the lower sandstone to the West Clark Bench above. The hill slopes at a 45 degree angle and it is a fun and slightly daring scramble up! Anxious to get to the top and out of harm's way, we made it in quick time.
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| Fab Four near Pourover into Wire Pass Canyon |
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| Terrain above Canyon |
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| Wall along Crossover Terrain |
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| 45 Degree Hill Climb |
West Clark Bench is another expansive area of sandstone with different levels holding numerous tinajas. Last time I was here, there was no water at all. This time, however, every tinaja held some amount of water and we peered into many of them to find the tadpole shrimp were swarming around. These creatures are truly one of nature's mysteries. They only come alive when the tinaja fills with water. Next, they mate and live their very short life. Finally, the tinaja dries up and the baby tadpole shrimp do, too, until the cycle begins again. We hiked up to the right end of the bench and viewed the small window formation then peered over the cliffs. Returning to the left end of the bench, we found more tinajas and forked up to the right as we watched a flock of chukars pass by.
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| Tim tackles the Hill Climb |
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| Wall (R) and Canyon (L) below Hill Climb |
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| The 45 Degree Hill Climb |
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| Window on West Clark Bench |
I believe we used a slightly different route to return to the sand dune descent. Regardless, it was pretty and we found the "trail" down through the deep sand. Back on the sandstone slab, we picked our way among the fins and contours until we were almost back down the steep slope to the wash. Next, we followed the wash to the right and eventually made it back to the vertical fins and the Fat Fin Rock. It was a lot of sandstone to cover! Then, just above the Fat Fin Rock, we found the trail that led down to the left and through a trodden fence section. We believe that cows had been allowed to enter the area between here and the parking lot to munch down the knee high grass and weeds that were there before.
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| Tim peers over the Edge |
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| Tinajas on West Clark Bench |
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| A Flock of Chukars |
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| Tinaja Deadwood |
It had gotten hot so we wasted no time hiking the mile and a half of trail back to the cars. We rested in the shady places which were few and far between. Happy to get back to the cars and the air conditioning, we saw that there were only two other cars with horse trailers in the parking lot. Edmaiers Secret is a great place to go to be alone. Just mind your steps!
Stats: 8 miles; 1250' gain; 5.5 hours
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| Sand and Slab descent from West Clark Bench |
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| Designs and Patterns |
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| Edmaiers Secret Designs and Patterns |
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