Arches National Park: The Fiery Furnace

When I researched our trip to Arches, one of the iconic, not-to-be-missed trails was the Fiery Furnace.  Every source cautioned earnestly, however, that this is not a hike to be made on your own unless you had been there many, many times before.  The risk of getting lost is just too great, and one must, must, must go with a guide.

I took note, and we dropped in to the Visitor Center on our first day to reserve our spots on a ranger-led tour.  However, we found out we had missed the last tour of the season by about a week, but we could just buy a permit.  The ranger pulled them out like this was no big deal and just the normal way that one does it in the off-season, so we watched the required video, got some tips and instruction from him, and booked our hike.  I did find it reassuring that the rangers sweep the parking lot at the end of the day and go looking for any missing hikers who have not returned to their vehicles.

So the morning of December 5, off we went, bright and early-ish, to hopefully not get dangerously lost among the fins.  Here we are approaching the entry point from the trail down from the parking lot:

It's pretty cool once you enter ...

Even in the fins, you still get glimpses of open areas as you wind into the labyrinth ...

I'm still a sucker for eroded rock patterns:

Down one of the side trails (the main trail actually is marked by some tiny, hard-to-find arrows glued to the rock), we came across Skull Arch:

Here's the dead end further up from Skull Arch.  We knew we wouldn't be able to get through here, but we were curious about the side trails and took several of them during the hike (not always intentionally!):

I found the light patterns on this crack cool:

We passed by this natural tank on the way in and out of the side trail.  It's pretty big as these things go, Ed pretends to drink from it (because actually doing so is forbidden) to give scale:

More intriguing erosion patterns:

We pop out of the fins at one point in the trail and catch the view:

Some of the passages were a little tricky.  The ranger had warned us though that none of the passages are dangerous, so if we are doing anything risky, we are off the trail.  I'm pretty sure we were still on it here though:

I am off the trail here, but haven't yet arrived at the deadly drop-off to be convinced:

I think we were off the trail in the two photos below, too.  We got pretty thoroughly lost at one point and went probably a mile north without finding the trail.  Luckily the guide had warned us, "you cant get out at the north end", so after about a half hour of heading north and not finding the trail we went back and hunted again for the tiny arrows, and eventually did find another route.  It was a pleasant, interesting and easy detour though (which is why it felt so trail-like), except for the constant worry of getting lost and needing a search party to come for us.

Back on the trail, we came to another spot where it looked like there might be something interesting if we went exploring to the north.  We found Surprise Arch:

Eventually we found the little staircase that is near the end of the trail, so we knew we'd live and find our way out:

At the end of the trail, there are some nice views to the south on the way back to the parking lot:

Here's my hiking buddy, none the worse for wear:

We didn't see any other hikers while we were in there.  It was a great hike!  We were in there for around 3 hours amongst the fins.   Not to be missed, and not as deadly without a ranger as the internet would have you believe.