Cobra Arch & Peak 5365

We first heard of Cobra Arch, about a year ago, while reading Michael R. Kelsey's book "Hiking and Exploring the Paria River".  For those who follow our posts, you're aware we've spent a fair amount of time, this winter, in the Paria River drainage.  It seems for every adventure we've been able to complete, on our "to-do-list", we've added two more in their place.  It was time to cross another one off!

Tom had borrowed Kelsey's book and was also interested in seeing this uniquely shaped arch.  We were able to locate a small peak, for Tom, just before we headed off the West Clark Bench into what's known as The Dive (where the arch is located) . . . so we were good to go!  We had a great day visiting this seldom seen arch and peak in the Paria Canyon - Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness area.

We're off to a sandy start . . . the Middle Route Trailhead is well marked 

We took a a little detour to summit Peak 5365 before heading for Cobra Arch
This is a team effort . . . a peak for Tom and an arch for us!

The views from the summit really surprised us!
(Click on the picture for a larger panoramic view)

On just about every hike the geology amazes us . . . colorful river rocks!

Rather than rejoin the trail, we figured we'd make a loop by just heading down a wash
directly to the arch . . . Oh boy! 

There it is . . . Cobra Arch!  The big question is, "How do we get down there?"
We traversed the West Clark Bench for an hour searching for a way down

Cobra Arch looks like an elephant from our zoomed in vantage point . . .
 but you'll see it really is a cobra

We finally found a route that looked doable to take us down to what is known as "The Dive"
You can barely see Kent, near the center, on his way down

It was steeper than it initially looked . . . do you see Kent?
When we exited the cliff we found we were right back on the main trail!

Colorful cross-bedded sandstone cliffs consists of the Carmel formation cliff bands,
 topped with red Page sandstone and creamy white Navajo sandstone  

Finally out of the sand dunes!

Cobra Arch!   

It's definitely a cobra!

Cobra Arch rises 30 ft up from its base and spans 35 feet

Tom enjoying the arch with his buddies Lola & Ezy

We had lunch and took a few pictures with the arch

Allison isn't afraid of heights . . . but Kent is! 

What a view . . . totally worth all the sand in our shoes!

Time to head back

We passed over clusters of red sandstone domes with turtleback weathering  

Sandstone layered hoodoos

More sand! Gotta love the sand!

Heading out of The Dive & back up the West Clark Bench
(It was much easier getting back up using the cairned path)

Ahhh...it's the last time we have to empty the sand from our shoes!

Click here for Tom's Peakbagger post of our nine-mile (r/t) hike - complete with topo map and GPS tracks.  For a more traditional route (great directions and maps to the arch), check out Favorite Hikes in and around Zion National Park.  For those who would be interested in a circuitous route, see this post by Earthline: The American West.