I wanted to hike the drainage between Checkerboard Mesa and Crazy Quilt Mesa, but there's still some snow there. I don't really know what the route is like except that there is at least one slickrock scramble. I didn't feel like doing that if it was icy. So I explored some other spots in that vicinity.

First up was Hidden Arch. It was on my options list as just a fill in hike. I wasn't too interested in the arch itself, but I figured that I might want to explore the area. So I headed up to a canyon first. I decided to name it Waste of Time Canyon. Now was it really a waste of time? Only with the consideration that I could have been doing something else. It's not as though it wasn't an enjoyable place to be.

I went looking for Hidden Arch on the way back. I ended up on a hill with steep slopes below me. I turned around and there it was. Now that I knew where to find it, it was obviously visible from much farther away.

Next up was another visit to the hoodoos. I guess I must like them or something. I then explored the canyon to the north. I didn't know anything except that it's shown on the topo map and I could see it when I was up at the hoodoos. I didn't have any particular destination. I ended up turning back at a spot where someone had stacked some rocks so that they could use them as a step and climb up a large rock, which was lodged in the canyon walls hindering progress. I decided that would be a good turn around point.

I had been wanting to return to the area above Petroglyph Canyon. I checked it out yesterday but the afternoon shadows weren't what I wanted. Today I was there at a good time for getting the light I wanted. So that's my picture of the day.

There was a group of about a dozen people descending the steep slickrock wall on the west side. I talked to one of them when they got down. He's from Canada. Also in the group were folks from Washington and Utah. I'm guessing that the locals chose the route. They had hiked up the Many Pools drainage and climbed the east slickrock slope to cross over here. If I felt like climbing a slope like that I would have climbed the one to the east of this spot. That one is between Aires Butte and South Ariel Peak. Rumor has it that the Center of the Universe is up there.

I finished the day attempting to find Two Pines Arch. Not that I was really interested in actually seeing it. This was another item that was very low on my options list. But the hike was short so I figured that I could easily fit it in. That was a mistake. First of all I figured that the arch was in the drainage east of where my maps showed the route. I decided to follow the maps and route description. The climb was a pain and I attempted one aborted route thinking that it might be the easiest way to ascend even though it wasn't exactly headed in the right direction. I got to a place with weak looking sandstone and wondered why I was bothering since I didn't really want to see the arch anyway. The only reason I considered it was to see what the scenery was like. It wasn't anything to write home about. The only thing worth mentioning is that I was higher above the road than I thought. No wonder I was breathing hard. So I turned around and headed back down.

Wait a minute, that looks like another possible route. Okay I'll give it one more shot. It was well before sunset, but I really didn't want to have to find my way down once the sun went behind the mountain so I was really hurrying. I ended up cliffed out about 300 feet from the arch. I was above the eastern drainage that I had mentioned earlier. Maybe I'm just blind, but I didn't see anything. I didn't spend much time looking. I actually did have plenty of light left, but I didn't want to screw around so I got my tired self down. Maybe I should have titled this entry Waste of Time Arch.