Lunch Spot Arch, Dessert Domes, Bonal Springs Rim and One Toe Ridge, Vermilion Cliffs NM, AZ

By Christian 1,231 0

 

After our trip to Spider Butte the day before, Claudia and me met at the Condor Observation Point along House Rock Valley Road to explore a new location along the southwestern rim of the Vermilion Cliffs NM. Besides that new location, which I named as Dessert Domes, we also visited Lunch Spot Arch (a name, we have chosen some time ago), the rim above Bonal Springs (with the big Anasazi ruin) and One Toe Ridge. This was a nice day trip along the southwestern side of the Vermilion Cliffs.

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We came down House Rock Valley from the south side and went on the plateau on a more seldom used road, probably 2 miles, before the official Coral Valley access route.
The roads had been fine and we followed the southwestern rim route. After a couple of miles, we turned right on a lesser road, which brought us to Lunch Spot Arch.
We named it Lunch Spot Arch some time ago, because when we had been there the first time, it was so windy, that we decided to take our lunch, sitting under the arch.
Another view of Lunch Spot Arch...
House Rock Valley below us...
It is also worth to hike a little bit further down towards the rim. There are some nice formations to find (see my other post about Lunch Spot Arch).
One more formation there...
We went back this short deadens and turned right.
We followed that very sandy road and passed the gate of the Condor release area. We continued until we reached the next fork and turned right on a lesser deadend road.
The road ended a little bit away from the rim and we parked at the turn around spot. From there it was a relatively short hike to the rim, which offered a lot of outstanding rock formations and scenic views.
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View...
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I hiked around that area, but did for sure not cover everything...
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I went back on the north side and discovered this wonderful formations. That's, why I called that area 'Dessert Domes'
They are very colorful.
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After some time, I was back at the jeep and Claudia and me had a short lunch.
We left from there, and continued right after coming back from the deadend. This road brought us back to the rim route. After some time, we went again right and reached the end of the road towards the rim above Bonal (Benalli) Springs.
Here is also a lot to see...
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The Crack...
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The ongoing rim...
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Some panorama shot...
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If one follows the rim, he will reach...
...the Anasazi ruin.
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This must have been a pretty big ruin...
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And the Indians had a nice view from here...
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This is basically the way back to the parking area.
Walls...
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On our way back to the jeep...
We went back on the rim route and drove down to One Toe Ridge.
This is again a wonderful rim view point.
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It seems, there is a road down there...
One more crack...
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From One Toe Ridge we went back on the rim route and used a shortcut route down to Pine Tree Road.
On the way out, we had a short stop at those two formations in Coral Valley.
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And here one can also download a gpx file of this trip:

Tracklog: Lunch Spot Arch, Dessert Domes, Bonal Springs Rim and One Toe Ridge, Vermilion Cliffs NM, AZ (606 downloads )

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