Hike to Rattlesnake Arches in Fruita, Colorado
Did you know there are arches you can visit in Colorado? When I think about arches, Utah is typically the first state that comes to mind, but there are some to see in Colorado that are much less busy. After a few weekends of backcountry skiing hut trips, my friend (Annie) and I decided we could use a weekend in the desert where we’d go on some hikes. We headed over to Fruita for the weekend and did an out and back hike to Rattlesnake Arches the first day we were there.
This hike was fairly long, and we knew it would take us most of the day to complete so we headed out first thing in the morning. There was a chance of showers all day so we had some rain gear with us, but we were still hoping we wouldn’t get caught in a storm when we were over 7 miles from the car. It had rained much of the night before, but was partly cloudy in the morning when we woke up, and we decided we wouldn’t mind getting caught in a rain storm if that is what ended up happening.
We set out from the car and almost immediately the views were breathtaking. We also noticed quite a few flowers that were blooming. What made the scenery even more beautiful in spots was when we looked across the valley towards the Book Cliffs, the upper parts of those mountains actually had snow on them from the night before. It was truly a view of all seasons with lush green grass in the valley and snow covered mountains in the distance.
The beginning part of the hike started by going up slightly in elevation, but that then changed to having us going up and down in and out of some canyons. A few parts involved some route finding and scrambling and there were two spots where Annie’s dog needed some human assistance to get through it (we were glad the dog didn’t weigh more!). The trail then went up a bit more consistently for the second half of the hike out. There were quite a few moments where we were convinced we were going to get drenched by a rain shower, but the clouds always seemed to change course at the last moment and stay in the valley. I would be interested to learn more about if this was pure luck or if it has something to do with how the mountains influence the winds in that particular area.
We finally made it to the first of several arches, and they all turned out to be much bigger than I had expected. We were also at the top of a canyon wall at this point so we had views of a humungous canyon as well. We took a bunch of pictures, walked to the end of the trail, and decided to eat lunch. It ended up spitting rain for a few minutes while we ate, but that ended up being the only precipitation we had to deal with that day. After refueling, we decided to head back the way we came.
Overall, it was a fantastic day. We saw maybe 10 other people the whole day, which I can assure you is a lot less than you’d see if you were hiking to arches in many places in Utah. The hike ended up being 14.6 miles with 2000 vert and took us about 7 hours including breaks. I would recommend making sure you are in good shape, start early, and have plenty of water before trying this hike! This is a hike I’d highly recommend.
Can you spot the lizard?
We called this one Heart Arch
