Finding my Dad's Arch, 45-years Later, July 28, 2020

Dad's Arch, on the North Canyon/City Creek Canyon divide. Not much to look at but I've been searching for it for 45 years. My Dad spotted it years ago (early 1970's) while hiking with me and my brother Mark when I was about 10 years old and Mark about 11. We were hiking up the North Canyon trail when my Dad saw this hole in the rock from a quarter mile away.  It is rarely visible given the distance and its size (4 feet wide, 2 feet high, 4 feet long), it.can be spotted from the North Canyon trail for just a few minutes each day when the sun is at a perfect angle for a beam of light to shine through. Dad was ecstatic to see an arch high on the ridge above, in Davis County no less which is not known for its geography. Without the sun angle just right, it looks like nothing more than a small depression in the cliff. Of course my Dad had to go see it, so we bush-whacked up the steep slope to the ridge. Once there, Dad took a bunch of photos of Mark and I crawling through. It was just big enough for a kid to crawl through one at a time. My parents are now gone and I can't find those photos, likely buried in the storage of one of my siblings. 

Moon above Dad's Arch, from the same spot where my Dad spotted it so long ago from the North Canyon trail. 

Horned Toads everywhere near Dude Peak. 

View SW from Dude Peak.

View south from Dude, and the Central Wasatch.

View east, with Bountiful Ridge and Rudy's Flat just beyond the rounded, sunny peak.  

No wonder I thought the arch had collapsed. From 100 feet below while hiking the Dude Peak Trail, it looks like nothing more than just shadow on the rock, but it's there. 

The arch is the dark spot in the rock, and I've walked past it too many times while searching for it, too lazy to walk up a few feet investigate. Today I got ambitious and hiked up for a closer look, and BAM! There's Dad's Arch!  

Rudy's Flat.

I wish! I've seen bootleg graves in several spot along the North Canyon trail.