Once there, I park and exchange greetings with a family preparing to hike to the arch. The trail begins through an area of pinion pines. I’m surprised to learn that the NPS allows the pine nuts to be harvested here in the fall. I may have to return for that.
The trail continues up a grassy hillside covered with wildflowers in a rainbow of variations, and of course a brigade of honey bees harvesting the pollen, though they pay little attention to me. To the north is a sheer limestone face and near the top, I can make out what looks like an arch, but it is so far up the peak itself seems unreachable. I continue on.
Finally, I reach a small clearing with a bench. As I look to my immediate left, I’m somewhat flabbergasted to see the true Lexington Arch. The object playing tricks on my eyes in the shadow is nothing compared to the real thing. It is massive. So much so that a thirty foot tall tree growing from the top if it appears almost like a sapling. As this arch is limestone, unlike the far more prevalent sandstone arches of Utah, geologists suspect that it may have been carved by a stream of running water before the valley below became so deep. However it formed, it is quite a sight to behold.
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