Liberty Arch Bell #2 10-11-2011

Standing inside the Liberty Arch Bell

It had been over a year and half since my husband and I did this hike. (see my blog from last year May 2010) We have been hiking with groups for a while now that we decided to do this hike by ourselves. It is not hard hike at all, but rather, so pretty. And we are more physically fit (as far as hiking goes) this year so we knew this hike was a piece of cake!

We saw a family of big horn sheep. They were really close!

The difference between the first time and this time around is season. It was in May and I remember it was really hot. We didn't have all the hiking gears and gadgets that we have now,,like CamelPak. Carrying CamelPak on our back for water and everything else makes a hundred times easier than carrying heavy water bottles. 

Secondly, we made a difference by going up all the way to the Liberty Arch Bell and back side of it. Last time we took a picture having the Arch as background because it didn't look like it was climbable. This time we were more exploratory so just had to go up to see what was there!

taking pic from where I stand (inside the Arch).  Hoover Dam bypass bridge is in distance

 As last time, we proceeded to the observation point for Colorado River. When you come to the Liberty Arch Bell, this spot is a MUST place to stop by. There, we had snack and took pictures! The Colorado River below seems so close but it is actually 1000 ft below us!

I love this picture below because my husband posted on the facebook titling "my wife my life" The sweetest thing to see from loving husband!

We have once mapped out where the route somehow connects to get on the Arizona Hot Spring hiking trail (see my blog). They both have a same trail head. This is on top of the hill, and the Hot Spring is down in the canyon. The theory sounds simple,, just get down the canyon. This is the third difference we made,, attempting on finding the Hot Spring trail. We derailed ourselves off of the current course and tried to find the path, but we kept getting to the dead end,, cliffs and drop offs.  Since we didn't want daylight to run out, we decided to get back to the original trail to go back to the car. Here we just created another challenge to come back to next time!

Liberty Arch Bell 05.19.2010

South of Hoover Dam, there is a nice good distance hiking trail. Liberty Arch Bell. This is almost like monument. Nature force curved the dirtrock and created the shape of Liberty Bell. The trail is well distinguished and following is quite easy. The path is in the middle of flat dry land, all vegetated area with lots of short shrubs everywhere. No shade. Wrong idea to do this hike during the hottest summer. We did it in May and it was already too hot that I got a little dehydrated on the way back.

Total hiking distance is about 3 miles one way. As we moved on, we passed some kind of a carrier that was used from mining time. According to www.birdandhike.com (the site i love), it was used for magnesium mining from World War II era. Interesting! It was as if I time-traveled back to the era :-)

Moving on! Passing nothing but air and desert scenery, we find the Arch from far away!

Can you see? The finger is pointing at it. So there we go! The use-trail is getting thinner and narrower but it's clear enough to follow. Soon we were right below the arch. It is actually really big! 

Group Picture

We took couple of pictures here. Wanted to rest a little but there were no shade to rest and have lunch under. Just flat desert under the full sun. The Liberty Arch Bell is the first of two highlights of this whole hike. This Arch is located two mountain ridges away from Colorado River. After passing the Arch, the hike started to get up-hill. By following the trail up one ridge, go down and up another again, suddenly we were at the overlook of Black Canyon Colorado River! Where we stood was the ridge of 1000 ft drop off.

Black Canyon Colorado River

Woo! Scary!!!

I love his profile :-p

To me, this overlook of the canyon was the #1 highlight of the whole hike. We stayed up here for a while for lunch. I also snacked a little too much junk foods that I was not feeling well on the way back. Not so smart of me to hike in a hot weather with full stomach. Since we didn't expect the day to turn out this hot, we weren't portion-controlling our water! By the time we got back to the car, Oh my god, we were SPENT!  However, it was GREAT HIKE!  We will do it again in a heart beat, but next time, definitely before May :)