Gray’s Arch

Monday
After a cool start, we were blessed with another gorgeous day. After breakfast and making some sandwiches to go in our backpack, we set out on the trails again. The focal point of our main hike was Gray’s Arch, shown in my blip, another of the larger arches. On a previous visit, we have viewed the Arch through the trees, but I don’t believe we have taken the side trail before, which leads down underneath the Arch, from where you can appreciate it’s grandeur. We made a loop of different trails, Gray’s Arch trail, which despite its name, doesn’t take you all the way to the arch (!), Rough Trail and the Rush Ridge trail. We saw some nice bits of autumn colour in spots, but it will be at least another week or so before it reaches peak. Later in the afternoon we took another shorter trail to Hidden Arch, a relatively small arch, in quite a dense area of forest, thick with Mountain Laurel. That made for a total of about six miles hiking, with quite a bit of elevation change, so we were glad of a soak in the hot tub when we got back to our cabin!
I’ve added a couple of extras, showing a different view of Gray’s Arch, and one of Roger under Hidden Arch