Crown Arch

I had made two previous trips to the complex and beautiful Crown Arch in Mee Canyon. Here is the best previous shot (2012).

But I always wanted to visit the top, so on Sunday, May 1, Bill Briggs and I did so, carrying ropes and climbing gear. Thank goodness the road had dried out; the drive was easy. By now I have the approach wired and it took only 2:15 to reach the arch (and only 1:50 on return since no map study was needed and we took one good shortcut). After examining things we decided that the best plan was to rig an anchor on two small trees (and one cam) and have me rappel down on a single rope, with the second rope used to belay. That way I could stop and take pictures. To get back up I just used my jumar device, which was the first time I ever used it. It works well!

Checking things out from the top.

Looking down. The upper reaches of the arch are low angle.

The back side of the Crown is guarded by a pig.

Looking down the entire arch.

A single shot portrait from near the bottom of my tour.

A panorama from several frames.

Looking out from just below the top.

A panorama from not too far below the top.

Looking up Mee Canyon from the low point of my tour.

Here is our GPS track superimposed on Google Earth image. The canyon N of “Lap 1” is Rattlesnake Canyon.

A report of my visits to Crown Arch appears on the NABS blog at <http://www.naturalarches.org/blog/the-top-of-the-crown>