ESCALANTE: PHIPPS ARCH

MAY 2025

PHIPPS ARCH

GRANARY NEAR PHIPPS ARCH

MAVERICK BRIDGE

Phipps Arch is an interesting six-and-a-half-mile roundtrip hike accessed from the Escalante River Trailhead along Highway 12. This is the same trailhead used for Escalante Natural Bridge, but for this one you will walk under Highway 12 going the opposite direction. The first mile or so of the hike is a pleasant walk along the Escalante River, which had some surprisingly large fish swimming in it while I was there in May of 2025. You will need to cross the river, which was only about calf-deep while I was there, and likely need to wade in some shin-deep water along its banks for a bit before taking a right up the canyon Maverick Bridge and Phipps Arch are located in.

Maverick Bridge is located down a side canyon on the right which you will see just over two miles from the trailhead. You will need to hike up this canyon about quarter-mile or so to see the bridge which is located right in the center of the canyon and has an on-again-off-again trail leading up to, and on top of it. Once returning to the main canyon it's about a mile further to Phipps Arch. You can't see it from the bottom of the canyon, and I didn't notice a trail leading up to it, so I just started scrambling up the steep hillside when I figured I was getting close. I saw some cairns and short trail segments along my way up, but nothing that I was able to follow for very long.

Once getting to the top of the canyon, I saw a small ruin in an alcove, and after a bit more exploring was able to locate the arch. It wasn't as easy to find as I thought it would be, due to how large it is. This is a very thick arch, which is fun to view from different perspectives. As I was here on Memorial Day weekend, there were a lot of cars parked at the trailhead, though most go to Escalante Natural Bridge. I only passed a couple people on the trail and didn't see anyone else after leaving the Escalante River.