Hike to Juanita Arch

This hike is a classic canyon country hike with the added bonus of a beautiful bridge at the end. Be ready to bushwhack and scramble through streams and up rocks. And most importantly don't miss the swimming.

On Highway 141 coming from Gateway, Colorado, pull out on the left side, right before the green mile 101 sign. After parking the car in the small dirt lot, start working your way up-river for about two minutes. A small path will shoot off towards the Dolores River, with a bushwacking tunnel through the bramble.

Bring a canoe, or some other mode of transportation, to cross over the river. You are aiming for the scraggly cottonwood about twenty feet downstream. After you pull up to the bank, there will be a cow skull on a post and another tunnel that will pop you out into flat fields in front of Maverick Canyon. Enter the canyon by wash or trail. The trail remains well maintained through out the first part of the hike.

About an hour in, there will be a huge black flat boulder about twenty feet above the trail to the left. There is a seven foot dinosaur track pattern imprinted into the rock. Watch for cairns as the trail climbs out of the wash onto the left side.

Maverick Canyon will eventually open up. It will continue ahead, but another canyon will shoot off to the left. Turn into this canyon. A well defined trail heads into this other canyon. The trail disappears for the most part after five minutes, but simply follow the twists and turns of the wash bed past a few amphitheaters and over some boulders until you hit a pour over. The bridge lies just behind the pour over. Spend some time taking pictures and then cool off in the large swimming hole just below the pour over.

The whole hike takes a little over 4 hours, but it will be shorter if you can follow the path the whole way and avoid bushwhacking. Check weather and avoid afternoon storms. These canyons flash flood in rain.