Lost Spring Canyon Route

This is an about 5.2-mile out-and-back from the northwest rim to the Covert Canyon confluence and back along the same route. Allow about 3.5 hours. Expect loose sand, brush and faint informal traces; this is a moderate canyon walk, not a signed or maintained trail. Mileage is approximate: route notes put the junction about 2.6–2.8 miles one way, so budget roughly 5.2–5.6 miles round trip if you explore the side washes.

The easiest turn to miss is at the rim: leave the broad old road at the smaller left branch before it reaches a fence. Note the wash split near the first mile; on the return, take its left branch back toward the access road. The Covert Canyon mouth is the turn-around. Covert Arch lies farther up that separate drainage and is outside this route.

From the informal northwest-rim pullout, an old road crosses slickrock. Its smaller branch drops past an old corral and ranch traces before reaching the wash about 0.7 mile in. Cottonwoods shade the first stretch, where the wash can be brushy. Farther down, the trees thin and the sandstone walls close around the route.

A short side wash leads to Lightning Bolt Arch, a small opening in a fin. Farther down, Cavern Arch is a roof window in a shaded alcove; reaching it involves a scramble up a side wash. Millennium Arch sits in a pockmarked wall before the route returns to the main wash. These informal side trips add distance and are not part of the mapped wash corridor. At Cavern Arch, include some of the surrounding alcove wall in a photo so the roof opening reads as part of the larger recess.

The access is a remote, unpaved road to a simple rim pullout, not a developed park trailhead. Current access and road conditions have not been confirmed; check before making the drive. There is no drinking water or toilet along the route, and pets are not allowed on Arches trails or in the backcountry. The wash is flash-flood terrain; desert heat and winter ice are also serious hazards.

These canyonlands joined Arches in 1998 after being managed as a wilderness study area. A donated grazing permit helped remove livestock and begin restoring vegetation. The mature biological soil crust here is extremely slow to recover, so keep to the wash and established traces rather than cutting across the desert ground.