September 7, 2026
Back in late May while I was hiking up to Flat Iron Mesa, I spotted a large natural arch while scanning the ridges on the opposite side of Nine Mile Canyon through binoculars. I returned on Labor Day to finally attempt to see the arch up close. I knew it was going to be a tough sumbitch, if my proposed route even went. The sat imagery showed some steep and rugged terrain, as well as many ledges and dryfalls in the canyons/chutes that I wasn’t certain were passable. I got my usual sunrise start hiking up the canyon and almost immediately had to climb out to one side to bypass a dryfall. The going was easier than I expected at first, and there were faint game trails in places that went around ledges and dryfalls.
I turned up an even steeper and rougher chute off the main canyon that ran along one side of the ridge containing the arch. It was a little more arduous and I had to climb some loose slopes to bypass several ledges. I was pretty stoked when I finally got high enough for a view of the arch. On the last part of the climb up to the arch I spotted another midget faded rattlesnake (after seeing three the previous weekend in Arches). As I took a couple of photos it uncoiled and rattled at me and slithered under a boulder, and I could see it had recently eaten a good sized meal.
I climbed directly below the arch for a photo, but then had to drop back down to get around the ridge below the arch to reach the other side. I was surprised to find, just below the arch, a cairn and section marker from 1909.
Leaving the arch behind, I maintained my elevation and traversed a steep sidehill to get back into a larger canyon that led up to Cowboy Bench. On the way was another 1909 section corner mark, and at the top of the canyon was a brush fence to keep livestock up on top.
It was a short walk to the western edge of Cowboy Bench where I could see into Daddy Canyon. I followed the rim north to a brush corral that I’d spotted many years ago in Google Earth. It’s a fairly large corral, about 160 x 125 feet, but its walls aren’t very substantial so I don’t think it was in use for very long. I also didn’t notice any trash in the area.
I headed back across Cowboy Bench to the head of another fork of the canyon I’d ascended, and stopped at the top for a lunch break. Then I dropped off the edge where there was a rock wall to keep livestock in or out. I followed faint game trails most of the way down that weren’t evident during the climb up. In the section of the canyon that I’d skipped on the way up due to my side trip to the arch, there was one really steep and bouldery section that looked intimidating, but the faint game trail stayed high and to the left, so I followed that instead. It took me over the top of a narrow ridge that jutted out into the canyon and then it turned straight up a steep gully. I needed to go down, so I just climbed down the ledges in that gully until I regained my ascent route.
I got to the dryfall at the very bottom of the canyon and went down the opposite side than that which I’d ascended, then walked back up the canyon to the bottom of the dryfall. Along those cliffs there were some overhangs with a few petroglyphs that I’d actually seen on the way up but didn’t want to try photographing in the dim early morning light. Back at the car my GPS registered five miles and about 1,500′ of elevation gain. It was my first decently long and rugged hike since Henry’s Fork, although only half of what I was doing regularly before my heel pain began, and it felt great to be out hiking again.
Photo Gallery: Nine Mile to Cowboy Bench