I took my son to Arches over Christmas break. We decided to hike in the Fiery Furnace area. The Fiery Furnace is a fun place to hike. There are no formal trails so ability to route find is a must. As a result, the park requires a permit to hike there. You can also do ranger-guided hikes the other three seasons. Unfortunately, winter is not one of them.
The Fiery Furnace is a series of rock fins that contains arches, towering rock spires, and endless side canyons. Because of the narrow canyons, mid day is best for photography so light gets into the canyons. The washes also contain a number of interesting trees to photograph.
Hike Description
There are two basic routes in to the Fiery Furnace. A well-worn path leads either uphill or downhill of the main parking lot. We chose to go right. The route descends into a main wash. The first interesting feature is a slot canyon off to the right that contains a small arch you can hike under. I had my son pose in the arch for a fun photo. Back in the main wash, we hiked up a narrow slit in the canyon wall to the right as the wash made a sharp turn. You hike up into another wash at this point and a couple of side canyons later on the left you will find one of the coolest spots in the park. It is a small slot canyon that contains a double arch that looks like a pair of eyeglasses. We ended our exploration with a side canyon to the right of the main wash. It contained a small arch that looked like water would flow through in the rain. We retraced our steps back to the parking after a fun and challenging hike. We got maybe a mile in three hours of hiking!
