Hiking to Harmonica Arch in the Lost Creek Wilderness

At this point, I don't think it's any secret that I have a love for hunting natural arches. This weekend, I decided to follow this passion and do a bit of arch hunting in my home state of Colorado. More specifically, my goal was to hike to Harmonica Arch in the Lost Creek Wilderness in Pike National Forest.

Harmonica Arch, sometimes also referred to as Finger Rock Arch, has the largest span of any granite arch in the United States and the fourth largest in the world. This, combined with the prospect of possibly getting to see some of Colorado's amazing fall colors, made this trip a no-brainer.

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The Hike

The trip up to Harmonica Arch isn't particularly challenging. One simply needs to park at the Goose Creek Trailhead, hike the Goose Creek Trail for a short period of time, then turn off the main trail to follow a user trail up to the arch. The user trail is quite well defined, and the climb, while quite steep, is not technical. As such, I didn't anticipate having any issues actually finding the arch.

Being that I was planning to do this hike on a Saturday during prime leaf-peeping season, I wanted to make sure I got to the trailhead early. I set my alarm for 4:30 am, which put me at the trailhead right as the sun was coming up.

Upon arrival at the trailhead, I was initially worried by the number of cars. Luckily, these all apparently belonged to backpackers who were elsewhere in the wilderness area, as I didn't see anyone else on my trip up to the arch.

The hike begins in a wide open area, meandering towards some beautiful mountain peaks. Being late September, these distant peaks were dotted with patches of brilliant oranges and yellows. There's truly something special about fall in Colorado!

As I hiked down the trail, the early morning light lit one of the more prominent peaks with some warm, red light.

I continued down the trail for a short distance until I reached a bridge that crossed over Goose Creek. At this point, I had a choice to make. I could either cross the bridge, continuing on the Goose Creek Trail, or I could stick to the user trail that sticks to the left-hand side of Good Creek without crossing the bridge. I decided to split from the main trail and follow the user trail instead of crossing the bridge.

I definitely think that taking the user trail at this point is the best choice. For one, this prevented me from having to cross over Goose Creek later on. The creek crossing certainly wouldn't have caused any problems, but why get my feet wet if I don't have to? Besides, the user trail was extremely well defined and easy to follow. You honestly could've convinced me that it was the maintained trail.

Regardless of whether you take the official trail or the user trail, you'll be hiking along the edge of Goose Creek. You'll pass some lovely stream views and several great campsites along the way.

Eventually, I rounded a bend that revealed an impressive, granite peak. Initially, I was just impressed by the gorgeous view, but after a few moments, I realized that I was looking at the arch!

While I was quite excited to have already caught a glimpse of the arch, I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't just a little intimidated by the realization of just how much climbing was ahead of me. To make matters worse, I was currently at about 8,100 feet, and the arch is at about 9,000 feet. While this isn't necessarily a large amount of climbing, all of the elevation gain would be coming all at once and over a very short distance.

Given that I haven't been getting out hiking much lately, I knew that this climb would be a bit rough. Regardless, I wasn't about to turn back now!

Shortly after getting this initial view of Harmonica Arch, I passed by an old beaver pond.

It was shortly after passing this old beaver pond that the uphill slog began. I definitely didn't break any speed records on this climb, but I did eventually get to the point where the end was in sight. The closer I got to the top, the better the views got.

I only had to hike a short distance past this view to reach the final ascent up to the granite peak that contains the arch. This final ascent was also the most fun portion of the entire route as it involved climbing a relatively steep section of solid granite.

Finally, after making this final ascent, I was on top of the granite peak that had seemed so far away earlier in the day. All that was left to do at this point was to make the short traverse over to the arch.

When I finally got to a point where I could see Harmonica Arch up close, I was impressed by just how large an arch it is. It's definitely an impressive arch!

Unfortunately, the light at this point was already extremely harsh, making photography difficult. Additionally, there weren't very many good places to stand to try to get a composition of the arch.

I did briefly contemplate working my way lower down the granite face to try to get a better angle. The granite is rough enough that your feet actually stick to it quite well, so I'm pretty sure I could've done this relatively safely. With that being said, I ultimately decided that it wasn't worth trying without having a rope for backup, as, if I was wrong about this, a fall would mean almost certain death. Perhaps one of these days I'll go back with a rope and harness to attempt to get a better photograph.

After spending some time soaking in all of the views and doing my best to photograph this beautiful arch, there was nothing left to do other than hike back out the way I had come.

By the time everything was said and done, this hike ended up being about 7.5 miles with around 1,300' of elevation gain. While this definitely wasn't the most strenuous hike that I've ever done, it was quite the workout, given how little I've been getting out hiking as of late.

I can say one thing for sure, though: I definitely feel that hiking bug coming back!