Hike to Lexington Arch

The road to the trailhead is half the adventure — a rough, unpaved spur that rattles your fillings and weeds out the casual crowd. Once you're on foot, the path climbs steadily through high-desert shrubland and pinyon-juniper woodland, with the kind of dry, crunchy terrain that makes you grateful for sturdy boots. The trail is well-defined but not manicured, with loose rock and a few steep pitches that keep your attention. As you round the final bend, Lexington Arch rises like a cathedral doorway carved from raw limestone — nearly twenty stories tall and utterly improbable in this remote corner of Great Basin. Unlike the famous sandstone arches of Utah, this one may actually be a natural bridge formed by water, which makes it a geological oddity worth the trip. This is a trail for people who like earning their views with nobody else around, and for the rare pleasure of bringing your dog along in a national park.