Natural Bridges National Monument

Hi Blog!

On Sunday, September 24, 2017, we set our sights on Natural Bridges National Monument. Located about 50 miles northwest of the Four Corners, the monument is located at the junction of White Canyon and Armstrong Canyon, part of the Colorado River drainage. Natural Bridges National Monument is completely surrounded by the Bears Ears National Monument. On the way into Natural Bridges, we decided to take a side road to get a closer look at the two buttes that make up Bears Ears.

Getting a good photo of the Bears Ears wasn't as easy as we thought it would be. With all the juniper and pinyon pine trees on the mesa, Dave had to climb atop the Jeep to get the photos we wanted. Dusty is such a good sport.

There are two ways to see the natural bridges. One is to drive around a one way loop road and stop at all the overlooks, the other way is to hike a 10 mile loop trail that takes your under each bridge. Never ones to shy away from a little walking, we opted to hike the loop trail.

When we stopped in the Visitor Center to check trail conditions, the ranger on duty told us the best way to hike the loop is to start at the southernmost bridge parking lot, hike north across the mesa to the first bridge and then south along the canyon floor. Even though we were on top of the mesa, the trail still had its ups and downs.

We passed through a number of canyons in the making.

After two miles, we reached the parking area for the first bridge. The trail then began to descend steeply into White Canyon. We had to traverse a staircase and three wooden ladders before reaching the canyon floor.

Along the way we passed this Ancestral Puebloan ruin. The site was abandoned more than 700 years ago. Looks too small to be a house, but it could have been a food cache.

Here is the first of the three natural bridges. Sipapu Bridge is the second largest natural bridge in the world (only Rainbow Bridge in Glen Canyon is bigger). In Hopi mythology, a "sipapu" is a gateway through which souls may pass to the spirit world. Well, we were two spirits that passed through.

We decided to have lunch in the shade of the bridge. We met a lovely British couple who also hiked down to see the bridge. However, they were hiking back up to their car and driving to the next arch. We wished them well and continued our voyage up the canyon. We took one last look back from whence we came. Did we really just climb down that?  If you look closely, you can see some of the ladders and railings we had to used to descend it:

Being down in the canyon was such a different environment than up on the mesa. We were surrounded by Gambel oak trees, cottonwoods and willows. The leaves were just beginning to turn color.

Just before reaching Kachina Bridge, the second of our three natural bridges, we discovered these pictographs on the walls of the canyon. Handprints may be a signature, a way for a person to say, ‘I was here.’ Maybe these have a spiritual meaning as well: a way for the artist to leave a part of their spirit at a particular place. Just as we identify ourselves with fingerprints, maybe handprints were a prehistoric way for an individual to mark their place.

We found a "bonus arch" along the way.

The Kachina Bridge is so massive, we almost didn't see it at first. Kachina is the youngest of the three bridges because of the thickness of its span. The bridge is named for the Cachina dancers that play a central role in Hopi religious tradition.

Kathy loves rocks and she loves chocolate. What better, then, than chocolate rocks!

After leaving Kachina Bridge we had to work our way up and out of White Canyon and into Armstrong Canyon. The three mile hike up the canyon was a bit of a challenge. Recent rains washed away parts of the trail. We had to concentrate to make sure we didn't get lost as the trail criss-crossed the wash dozens of times. Finally, we saw the light at the end of the canyon.

Owachomo Bridge is the oldest and most delicate of the bridges. Tuwa Creek no longer flows under the bridge like it did for thousands of years. Owachomo means "rock mound" in Hopi, and is named after the rock formation on top of the southeast end of the bridge.

Just as we were heading back up to the parking lot where we left the Jeep, we ran into the British couple we met at the first arch. We told them we were sorry we missed them at Kachina Bridge, but were happy that they too were able to see all the arches.  They seemed a bit surprised to see us again, and probably assumed they had proceeded faster than we did - but in the time they traipsed down the trails to each bridge, and drove their car from bridge to bridge, we hiked the entire circuit!

And so ends another adventure. We'll probably end up doing a lot of driving tomorrow. We want to check out two more National Monuments - Canyons of the Ancients and Hovenweep. Stay tuned!