Natural Bridges is basically in the middle of nowhere in Utah. It's about 40 miles to the nearest town. It has some of the darkest skies in the country and some of the best stargazing. I saw a picture of it in a book and decided we needed to go there. On a road trip like this you don't need much more of a reason. There are three naturally created bridges in the canyon at the park that we visited via an 8.6 mile hike. 6.6 in the canyon and then 2 miles across the mesa back to the car. The canyon hike is awesome but the last 2 miles back were a little rough. Then again, we're not exactly seasoned hikers.
Fun fact number one: the difference between a bridge and an arch is that bridges are created by moving water and arches are created by other forces (frost, erosion, etc.) Fun fact number two: the difference between a national park and a national monument is that Congress has to vote for a park but the president can designate a monument. Theodore Roosevelt made Natural Bridges a monument in 1908.
This first bridge is Sipapu. It's crazy how the perspective changes based on how you are looking at the bridge. The views from down in the canyon are our favorite. Also notice how small I am. These are big bridges.
There were ancient Puebloans in the area (as in most of the Colorado Plateau) and here's something they left behind.
Hiking through the canyon is fun let alone the bridges. Chrissy calls that cactus the heartcus
This is Kachina. It's the thickest of the three.
This is Owachomo. Again notice how the perspective changed based on where we were we were. In the third shot it's actually kind of hard to pick out the bridge.
There are 13 first come first served camp sites in the park and we were lucky enough to snag one. It's been unseasonably cooler this spring and one of our air mattresses deflated, but we've had fun camping.
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