Blogs from Natural Bridges National Monument, Utah, United States, North America

Sunday, May 13th Happy Mother’s Day! It is 57 degrees and overcast this morning at 8:30. Starting mileage was 25552 We continued driving south on US 191 to the small town of Blanding, about 20 miles away. There we turned west on highway 95 to Natural Bridges National Monument. There are three bridges in this park, Sipapu, Kachina, and Owachomo, that have been formed by running water. Each can be seen by walking a short trail to an overlook into the canyon. After seeing the bridges, we drove out of the park and turned southwest on highway 276 toward the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and Lake Powell. There are two roads to choose from to get over Lake Powell at this junction—one goes over a bridge and one goes by ferry. If you follow us ... read more

Utah inspires the artist in all of us. There was a heavy rain the day before was came through. It made the reds in the rock formations even more vibrant. On a day of 368 miles driving, we managed to see Lake Powell, Natural Bridges Natl Monument and Capital Reef National Park. Incredible! The first stop was Natural Bridges National Monument. The Bridges differ from arches because they are caused by the erosive action of moving water. Arches are caused by other erosive forces such as frost and seepage. There are three bridges in the Park with several great viewpoints. Off we go to Lake Powell. We stopped at the Bridge, and then later way above the Bridge for a better view. Lake Powell is the second largest man-made reservoir in the US. It was created ... read more

Today we tried to go to Yucca House NM - - Turns out it was made a NM in 1919, but it is just several piles of rubble with no facilities, not even a sign to locate it. So we made a U turn on US 160 and made for Hovenweep NM. It is a very small park but includes several sets of ancient indian houses/villages. We got passports stamped, walked to the easy to get to sites, and took a bunch of photos and then headed out to Natural Bridges NP. All back roads - - some better than others. The scenery though was uniformally beautiful. The natural bridges in the park (three of them that we could see from the over looks) are really impressive. Had to drive UT 95 34 miles in and ... read more

Natural Bridges National Monument is in the remote Cedar Mesa canyon country of southeast Utah and has three examples of giant natural rock spans. Traveling around the Bridge View Drive, there are trails leading down to each of the three Bridges. Bridges are different from arches in that bridges are partially formed by the moving water of a stream, where arches are formed by frost action on seeping water. These bridges are in a sandstone layer that is deeper than the layer where the stone arches of Arches Park occur. The first hike along the nine mile loop road is Sipapu Bridge Trail. The trail down there is only 0.6 miles but has a 500 ft. elevation change. There are wooden ladders, stairs, and hand rails to help you traverse the steep slippery rock. Sipapu Bridge ... read more

Made the long drive to Moab Utah today(Sunday). We saw a lot of beautiful scenery along the way. Most of our time when not driving was spent in National Bridge National National Park. We did some nice hikes down to three natural bridges.... read more