Natural Bridges National Monument

From our campsite at Blue Mountain RV Park, we headed south on 191 and then west on 95 to Natural Bridges National Monument.

This was the first National Park area in Utah. It was discovered in 1883 by a man named Cass Hite. he had a mining claim on the Colorado River and wandered into Stone Canyon and discovered three monolithic bridges. To this day, nowhere else in the world are there so many bridges in the same area.

Millions of years after the lifting of the Colorado Plateau, glacial melt from the end of the last ice age and abundant rains brought massive flooding that provided the power to carve the canyons in the southwest.

As the rushing waters meandered through the canyon, water worked against the banks of the bends in a way that broke through, cutting off the bend and creating a shortcut that is a bridge.

This is Sipapu, the first of the three bridges in the park. Sipapu means “the place of emergence” in Hopi language.

Sipapu, close up. It is 220′ high and 268′ wide.

And this is Sipapu from a different angle. There is a 9 mile park road that takes you to different vantage points throughout the park. There are also walking trails that take you under the bridges.

Kachina is the second bridge.

Kachina is 210′ high and 204′ wide.

The third is Owachomo, which is Hopi for “rock mound”. It is 106′ high and 180′ wide.

Bridges differ from arches. Bridges are formed from water and arches by wind and sand.

Natural Bridges National Monument has an Ancestral Puebloan settlement named Horsecollar Ruin. It was inhabited between 1050 and 1300 AD.

To the right is a double chambered storage area or granarie. The doors are horse collar shaped, thus the name. There is a square kiva in the center, which is associated with the Kayenta area of northern Arizona.