Posts Tagged With: Blanding Utah

Flagstaff Arizona June 7, 2021

We left our Airbnb in Blanding Utah after discussing some travel options with our host. Natural Bridges National Monument was our primary goal for the day. The road from Blanding is paved although you are warned there are no services and no cell coverage along the route. Unlike other remote sections of Colorado and Utah, we did not observe small houses or farms along the road. Even most of the park staff lives onsite rather than driving in each day.

The monument has three primary natural bridges it protects, although there are other smaller bridges. Natural Bridges had not been high on our previous trip lists due to its remoteness and having seen arches before. While arches and bridges look similar, the causation is different. Bridges are created by erosive action of moving water. Arches are created by other erosionial forces, mainly frost action and seeping moisture. Here the underlying geology is sandstone, a more easily eroded rock.

Having read online about each bridge, overlooks to view them, and trails to reach them, we easily decided on this trip to simply view each natural bridge from an overlook. Each trail to actually reach a bridge is strenuous, elevation changes ranged from 180 to 500 feet, and involves ladders, handrails, slip rock and steep steps cut into the rock. There is a paved, nine mile loop road that connects the overlooks.

Sipapu Bridge comes first and is the second largest natural bridge in the world. Rainbow Bridge in Glen Canyon is bigger, we saw it on our 2014 Lake Powell houseboating trip. Sipapu means gateway in Hopi and refers to a gateway in which souls may pass to the spirit world.

Kachina Bridge is considered the youngest of the three since its span is still thick and less eroded. In 1992 a rock fall knocked off an estimated 4,000 tons of rock from the bridge. Kachina dancers play a central role in Hopi religious tradition.

Owachomo Bridge means rock mound in Hopi and is named for the rock formation on one end of the bridge. Owachomo is more delicate and may have eroded more quickly than the others. Owachomo no longer has a stream underneath it, evidently centuries of change have either moved the streams or dried them up.

Our Airbnb host had recommended that we not backtrack to Blanding on our way to Flagstaff but take a more local road that provided great scenery. The scenery started as soon as we turned onto the road. Several cattle were grazing along the road. The signs indicated this was an open range territory where cattle are not fenced in. The signs were accurate and viewing the cattle early made sure we kept our eyes open.

The road was paved except for a three mile stretch of gravel road. The gravel portion was on the most scenic section, reasonably wide with switchbacks and steep elevation loss as we descended into the valley below. The views were excellent and the 15 mph speed limit allowed for time to observe-while still keeping an eye on the road and two hands on the steering wheel.

Almost at the end of this shortcut was Gooseneck State Park. The park is very small, only a parking area with picnic tables and an overlook of the San Juan River. From the park, you can look down 1,100 feet at the river. Even more spectacularly, the river here has carved curves deep into the rock. Horseshoe Bend south of Page AZ gets more visitors and more press but Goosenecks provides a closer view of more bends. Today the water looked more like chocolate milk. Even so, there were people rafting and stand up paddle boarding way down there.

The rest of the journey to Flagstaff was uneventful. Scenery was still great views of buttes, mesas and dirt but we have driven this stretch of road before so it brought back memories instead of making new ones. We did stop for an ice cream shake at Sonic in Kayenta and arrived in Flagstaff around 3:30.

The next three days are more for family time. There will not be daily posts. We resume the travel portion Friday morning June 11.

Ed Heimel, Chris Klejbuk Flagstaff AZ June 8