Natural Bridges National Monument (05-14-12)

Technorati Tags: natural Bridges national monument,Kachina,Sipapu,Owachomo,BLM

After having just hiked to Cassidy Arch, and then arriving at Natural Bridges National Monument, the first question we wanted a definitive answer for was: What’s the difference between an Arch and a Bridge??  We theorized that an Arch is made by wind and sand and a bridge is made by water, but we were wrong.  A bridge is made by the erosive action of flowing water and an arch is made by other erosive forces, such as frost and water seepage.
While I’m on the subject of differences, we also just came from a National Park to a National Monument. A monument is designated by a President, and a national park is designated by Congress.  A park usually protects more than one significant resource, and a monument usually is designated to protect a single resource,
This monument covers a small area, but contains three bridges, all in different stages of “life”- and the bridges do have a life span.  They will continue to erode until they collapse and are no longer bridges.

There is a 9 mile scenic drive as well as 8 miles of hiking trails available for viewing the bridges.  We did a combination of both.  We started hiking at Kachina, the youngest of the bridges.  It is 210 feet high and spans 204 feet.

Unlike Cassidy Arch, we aren’t allowed to walk over the bridges, just under them. Lucky for us we kept our eyes open and got a good look at the petro glyphs and pictographs along the side of Kachina.

We hiked another few miles until we came to Sipapu, which has the widest span, at 268 feet.

We stopped for lunch in the shade created by the bridge, before heading back “up”.  In order to get below the bridges, of course we had to hike down into a canyon. Climbing back out was fun- we got to climb several ladders, similar to the ones used by early Puebloans-except these ladders were bolted together.

After hiking to Sipapu, we circled back to Kachina, and drove to the third bridge, Owachomo, the oldest of the three bridges.





These bridges are out in the middle of nowhere- almost 40 miles from the nearest town.  There is a small campground here, but we’re too big for it, so we found some nearby BLM land and spent two nights there while we explored the area.