Natural Bridges was the first to be declared in the Utah National Park System in 1908. The bridges were discovered in 1883 by prospector Cass Hite. Natural bridges are formed by the erosive action of moving water while arches are formed by other erosional forces, mainly frost action and seeping moisture. There are three bridges in the Natural Bridges Park. The first is Sipapu Bridge, which means "place of emergence", an entryway by which the Hopi believe their ancestors came into this world.
next is Kachina Bridge, named for rock art symbols on the bridge that resemble symbols commonly used on kachina dolls.
and finally Owachomo Bridge, which means "rock mound", a feature atop the bridge's east abutment.
You can take an 8.6 mile hike from the first bridge to the last. No, thank you. Today's temperature was suppose to reach 100 degrees so we were lucky to get through the three overlooks we went to. One was 600 yards, one 3/10th of a mile and one 200 yards. Of course when you walk down you have to walk back up. We did take lots of water with us.
We also saw some ruins that were used up until around the 1300's. How can scientists tell this?
We planned on a short day today so that we can rest up for our big day tomorrow at Monument Valley. After visiting Natural Bridges we headed back to town. There we filled up the car, got our mail, had a root beer float at A & W (which was really a gas station, A & W, convenience store and bowling alley all in one.) That was our lunch. We then stopped at the grocery store to pick up a couple of things.
Back at the rig the wind started to blow and we settled in for a quiet afternoon. We had weird things for dinner. I used the leftover taco stuff to make a taco salad for me and I broiled salmon for Bill. We are going to watch a little TV tonight and handle all the mail we got. Bills to pay, magazines to read, and junk mail. You know those biting gnats I talked about yesterday, well, I now have about a thousand bites on my arms, legs and even in my hair! And they ITCH! Bummer.
Here are all the pictures I took.
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