Natural Bridges

Natural Bridges National Monument in Utah contains some of the largest natural bridges in the world. There is a loop drive to see the 3 biggies here, or you can hike to them down below. Sipapu Bridge is the first one you come to and the largest.

Horsecollar ruin is close by, so named because of the shape of the doorway and window of the structure on the right. On the left is an unusual square kiva, which still has some of its roof.

The next bridge on the loop is Kachina, which we decided to walk down to.

The park service spent a lot of effort making steps out of the rock so we didn't have to slide down.

We had a lot of rain a few days ago, so there was water in the wash, and even a waterfall!

Made it to the bottom! It's hard to believe that the bridges were formed by water.

The reason we chose this one to walk down to is that I read there were pictographs and petroglyphs and ruins underneath it. I still think they were done by kids whose moms wanted them out of the way, but these were pretty good and well preserved. Notice the hand prints under the sheep.

To see everything, you had to walk on rocks across the big puddles left by the rain.

On the other side of the bridge, I found this cute family, although it looks like mom has her arms on backwards.

Up on the ledge near the bridge are some unrestored structures in remarkable shape, because they were under a large alcove. Rounded river rocks were covered with a layer of adobe to create the walls. Notice the hand prints and other pictographs on the wall.

There were several places in the large sandstone rocks where corn had been ground.

After we climbed back out of the canyon, we went on to the last bridge, Owachomo. Hard to see here, but it is the skinniest and may have a fatal crack, so if you want to see it, you better hurry on out.