Within the winding corridors of White and Armstrong canyons, water has eroded the stone walls to form three massive bridges. In this park in southern Utah, you can view them from overlooks accessible by short walks from a scenic 9-mile loop drive. But there are also trails that lead down to each bridge, and an 8.6-mile round-trip trail connecting them all. The connecting trail was closed as was the first bridge, Sipapu, because of snow and ice covered trails. But Andy and I did hike to the last two bridges, and we are certainly glad we did! The views are much different from the canyon floor as it is from the road. The bridges just blend into the landscape and it becomes hard to actually pick them out from the road.
The Kachina Bridge was our next view. It was a strenuous 3-mile hike to the junction of these two canyons and we had to cross a stream, but it is the most massive of all the bridges. Kachina is 204 feet long, 44 feet wide, and 93 feet thick.
The last bridge is Owachomo. It is the smallest and oldest, just a narrow strip of rock only 9 feet thick in the center and 27 feet wide. Owachomo is in a late stage of erosion and is approaching the day when weather and gravity will bring it crashing to the canyon floor. This hike was only about half-a-mile, round trip. These other pictures help you understand how deep some of these canyons, and climbs, are for us to enjoy!
One of the most interesting part about our visit was the route we had to travel to get there. We drove up a rocky mountain on a dirt, one-lane road, with no guardrails and about 4miles of switchbacks, going 5 MPH the whole way. Andy didn't enjoy the view, but I took several pictures (hanging out the window because he wouldn't stop). We stayed in a "town" called Mexican Hat, named after a 2,500-ton boulder that resembles a sombrero. The population of this town was 88, the post office was in the gas station, the RV park was a dirt lot between the motel and local church and only one other RV was camping there. But it was so convenient to the park!
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