Oct 25

We left Moab heading south, our plan was to go to the Needles section of Canyonlands. But we weren't sure how the day would be with our trailer in tow, so we continued on south. The terrain here has changed greatly from what we've seen the past couple of weeks, as in many places all of the top layers of red rock have been eroded over millions of years. What is left are the underlying layers of igneous rock, topped with soil and trees, mostly evergreen. Lots of prairie-like terrain, and quite colourful.

We settled in Bluff, Utah, which is about 70 kms from both Natural Bridges National Park and Monument Valley - in different directions. We chose Natural Bridges, thinking that we could see it in less time. We took the scenic route…VERY scenic. We climbed to the top of a roughly 2000 ft high mesa in 6 miles…switchbacks, gravel, unmaintained road. It was a tad scary, but spectacular. We met a fellow later who asked us if we had seen the transport and the pickup truck that had fallen off the road. Fortunately we hadn't, I think we would have been more spooked.

Natural Bridges was easy to see in a couple of hours. We did two of hikes, to two of the three bridges. (Bridges are formed by running water like a stream or river, arches are caused by freezing and thawing.) At the last bridge we were able to walk right under the 600 ft wide bridge and head down below it where there was a bit of standing water. The rocks seemed to "flow", we're thinking this was caused by both volcanic activity and erosion. The colours were quite pink…very neat effect.