September 12, 2008

September 12, 2008

From Blanding, UT we drove west thru Utah’s canyon country. A stark but beautiful landscape. In less than an hour we arrive at Natural Bridges National Monument, the first National Park unit set aside in Utah. It is a hidden gem, crowded out of the spotlight by southern Utah’s now burgeoning list of National Parks. Natural Bridges is home to three of America’s largest stone bridges. Bridges are the river-formed cousins of Arches. We are in the middle of the high Colorado Plateau. Millions of years ago lazy rivers meandered across this landscape. When the Colorado Plateau was uplifted by tectonic forces, these rivers cut thru the rock with the force of gravity. The meanders of this local river became locked in the stone of the canyon’s depth. Over time erosion opened shortcuts across three of the meanders leaving only rock spans behind.

After watching the excellent film at the Visitor Center, we begin the 9-mile driving loop that takes us to each of the bridges. At each one we stop at the overlook and then make the short hike down into the canyon for an up close and personal look. Aimee refuses to stand under any of them; not since she read about the recent crash of Wall Arch in Arches National Park. It is a delightful day of short hikes. The weather is sunny and bright and the scenery simply stunning.

After spending most of the day at Natural Bridges, we head south toward the Arizona border for our final run to Tucson. After some thirty miles, the pavement ends and we make a sudden stop at the top of a sheer cliff seemingly the size of the Grand Canyon. Yes, the dirt road continues, down the cliff wall, via a series of narrow switchbacks. WOW! This is both the coolest and the worst three miles of road we have traveled. This is America’s answer to Bolivia’s famed Death Road. After stopping first to awe at the road ahead, I slowly start down, careful not to brake hard and slide off, but quickly enough before some RV decides to pass me going uphill. The road is not wide enough for two of us. With Aimee’s eyes closed, and thankfully only a few motorcycles going in the opposite direction, we make it to the bottom of the canyon. This turns out only to be the upper canyon.

A few miles down the road we meet up with the San Juan River and the Inner Gorge at Goosenecks State Park. Here we encounter the Granddaddy of entrenched meanders. At this small spot the San Juan River switchbacks three times at the bottom of a deep canyon. Simply Awesome. Unfortunately, the sun is right in our eyes and my photos are terrible. We are going to have to stay till sunrise. But there is no campground here, only a large unpaved parking lot. To Aimee’s dismay, I park the RV on the canyon lip and setup camp.