Our second hike of the day brought us on a combination hiking/biking loop within Natural Bridges National Monument. The only road that goes through the park is a 9-mile one-way loop road, so this would end up being a perfect place to use our bikes in conjunction with a hike. The monument has 3 natural bridges along it's hiking trail and we were planning on doing 2 of the 3 bridges. The road through the park is up high on the mesa and the bridges are down low in the canyon. Hiking to each one means you have to hike down a very steep trail with about a 500 foot loss in elevation, then hike back up to return to the road. The bridges are also all connected by a trail that winds its way through the canyon. So, we left our bikes at the first trailhead, which is for Sipapu Bridge. We locked our bikes to the bike rack provided at the trailhead then drove to the trailhead for Kachina Bridge.
The hike down to Kachina Bridge was fascinating, as park service staff had used saws and drills to literally carve a trail out of the rock down into the depths of the canyon. Kudos to the NPS staff for building such a nice trail! About halfway down into the canyon Kachina Bridge came into view. We marveled at the view, then realized that these tiny dots we were seeing underneath the bridge were people. The bridge was positively HUGE! We continued hiking and reached the canyon bottom about 5 minutes later. The bridge was not visible right away when we reached the floor of the canyon but came into view after walking a short distance upstream. When it did come into view, we were awed by its massive size. The trail went underneath the bridge and I have to say, it was a little spooky walking under such a massive span of rock!
The next few miles of the trail were incredibly beautiful as we walked through the canyon towards Sipapu Bridge. We met a few people along the way, but this is not a highly visited park so it never felt crowded. As we walked the path we marveled at the black streaks lining the rock walls of the canyon. Every now and then we could hear birds calling in the distance. The temperature was perfect for hiking. We couldn't have asked for a better day! Eventually we rounded a bend in the canyon and Sipapu Bridge came into view. Sipapu is the 2nd largest natural bridge in the world. Only Rainbow Bridge on Lake Powell is bigger. The trail went part-way under this bridge before climbing up out of the canyon. It was a strenuous hike back up out of the canyon, due mostly to the fact that we were at about 8,000 feet in elevation and got winded easily. Once we were back at the trailhead we hopped on our bikes and really enjoyed the easy 2-mile bike ride back to the truck. According to the GPS unit, our loop was just over 8 miles, so we hiked about 6 miles and biked 2 miles. Back at the truck we made a couple of wraps for a late lunch then got back on the road. Our destination tonight was Capitol Reef National Park, the last stop on our southwest honeymoon.
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