For all the world-famous national parks on the Colorado Plateau, Natural Bridges National Monument quietly has some of the best natural and cultural features around. This small canyon network on the north side of Cedar Mesa is completely landlocked by the much larger and much newer Bears Ears National Monument. Despite driving past the turnoff plenty of times before, I first visited Natural Bridges over Thanksgiving 2021 during which I did a 6.5mi/2.5hr hike through the three namesake natural bridges. The bridges are great and each different in their own way but what was unexpected was the high density of ancestral Puebloan petroglyphs, pictographs, and cliff ruins I stumbled on along the hike, some in some hard to reach nooks and crannies. Further research after this trip revealed many other excellent petroglyphs, pictographs, and cliff ruins that I had missed and so I knew I wanted to go back. I even came up with an ambitious hike that involved rappeling into a canyon just outside of the monument and then proceeding down the canyon to avoid an out-and-back hike but this was quickly abandoned due to shuttle logistics, cold temperatures, excess weight, and short days.
We awoke in the campground from perhaps the coldest night of our mid-winter trip (or at least the thickest ice development in the tent and the most frozen water). Relatedly we were slow to get going and when we did we opted for a less ambitious out-and-back hike from the Sipapu Bridge trailhead. Down we went into the cold shadows, careful to keep our hands in our pocket and off the cold handrails and ladders as much as possible. We walked the short detour out the halfway ledge for a view of the bridge from above before continuing down. Hiking through the bridge, we worked our way along the overgrown trail up the main branch of White Canyon.
 |
| Sipapu Bridge view (and below) |
The canyon was cool in the shadows with hoarfrost coating the leaves and twigs along the ground in a twinkling mat of clear white crystals. As we made our way up the sinuous canyon we had to frequently cross back and forth across the partially frozen creek at the bottom to maintain dry feet. About a half-mile up from Sipapu was the first of four ruin areas we would visit on our first hike. I slab climbed up to a prominent ledge where there were several nice roofless ruins. It was not until I was up here that I could spot the petroglyphs painted on the canyon wall below and some more ruins including one with the distinctive T-shaped doors sometimes seen on Cedar Mesa.
Another mile or so of frozen creek dodging led us to the second ruin area. This one mysteriously had some apparently very well preserved ruins built into a spacious alcove above a 20-30 ft sheer rock face. I could not see the canyon wall changing very much here and so suspect this site would have only been accessible by ladders. A couple hundred feet past these inaccessible ruins was another cluster of accessible ones including well preserved roofs at ground level and a pair of granaries nicely built into the overhang. The overhang nearby had a nice wall of about a hundred red-outlined hand paintings; my favorite part of this wall was how the hands got bigger the higher you went up the wall with a cluster a few feet off the ground clearly belonging to small kids.
Past a prominent bouldery rockfall area requiring extra care around the deep semi-frozen pools, we detoured slightly to check out a frozen dryfall and its plunge pool. It looked like it would make a nice ice skating rink. We continued over a mile to our next cluster of ruins. This was a particularly nice section of canyon with easier travel on bedrock patio benches instead of trails through vegetation. Along the way I enjoyed the many intricate patterns of frozen crystalline water.
This third area was probably my favorite with an assortment of well-preserved ruins including two double decker granaries right next to each other. These had nicely constructed entrances and one still had its carved stone door mostly intact. I spent quite a bit of time photographing the ruins here from every conceivable angle and even tried lidar scanning with my phone with fairly satisfactory results.
The day was getting on and we had a way to go to get back to the car and so Heather decided to wait in the sun while I had a quick half-mile run up to the fourth ruin area I wanted to check out. This had two kivas that did not seem to be nearly as well preserved or photogenic as the other groupings and so my visit was brief. Once reunited we sped our way downcanyon, noting that the creek ice had started to melt in a few places. We made it back to the car with daylight to spare and then looped around to snag our same campsite in the most empty campground.
The night and morning felt warmer than the previous one, even if only psychologically, giving me the fuel to suggest that gearing up for a San Juan River trip might not be a completely absurd suggestion. We opted to do one more short hike in the vicinity of Kachina Bridge and so drove on to that trailhead once sufficiently defrosted.
 |
| Trailhead view: subtle ruins in the shadows at right |
Partway to the bridge we followed an unofficial trail along a bench network out to a prominent gooseneck peninsula. On the way we poked over to an interesting archway, then hiked out to the end of the peninsula for a novel view of Kachina Bridge below. The ruins were on the next ledge network above us and so we spent some time searching for the best way to climb up a level. I eventually did a slabby traverse to a mantle move that got me up and then looked around for other options. Heather ended up doing a face climb to get up and then afterwards we both found a much easier way for us both to get down later utilizing a well positioned pinon pine. Once on the Ruin Rock ledge we had a lot of things to see. We hiked out to the narrowest part of the gooseneck for panoramic views. We admired the extensive wall of creative petroglyphs from below, marveling both at the creativity of them and the difficulty required to reach them. We then had a detailed look at the three main ruin areas, the structures furthest out being my favorite, two adjoining granaries expertly built into the rock of the overhang, one with a well constructed roof. For the heck of it we then traced the ledge all the way around in a loop, not lingering very long in the dark, cold shadows but enjoying the views from this island-like perch. We then climbed down the pinon tree and returned back to the trail, continuing down to Kachina Bridge, the chunkiest one of the three.
 |
| On the peninsula looking towards Ruin Rock |
On my last hike I moved quite quickly through the Kachina Bridge area. This time more leisurely I noticed much more detail including a collection of petroglyphs on the east side and some faint pictographs on the west side. Beneath the archway were thick slabs of a frozen pond; the urge was too great and I grabbed one to break over a rock, with an echoing glass shatter ringing around the canyon.
Subtly hidden behind some boulders nearby was a trail that led into an alcove with several unique ruins and a great collection of pictographs and petroglyphs (that I also missed on my last hike). The standout feature was the circular ruin with painted figures and an intricate mud streak on the cliff behind. Another favorite feature was the granary built into a couple large boulders. Some of the painted hand prints here had swirling patterns painted on the palm, almost resembling the swirl of fingerprints. After we explored the features here we hiked back up to the car. Once again I was impressed at the variety of features and views we got from a short 2.5 mile hike.
We exited the monument and drove down the Moki Dugway, always an exciting drive for a stretch of state highway, and on to Mexican Hat. At the boat ramp we confirmed there was plenty of slushy ice floating in the San Juan, much like there was around Thanksgiving a year ago. We then drove out of town past Mexican Hat Rock to the first pullout with reception. Rather incredibly in the short time before the BLM Monticello office closed I managed to get us a San Juan River permit (clearly we would be the last people on the river in 2023) and then shortly after to arrange a car shuttle. We were on for the San Juan! We found a camping spot at Sand Island campground and started to get organized for the overnight river trip the following day. We were more than a little curious as to what we were getting ourselves into, especially as the gear I had laid out developed a layer of frost almost immediately after the sun went down!
No comments:
Post a Comment