Natural Bridges National Monument

Don and I seem to get around a little more quickly than Bart, Jerri, and Katie.  So we took the pups for a walk to a hidden arch right near our campground.  It was a pretty walk, if you like red rocks, red sand, little vegetation, and steep cliffs.  Good thing it is in our DNA.

Once we were on the road, we stopped at Natural Bridges National Monument.  This particular monument includes three large bridges as well as some ruins and many beautiful cliffs.  We decided to hike partially down the rather treacherous trail at Sipapu bridge.  It included two staircases and one ladder.  This was a huge step for me, since the last ladder on a cliff I had climbed was at Puye, where I froze halfway up.  But I decided I had to do it.  Luckily, the ladder was very short and quite sturdy, and I was able to climb up and down it just fine.

The trail led us to a very steep area, no guardrails included.  The view of Sipapu Bridge was magnificent, however, and I just made sure I stayed away from the edge.  No jumping allowed !!!  Jerri took several pictures of us, and she made sure not to tell us to step back a little ways.

We could have hiked all the way to bottom of the cliff, but that included one more staircase and two more ladders.  We were running low on time, so we passed and came back up to finish the drive around the park.  It was an interesting place.