Natural Bridges National Monument protects just over 7,600 acres of the Colorado Plateau in southeastern Utah. President Theodore Roosevelt used his powers under the Antiquities Act to establish the National Monument (Utah’s first National Park site) in 1908. The Park’s raison d’être is the presence of three sandstone bridges of varying age, height, and span near the intersections of White and Armstrong canyons. This tiny National Monument is entirely surrounded by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) portion of Bears Ears National Monument.

On Thursday, February 16, 2023, Sean and I set our sights on Parks and Monuments south of Moab, including Natural Bridges and Bears Ears, along with The Needles District of Canyonlands National Park.

I woke up before my 6am alarm because I was so excited for the adventure ahead, and (spoilers) it would be a magical day in the National Parks. After the snow and clouds of the previous few days, this morning was clear and bright. And cold.

We departed at 8am and headed directly to Moab Coffee Roasters for coffees and breakfast burritos for our drive.

From Moab to the Visitor Center at Natural Bridges is just slightly less than a two-hour drive. We decided to head to that general area first (rather than to The Needles) because it was so far away, and then we could work our way back. Plus The Needles (while still a hike from Moab) is comparatively closer, and we could always head back for a full day of hiking.

As it was, we weren’t entirely sure what to expect. There was little snow on the ground in Moab, but other portions of the area had apparently gotten quite a bit of accumulation. Our plan was to play things by ear.

Once we got a bit south of Moab, the snow accumulation was fairly substantial. Happily, though, US-191 had been plowed and was totally dry. But although the day was sunny, it was very cold: 1°F. Yikes!

We drove through the small towns of Monticello and Blanding. Sean turned on the episode of the podcast, One Year: 1986, about the Challenger explosion. It was fascinating and intense.

South of Blanding, we turned onto UT-95, “Trail of the Ancients Scenic Byway,” and headed West into Bear Ears National Monument. In fact we reached the entrance sign for Bears Ears just as the podcast reached the explosion of the space shuttle. I teared up, emotional from several different directions.

It felt very meaningful to visit a National Monument created with such deep participation by Native Americans. (More on that in the next post.)

We continued on as the highway twisted and turned us over Comb Ridge to Mule Canyon.

The previous evening, once we knew for sure we were going to head down this way, I had researched a few places to visit within massive Bears Ears. One of these was House on Fire, an Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwelling nestled into a dramatically colorful cliff face that, when the light is right, looks like it’s on fire.

We pulled off the highway into the parking area, which had been plowed. But otherwise the area was very snowy.

Still we made our way over along the path to a mesa-top Ancestral Puebloan dwelling, kiva, and base of a tower.

The dwelling had twelve rooms, which was comparatively diminutive compared to the dwellings at Mesa Verde or certainly Chaco. However, at the time that they would have been occupied (1000-1150 CE), they would have been part of a vast network emanating from Chaco at the height of its power and influence.

After visiting the dwelling, we made a college try to identify the trail toward House on Fire, but the snow was too deep, overfilling our hiking boots. So we gave up. Some other time we’d come back and see it.

Back on the highway, we continued the short distance to Natural Bridges.

From the map, we could see that the spur road that took us to Natural Bridges also had a spur road that took travelers to the Bears Ears Buttes, the most known landmark of the National Monument. The road, which led into a USDA Forest Service portion of the National Monument, was closed for the season, but I was excited to potentially glimpse the Bears Ears themselves.

At Natural Bridges, the road was also plowed.

We headed first to the Visitor Center, where we met Ranger Matt Smith. It was a couple minutes after 11am, and Ranger Matt informed us that we were visitors two and three for the day. He was very friendly and after we stamped our Passports to Our National Parks, he struck up a conversation.

“I figured you probably had an Annual Pass, since you came in here with your Passports,” he observed.

When he asked where we were from, we really got talking. After a long career with the Park Service, Ranger Matt was retiring in the next year and moving to the Driftless area of Wisconsin, a landscape Sean and I know well. We talked about Wisconsin and Illinois, and we recommended the Chicago Architecture Center Cruise for his next visit to Chicago.

“This has been the best job,” he said. “You meet nice people from all over.”

I asked about spots to see the Bears Ears, and Ranger Matt said that they were visible from multiple vantage points in Natural Bridges, particularly the overlooks above Tuwa Canyon near the end of the Bridge View Drive loop.

He was knowledgeable about all the various Park units in the area, so I also asked him about Horseshoe Canyon, a small, unconnected unit of Canyonlands National Park that protects some dramatic rock art.

“With this snow, you probably won’t make it to Horseshoe Canyon, even with a Jeep. But double check with the Rangers at Island in the Sky.”

Ranger Matt Smith was so nice.

We pulled out of the Visitor Center parking lot and started counter-clockwise on the one-way Bridge View Drive loop road.

It was cold and somewhat windy, but the sky was brilliantly clear, and the snow on the landscape was gorgeous. It felt like we were visiting on a very special day.

Like much of the southeast Utah landscape, the mesa was studded with Piñon Pine and Utah Juniper, with Mormon Tea in the underbrush.

We stopped at the overlook for the first of the bridges, Sipapu Bridge in White Canyon. Sipapu means “place of emergence” in Hopi. It is the largest of the three bridges, 220 feet high with a 268 foot span.

Although there are trails to the bases of each of the three bridges, we didn’t dare venture down them, it was far too snowy and icy.

Still, this was a magical place. And Natural Bridges even has a campground. It would be the perfect place to use as home base for a longer visit to and exploration of Bears Ears. Someday…

As we continued on Bridge View Drive, we spotted the dramatic Bears Ears Buttes for the first time. Truly thrilling.

We stopped at the next overlook, and walked down the short, paved path to see the next bridge.

Kachina Bridge was harder to spot because of its angle of orientation. It is 210 feet high with a span of 204 feet. Kachina refers to the religious images and figures in Hopi culture.

On the south side of the drive, Owachomo Bridge was definitely the most camouflaged in the wintry landscape. The oldest of the three bridges, it is also the smallest, with a height of 106 feet and a span of 180 feet. Owachomo means “rock mound” in Hopi.

As the road turned back toward the Visitor Center along Tuwa Canyon, we approached the most dramatic viewpoint of the Bears Ears. We were ready for that vista.

And way off to the northwest, we spotted the snow-covered Henry Mountains, which we had seen from Capitol Reef National Park earlier that week.

But now, we pulled off to have a good look at the Bears Ears.