Blue Mountain RV Park April 2

Day 65  Saturday  April 2    Blue Mountain RV Park  Blanding, UT

The next day we drove to Blanding, got settled in our campsite with a view of the desert, and drove to Natural Bridges National Monument.  

Our campsite

Lots of prairie dogs in the desert!

We did a hike from Sipapu bridge, the northernmost one below the visitor center, down into the canyon, along a watercourse, sometimes losing and finding again the rough trail in the canyon, then back up the canyon at the Kachina bridge.  The trail up and down the canyon walls included ladders, steps carved in the rock, wood steps, and railings embedded (hopefully) in the rocks.  The overland trail back to our car, which we assumed would be fairly level, involved walking up and down a lot of rocks, following trails marked by cairns of rocks!  The “easy” trail, on the brochure, was over 8 miles, by Jim’s hike measurement apps.  Wow!  Did that car look good!  Tired legs and feet!  We saw not a single person on the trail, just one guy at the end as we were at the top.  A peaceful place.

Railings to climb down the rocks

Hang on tight!!

Are we having fun yet?

More steps!

View of bridge from canyon

Jim climbing up to ruins on steeper-than-they-look rocks.

Horsecollar archaeological site

Storage place?

Leaf Patterns

Sand patterns

Stream in canyon

Blooming manzanita

Reflections

Upper bridge

More reflections

Rock climbing back up

Sculpture

Trail through cryptobiotic soil

Flowers growing in desert soil

Uphill trail back to car marked with cairns of rocks

Yay!  Back to Tuzi!

Goodbye to the canyon

The desert soil is called “cryptobiotic” soil, and has organisms that include soil cyanobacteria, lichens and mosses.  This makes the soil less easily eroded, increases water filtration in this arid area, and makes the soil more fertile for other plants to grow.  This soil is easily destroyed, and people need to stay on trails to protect it.