Valley of the Gods, Moki Dugway, and Natural Bridges National Monument

Not too far from our "home" here in Bluff, Utah (picture above is just outside of town) is an area called Valley of the Gods. It is not a state park or a national park or monument. It is just a 16 mile drive on fairly well maintained gravel roads. This is what we saw one morning last week when we took that drive. Notice that cattle roam freely here, too. These guys look like marching toy soldiers to me...

How about this for a mug...

The colors of the spring grasses add a beautiful contrast to the red earth.

This fellow looks like a choir boy to me...

After a couple of hours, it was time to leave the Valley of the Gods for the next part of our day. "Moki Dugway" - A Dugway is a trail along a hillside which is dug out to provide a path for transport. This particular path was dug in the 1950's to let haulers pass from zinc mines. It is a stretch of road that Anita would love... lots of switchbacks and no guardrails! You can see the Valley of the Gods in the distance.

Both of us always think of you, Anita, when we are going around curves on the mountainside...

When the road began to straighten a bit and we headed to lower elevation and Natural Bridges National Monument. This was the first of three bridges that we saw. Those are full grown trees that you see at the base of the canyon. This bridge is named "Sipapu" which means "place of emergence" in Hopi. It is believed that this was an entryway by which the Hopi ancestors came into this world. This one spans 268 feet and is 220 feet high. The next bridge is named Kachina because there are rock art symbols on the bridge that resemble kachina dolls.

It was difficult to photograph from the viewpoint and neither of us felt like walking the 3 miles to the canyon floor for a better view. We did walk to see the "Horse Collar Ruins" - ancestral home of the Pueblo people who lived there 1,300 years ago. It was a very cold and windy .6 mile walk. And still you could not get close enough to really see it well.

On to my favorite bridge, "Owachomo" spans 180 feet, is 106 feet high and is only 9 feet thick (and shrinking daily). I actually walked to the base of this one (Mike opted to stay in the warmth and comfort of the car as it had already been a long long day). This is the view from the lookout.

This is the view from halfway down. This is the view from the bottom of the trail. And this is the view from the bottom on the far side (where you see the boulders in the picture above.

It was an invigorating hike and well worth my time.

Overall, the day was a pure delight; although both of us agreed that we were on overload by the time we got home... there is just so much to see!