With vaccinations lifting restrictions last spring, my family was eager to spend some closer-than-six-feet time together. Therefore, my sister suggested we all assemble somewhere in southeastern Utah. After some research and a bit of random selection, we ended up in Bluff for this last-minute excursion. Though you probably haven’t heard of this Utah speck, maybe my post will convince you too to do a little bluffing.
In 1908, Natural Bridges was designated a national monument making it Utah’s first contribution to the national park system.
Although Bluff is a small town with only about two hundred residents, it is situated amidst grandeur and opportunities for adventure. While busier than its size might suggest, it is far from being a hub of tourism, which we appreciated.
All three bridges at Natural Bridges formed from an entrenched meander system.Horse Collar Ruin is well-preserved and unique.
We went to Natural Bridges National Monument our first day in the area. Due to its remote location, Natural Bridges gets fewer guests than its magnificence deserves, which makes for an even pleasanter visiting experience for those willing to wander way out. Jason and I have been to Natural Bridges before, and the trail we took was mostly a repeat, but we noticed more archeological sites, pictographs, and petroglyphs in White Canyon this time. From granaries high on the canyon walls to those accessible in hidden places, we were shocked by how much we had missed on our first visit. We had planned on hiking the full loop between Sipapu and Owachomo Bridges, but my dad fell and pulled his hamstring not long after we stopped at Horse Collar Ruin, about two or so miles into our trek. He was in horrible pain and struggling to walk, so most of our group took the trail to the top of the canyon after Kachina Bridge to aid him. Jason and I continued with a couple of the bolder kids through Armstrong Canyon to Owachomo Bridge. A vehicle awaited us at Owachomo, cutting our trek down to 6.6 miles. Thanks for a three-mile minivan shortcut Sis!
Natural Bridges contains many undamaged and practically whole prehistoric structures, most of which remain undetected by hikers.Kachina Bridge is more mass than grace and is still being worn by flood waters.
With an injured father, we decided the best activity option for the next day was checking out Valley of the Gods. Valley of the Gods is a basin full of odd shapes and towering buttes created out of Cedar Mesa sandstone over the span of 250 million years. As it is basically a drive with about a dozen or so stops, it is a perfect place to take a stubborn father with a leg injury so he can enjoy the outdoors without straining himself further. Thanks Mother Nature for your kind consideration of wounded pops!
Owachomo Bridge is in the late stages of its life and is no longer being eroded by flowing water.Valley of the Gods is a smaller, and much less popular, version of Monument Valley.This photo can only be explained by the nearness of Setting Hen Butte and the exhilaration of long-overdue family nearness.
Since we were just a few minutes from Gooseneck State Park, we dropped by after exploring Valley of the Gods. Gooseneck State Park gives an excellent view of the San Juan River as it flows over six miles while only moving 1.5 miles west. This is one of the best examples of an entrenched meander anywhere in North America. If you don’t understand what an entrenched meander is, I’d recommend watching the 2 Minute Geology clip on the subject via YouTube.
At Gooseneck State Park, 1000 feet of rock is revealed. Those 16 layers date back 300 million years.Alhambra Rock, a relic of ancient volcanism, can be seen from Gooseneck State Park.
Before heading home the next day, we stopped at Edge of the Cedars State Park. This place features the largest collection of Ancestral Puebloan pottery in the region, a restored kiva you can enter, and a partially excavated village. While not as impressive as nearby Hovenweep National Monument, the museum at Edge of the Cedars contains plenty of information and noteworthy artifacts to merit a visit.
This interesting sculpture at Edge of the Cedars transforms on the winter solstice.
The landscapes and historical relics were captivating near Bluff but hanging out with my family was more so. After we’d spent over a year meeting at parks and chatting from a distance, we got to cram uncomfortably into vehicles and sit at tables together! Our joy at the normalcy of our outing was almost overwhelming. We occupied our evenings sitting around fires chatting and giggling. My family is amazing because we readily laugh and joke around, yet we are still fully willing to have meaningful, serious conversations. More than the majestic bridges and buttes, I will remember the exquisite reconnection.
Birdwatching does not require, as one might assume, an in-depth knowledge of fowls. Curiosity, sharp observation skills, and a present focus are all that are necessary for this hobby. Last spring, Jason and I attended the Great Salt Lake Bird Festival, a birdwatching pageant, for the second time. Did we have what it takes to look at birds? Read on, and all will be revealed.
There are over 50 billion birds on this planet. Yet, they are a part of the environment that usually goes unnoticed. They become background noise, often literally, to the more “important” stimuli that occupy our attention. Birdwatching encourages you to slow down and be more aware of your surroundings, all the things you miss in your hurried life. Focusing on the world of the winged almost becomes a meditation, and like meditation, bird watching has been scientifically proven to decreases stress and improve well-being.
Antelope Island’s atypical ecosystem includes a herd of bison and lots of biting gnats.
While identifying birds is a satisfying part of birdwatching, it isn’t compulsory for enjoyment of this interest. The habits of birds and the motivations behind those habits are what it is all about, labeling matters less than perceiving. You may not know if you are looking at a house finch or a barn sparrow, but you can still wonder about the purpose of its calls, modes of movement, social behaviors, and feather patterns.
In springtime, many birds stop at the Great Salt Lake, the biggest saline lake in the entire Western Hemisphere and the largest lake west of the Mississippi, during their annual migration. It is critical to birds’ yearly travels because it is the greatest (pun totally intended) body of inland water on the Pacific Flyway, a major north-south migratory path. Like this unique body of water, the Great Salt Lake Bird Festival is fairly remarkable.
This might be an Anna’s hummingbird. However, it is nearly as plausible that it is not.
We attended two field trips at the festival this year, one in Croydon and one on Antelope Island. Over decades, a family in Croydon has turned a section of their expansive backyard into a bird metropolis. A number of species are attracted to the seeds, fruit, and nectar offered. We noted these birds for over an hour and discussed their habits with a group of like-minded eyewitnesses.
Antelope Island, the largest of the Great Salt Lake’s islands, is home to a sizeable population of burrowing owls. Burrowing owls, unlike other owls, are often active during the day, and incidentally, they are also small, fluffy, and adorable. During our field trip, we spotted many, along with a family of great horned owls.
This fluffy owlet was just weeks old and mamma didn’t appreciate our presence.
Curiosity is one of my constants. Slowing down, on the other hand, is a characteristic I struggle mastering. Still, next spring, you are likely to find Jason and me at the Great Salt Lake Bird Festival again concentrating on the layers of feathery drama around us and practicing our appreciation of the moments.
While Sedona, famous for its dramatic red rocks and spiritual vortexes, was our base for the last leg of our trip, the string of national monuments we hit undoubtedly overshadowed it in appeal. As soon as we left the Grand Canyon, we started our monument circuit beginning with Walnut Canyon and Sunset Crater Volcano National Monuments. Located just half an hour from each other, these two spots felt worlds and eons apart.
Walnut Canyon is a 400-foot-deep, 20-mile-long gully that was home to a community of Ancestral Puebloans for about 125 years almost 1000 years ago. Although they departed mysteriously, they left behind 80 structures comprised of 300 rooms in the steep canyon walls. You can take a path halfway down the canyon and see these dwellings up close. The buildings in Walnut Canyon may not be as complex as those in places like Mesa Verde but being among them provides a greater connection to the past than just gazing from afar. This ravine radiates long memory, making it my favorite stop of our whole trip. One of the rangers mentioned that they’d had the option of changing the monument’s title to include “cliff dwellings” in its name, but their parking wasn’t adequate to accommodate the increase in visitors that would result. So, while “cliff dwellings” still isn’t on Walnut Canyon’s brochure, that’s exactly what it is.
Walnut Canyon was looted and wrecked from the late 1800s until it was declared a national monument in 1915.
Did you know that Northern Arizona’s San Francisco Volcanic Field has produced over 600 volcanoes? Sunset Crater Volcano, which is the youngest volcano in the field, erupted 900 years ago. It became a national monument back in 1930 thanks to activists petitioning for its permanent protection after a movie studio planned on blowing a significant portion of it away to simulate an avalanche in a film no one remembers now. President Hoover agreed that this cinder cone and its lava remnants should be preserved, and the monument was created. We checked out its brittle and contorted environment after Walnut Canyon and wandered the A’a, Lava Flow, Bonito Vista, and Lenox Crater Trails. No need to be impressed, completing all those treks required barely over three miles of hiking.
Lava flowed slow and cooled fast transforming into the jagged basalt found around Sunset Crater.
The next day, we headed south from Sedona on the Redrock Scenic Byway for, you guessed it, more national monuments. We explored Montezuma Castle and Montezuma Well, which are technically both part of Montezuma Castle National Monument. In case you are wondering, the names are completely wrong since Montezuma hadn’t even lived yet when these villages were active, but that’s what you get when you let Europeans name somebody else’s stuff.
This is what remains of Lenox Crater, a 250-foot-high cinder cone that formed hundreds of thousands of years ago.I’d take tranquil outlooks over the most popular attractions any day.
Montezuma Castle is a five-story structure built between 1100 and 1300 by Ancestral Puebloans. To preserve this cliff dwelling, tourists haven’t been allowed to walk through it since 1951, but that doesn’t keep the throngs from taking a look. For some reason, the short trail below this building was more congested than those at any of the other national monuments we visited on our trip.
It’s estimated that Montezuma Castle could have sheltered up to 35 people in its 20 rooms 100 feet from the ground.
Montezuma Well, while not as flashy as Montezuma Castle, had fewer guests and greater distinction. Montezuma Well is a mysterious desert spring that remains filled even during droughts and outputs 1.6 million gallons of water every day. Many Indigenous Tribes consider it sacred or even the site where human beings first emerged into this world. Its depth is unknown even after years of research as a baffling layer of fluidized sand 55 feet down obscures the bottom, which is at least another 65 feet deeper. Montezuma Well contains 80 times the levels of carbon dioxide normally found in water, making it uninhabitable to fish. What creatures might appreciate these strange and sour waters? Leeches, water scorpions, and amphipods mostly. Five species in its basin are found nowhere else on Earth.
Montezuma Well, an enigmatic limestone sink, is filled with thousands of leeches and is sacred to a number of Tribes.
For the last day of our vacation, Jason and I chose to break from our norm and do some hiking that didn’t involve a national monument. Many of Sedona’s most popular paths are so packed police must constantly enforce parking limits at their trailheads. And forget about finding a clear shot for a picture, you might have to throw a hiker or two off a ridge to get one. Therefore, we decided to enjoy the area’s famous red rock on a not-too-popular path. We did a five-mile loop in the Secret Mountain Wilderness that incorporated the Soldier Pass, Cibola Pass, and Brins Mesa Trails. We ran into quite a few people for a mile or so span of Soldier Pass but saw next to no one the rest of the time. Why so many in that section? The Devil’s Kitchen Sinkhole, the Seven Sacred Pools, and the Soldier Pass Cave/Arches were the reasons for that human excess. Did they warrant the crowds? Sort of.
The Devil’s Kitchen first broke the surface in the 1880s and expanded by nearly half in 1989.
The Devil’s Kitchen Sinkhole is rather cool. In the 1880s, a 200 sq. ft. underground cavern about 666 feet below the surface, which had formed from water slowly dissolving rock, collapsed and caused a cascade of disintegration all the way up to the surface. Since then, more stone chunks have fallen suddenly into this pit increasing its size by more than 40%. Today it is 150 x 92 feet wide and 40-60 feet deep, and it’s not done expanding. Scientists have been monitoring it for decades and have discovered that its cracks are getting longer and broader. It’s just a matter of time until the Devil remodels his kitchen and installs a doublewide oven, integrated range hood, and bay window.
The Seven Sacred Pools, the next attraction drawing the mobs, are a series of circular hollows carved out of sandstone by an intermittent stream. These were completely underwhelming. I still can’t fathom why they are so hyped up. Maybe they are more striking when the stream is flowing? It seems more likely that their recognition is a bit of Instagram trending gone awry.
The trail offshoot that leads to the cave is a bit hard to follow. Clearly, judging from the numbers in the cave, people figure it out.
The final curiosity bringing the masses to this trail was the Soldier Pass Cave/Arches. It is an opening in the rockface with a second level that includes an arch window. You can scramble up a short rocky incline and access the hidden ledges of its second story. Those ledges do have a substantial gap between them, so the top floor may not be ideal for the height concerned. Since this cavity is unusual, it’s probably worth a visit. However, we found it too packed to be thoroughly enjoyable.
We had to wait for a sizeable group to leave the cave before there was even room for us to enter.
Past the cave, we saw only a handful of people the rest of our miles back, which gave us plenty of opportunities to take in the scenery unhindered and bestow amazing names like The Devil’s Sock Puppet and Jabba the Rock on the strange stone formations we encountered.
On the Brins Mesa portion of our hike, we experienced the solitude we coveted.
What were our thoughts on Sedona? It is beautiful, but it’s certainly a victim of its own success. The traffic was horrible and constantly backed up. It was hard to find parking at the trailheads, and we didn’t even attempt to go to the most popular ones. I’d take somewhere slightly less scenic but also less peopled over Sedona anytime. Plus, I’d say it’s overrated. Moab easily has Sedona beat on both scale and quantity of the natural attractions in its proximity. We wouldn’t be opposed to stopping in Sedona again sometime, but I doubt we would pick it as our primary destination due to its busyness.
The Grand Canyon may have been our reason for traveling to Arizona, but, like Sedona, it probably won’t be what brings us back. Although we enjoyed every section of this trip, the secluded places and still moments were the highlights, along with the treehouse pie of course.
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