Utah Road Trip: Natural Bridges National Monument (Day 8/10)

Trip Date: Dec 26, 2017

Sipapu Bridge

A friend had pointed out to me that Natural Bridges National Monument was one of the first places in the country to be designated as having especially dark skies.  I was looking forward to trying my hand at taking pictures of the milky way like those here.  I set my alarm for 3AM after the moon had set (ok fine, I just drank a lot of water and woke up naturally...)  but when I looked for the Milky Way I couldn't find it.  I still don't really understand this as I've seen it weakly even in the Front Range in Colorado (which is close to all of the light pollution from the Denver metro area etc).  Maybe it had something to do with the fact that it was a nearly full moon? 

In any case, I was still glad I went as there were some impressive geological and archeological features.  

Indian hunting blind?

I was surprised this ladder was part of the official NPS trail (it was less rickety than it looks).

Horse Collar Ruin

Kachina Bridge

Owochomo Bridge

The rest of this day was spent driving to and exploring the Needles District of Canyonlands NP.  Those pictures are lumped in the next post.