3 October 2015, Saturday

It was a clear and mostly quiet night last night. The wind rattled the
fly of the tent until about 9:00. Then all was calm. I woke around 6
this morning with a bright light shining in the door of the tent. I
thought it was the moon until I looked out and saw that it was Venus.

We get out our pies for breakfast soon after the sun is up. Although
we’ve eaten many pears, the box still looks almost full. I slice
three more to go with our pie and coffee. The silence continues. We
eat facing away from the sun because it is so bright. As we are
finishing up, the sky begins to get dark again. Turning around, we
realize the sun has moved behind the tall chimney to the east of our
camp. There is quite a temperature difference in the shadow. As I
write, the sun climbs high enough to top the chimney and it is warm
again.

We are soon packed and on the road for the Hite ranger station where we
refill our water bottles. Then we head south on Utah 95 towards
Natural Bridges National Monument, yet another site protected by
Teddy Roosevelt. We arrive just before noon. We watch a brief video
on how the bridges formed. We learn that local Native American people
call the bridges “under the belly of the horse.”  It is easy to
see why when observing them.

We arrive at the first overlook for Sipapu which means “place of
emergence.” The name is based on the origin story of the Hopi people.
There is a great view of the bridge from the lookout and a path that
drops 500 feet in just over half a mile to the bridge itself. We
decide to descend. It is yet another challenge for me, walking down
steep steps, metal stairs hanging from the cliff face, slick rock and
ladders, but I get down despite my palpitations. It is worth the
walk. It is a beautiful place with lush vegetation, especially
considering it’s in the middle of the desert. Water seeps into the
sandstone layers from above and then reaches less permeable layers
below forcing it to move sideways to seeps and springs. The soil here
is also special. It is cryptobiotic, with organisms within that help
to retain moisture and add nutrients to the soil.

At the bottom of the canyon is a path that leads to the next bridge and
some ancient ruins. We begin to follow it, but realize after about a
mile that it is a much longer hike than we have time or supplies for.
We turn around and climb back to the overlook where we have apples,
cheese and crackers for lunch.

Then we drive to the next overlook for Kachina Bridge. Kachina is named
for rock art symbols commonly used on Kachina dolls. We did not find
the symbols on the bridge when we hiked down. This hike again had
steep stairs, handrails along slick rock and ladders. Kachina Bridge
is younger than Sipapo. It has not been carved away as much by the
water. We ascend back to the canyon rim while chatting with a couple
from Tennessee. This is their third cross-country trip. They tell us
not to miss the national parks in Colorado or Craters of the Moon National
Monument in Idaho.

The last bridge on the loop is Owachomo which means “rock mound.”
Unfortunately we have run out of time and can only take photos from
the rim. We must move on to Goose Neck State Park where we will camp
for the night. Our drive takes us from a high plateau at over 6000 ft
elevation to the valley floor far below. Suddenly a very safe, rolling
country road turns to gravel and, over the course of two and a half miles, takes us
down to the valley floor through a series of tight switchbacks, over
a 10% grade. The speed limit on the hairpin turns is 5 mph. I switch
places with O and let him drive. My palms are sweaty. Look up Moki
Dugway and you may find pictures of this stretch of road on line.

Soon we are down in the valley and shortly after, we arrive at
Goosenecks. It is now near sunset so we quickly cook up a
dinner of spicy beans and tomatoes and have it with red wine and more
pears, crackers and cheese.

Two of the pears from the box have mouse nibbles. I forgot to mention
that earlier in the day, when we reached for our supply of grapes, we
found the ziplock bag had been chewed through. One of our pears at
breakfast had suspiciously fresh-looking nibbles on it as well.
The rascal also chewed the silicone mouthpiece of my water bottle!
The question is… is the critter still hiding in the car, or did
it jump out when we had the car doors open at breakfast this morning.
We have placed the now fermenting grapes in a new ziplock bag in a
bowl on the front seat of the car. We dispose of the nibbled pears. We will see what happens overnight. If there is further nibbling
we will have to empty the entire car in the morning.