Moki Dugway, Natural Bridges and Blanding sites

Tuesday, October 22
Today we went to Natural Bridges National Monument. The shortest route and one that seemed to add a bit of adventure was to use Hwy 261. This road took us up a three mile gravel section of road called the Moki Dugway.

See the top of that ridge? Yep, we're going up there!

Here we go! The pavement ends.

A Dugway is defined as a road going through a high land form which is dug out of or excavated into the land form to build a road. The Moki Dugway was built in the 1950's as a route for ore trucks hauling uranium from Cedar Mesa at the top of the dugway to Mexican Hat for processing about 25 miles away. The Moki Dugway road clings to the side of a 1200 foot cliff. The road has 11% grades and the switchbacks seem to go on forever. The views are incredible......if you take the time to actually look and take your eyes off the road. I watched the dashcam video later and my hands were sweating just watching it! Thankfully my navigator took the time to snap some shots. We made it safely to the top and only met one vehicle that was on the way down.

Yikes! Yes, we drove up that!

I think the camera operator was a bit shaky by this time.

Driving under the rock overhang. Almost to the top.

At the top you are greeted by a different world. Grass, trees, and incredible scenery. Quite a contrast from the sand and rock where we started.

The road north from the Dugway was brand spanking new and a pleasure to drive. Next stop was Natural Bridges National Monument. The Visitor Center was closed today so admission was free. Being a National Park or Monument our annual America Parks Pass would have got us in free regardless. We buy the pass for $80 annually and is well worth it. Just our visit to Arches and Canyonlands NP would have costs us $30 per park. But I digress....on to Natural Bridges!

The attraction in this park are three natural bridges. There are also ruins of Puebloan civilization.

The Cottonwoods framed by the arch. Even though the stream below the arch is currently dry there is sufficient water flow to grow the trees.

There are also Puebloan ruins in the park as well.

This is Kachina Bridge. So pretty. 

Not the thin delicate arches of Arches NP. These will be here a lot longer.

This one is a bit thinner. Much redder stone in this one than the last two.

From the other side.

Those two peaks in the background are called Bears Ears. The one on the right is just over 9,000 feet.

After giving the the Park a good view we headed east over to Blanding. It's a pretty town with very good paved roads. Why is this a point of interest? Because I'm sure they pave their roads with fines from speeders! We've been through Blanding twice and each time we have seen more than one police radar patrol. The speed limit is 30 mph, so be warned. Slow down or help pave a road!!

Blanding has the Edge of the Cedars State Park and Museum. We went through the museum and looked over their vast collection of Anasazi and Puebloan artifacts. Out side their building is one of the historic ruins.

As we left the park this sign caught our eye. It describes the wagon trail taken by the pioneers that traveled to Bluff from northern Utah.

The remnants of the old wagon trail.

It must have been quite a trip.

Traveling through the beautiful over toward Blanding.

The Edge of the Cedars Museum in Blanding had some wonderful displays of Anasazi artifacts.

Many of the artifacts were saved from flooding when they built a nearby resevoir.

This is a ceremonial sash made from Mackaw feathers. This illustrates the trade movement between communities. Mackaw birds are found in Mexico. This sash is nearly a thousand years old.

Trade routes

Carving of a Kokopelli the fertility diety. You see these images in rock carvings around the Indigenous cultures.

On the museum grounds they had some Puebloan ruins.

You can climb down inside this Kiva (house).

Cozy inside. They had vents that let fresh air inside for the fire and smoke would go out the top.

Storage areas.

The ladder out. Wooden beams on the ceiling.

On the way out of town (at 30 mph, I might add) we turned down a short paved road to a set of other Puebloan ruins.

Seems like under every rock overhang you can find evidence of Puebloan construction.

These were across a small ravine. Maybe 200 yards away.

On the way out we found yet another natural wonder.

You can see the rock bridge in the top center of the frame.

On the way into Bluff  we stopped at the Navajo Twins rocks.

Back to Bluff in time for another great sunset.

Tomorrow, Wednesday we head to Four Corners and up to Cortez, CO.

.......and that was Our View From Here!