August 28-29, 2012 – Natural Bridges National Monument, UT
We left Knotty Pine Park on Tuesday morning and headed south. We took Hwy. 24 south of I-70 which runs west of Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. This was a beautiful drive through and area we had not seen before. We spent the night in Blanding, UT and on Wednesday drove out to Natural Bridges National Monument. In 1883 a prospector looking for gold went into White Canyon and discovered three natural bridges that the water had sculpted from stone. In 1904 National Geographic Magazine publicized the bridges, and in 1908 President Theodore Roosevelt established Natural Bridges National Monument, creating Utah’s first National Park System area. We visited the Visitors Center where we learned about how the bridges were formed and how bridges differ from arches. Natural bridges are formed by the erosive action of moving water and arches are formed by other erosive forces, mainly frost action and seeping moisture. ...