Natural Bridges: Between two Bridges

Between the Bridges: Kachina to Sipapu

Though it was still midsummer, the weather had cooled a little with the summer thunderstorms to make a trip to Natural Bridges National Monument in southeast Utah reasonable. Rather than walk down and back up to each of the three large bridges, I wanted to take the loop trail through Armstrong Canyon between two of them.

I parked at the trail head for Sipapu Bridge, the first stop on the Bridge View Drive, but instead of going down I walked the 1.8 mile mesa top trail, in about 40 minutes, through the Pinon Juniper forest to the trail head for Kachina Bridge, then went down the steep steps and ladders to the bridge. So far so good.

The recent rains that have cooled things off have also left some puddles and mud in the canyon bottom and washed out the trail segments somewhat.

About two miles along the three mile distance to Sipapu Bridge, Deer Canyon enters Armstrong Canyon from the west. If you're not alert you might take the wrong route like I did. I ended up doing some accidental canyoneering before I figured out something was wrong.

Luckily, I escaped with only minor injuries. A puddle that I hoped would be eight inches deep turned out to be eight feet deep, giving me the benefit of some evaporative cooling for the rest of the hike.
Back on the right track, I finally arrived at Sipapu Bridge and made it out of the canyon after a 4.5 hour hike, probably 1.5 hours longer than it needed to be.