Blanding and Natural Bridges National Monument

After a refreshing night's sleep, in spite of the booming thunderstorm, we left Dalton Springs, continuing down the other side of the mountain in to Monticello, then south on 191 to Blanding. Blanding is in San Juan County. In the 2000 census the population was 3,162, making it the most populated city in San Juan County. Does that tell you a little something about this part of the state? Let's just say, it's not crowded here!

First stop – Edge of the Cedars State Park and Museum. This museum is definitely worth stopping for. We've seen so many museums in our travels that we've become a bit jaded, but museum is a real experience,. There are several unusual features: one is the beautifully painted rock art murals on every available blank wall. They have the largest pottery collection in the southwest, and some very rare and ancient Pueblo artifacts.

The facility is also a research center, and much of the resource material, particularly the pottery, is displayed in a glass enclosure so the public can enjoy it, as well as being able to access images and information stored in a computer available right next to the display. There’s a restored ruin with a kiva (underground ceremonial chamber) outside, which visitors can enter, and a beautiful vista of the area that once housed several Pueblo families. Down the slope from the restored kiva is an astronomical observation tube sculpture. It's designed, as some rock art is, to project light in certain places on the designs in the tube, indicating specific events like an equinox.

We decided we’d better stock up on provisions in Blanding since it would be about a week before we hit another town with a real grocery store. In this case, provisions included fuel and water as most of the camping areas in this part of the state don’t have water available, or limit campers to only a few gallons. The first gas station we check in with was out of diesel! So we tried another and were successful with fuel as well as being directed to the RV park next door where we filled up with water.

Well stocked, we left hwy. 191 just south of Blanding, going west on hwy 95, to Natural Bridges National Monument.

The visitor's center in the park is almost totally solar powered. In 1980 a solar power system was installed that for a time supplied all their power needs.  It now provides 90%, with generators providing back-up power. The visitor's center is the only place to get water, and they strictly limit amounts.

We knew the park had a campground, and one web site we checked said “26 feet” limit, which usually means the RV, and we can usually fudge a little and fit in smaller spaces. In this case we discovered, it means the total unit. As our trailer alone is 30 feet, even new math wasn’t going to wedge us into a site. Each of the spaces has a huge boulder placed at the back of it, so there's no letting the bumper end hang over the pad at all. The campground is small, and the drive has tight curves, definitely for the tent camper types.

The visitor’s center staff said we could leave the RV in the parking lot while we drove the loop, so that’s what we did. Dogs aren’t allowed on the trails, and since Molly hates traveling in the truck (you’d think she’d be used to it by now!) we left her in the trailer so she could nap. With time included for hopping out to take pictures and some short hikes to viewpoints, the nine mile loop takes about three hours. There were longer trails down to the bottom of the bridges that would have been nice, if we’d had time and it hadn’t been so hot!

Unlike the red sandstone formations in Arches National Park, which were formed by wind and other kinds of erosion, these white sandstone bridges were formed by water erosion (that’s the difference between the two terms, "arch" and "bridge"). The river rushing through the canyon eventually carved tight loops, as the canyon deepened the river broke broke through at the narrow points of the loops, at the level of the softer layers, straightening out the river and causing the formation of a bridge in the more durable sandstone of the upper layers.

This is a different type of sandstone than we saw in Arches, but this also breaks off in curved shapes, leaving caves and shelters which the Ancient Pueblo’s took advantage of. One of the short trails leads to a viewpoint of the Horse Collar cliff dwelling on the other side of the river. ‘Definitely worth the effort of a short hike! For one thing, usually you are looking up at the cliff dwellings. This is one of the few instances when you can look down on them, which is a different perspective all together.

Back at he visitor’s center we hitched up again and headed for the “overflow camping” area. It’s really just a graveled area with a few places opened up back in the trees, no restrooms or water. Considering the view and privacy we had, we felt this was an improvement over the crowded little campground.

There’s no cell service in the park, or even very near it, but we were able to catch a signal out on the highway.  It's a challenge keeping this blog updated when we can't get on the Internet, so it's catch-up time when we do finally get connected.

Check out more photos of Edge of the Cedars State Park here, and Natural Bridges here.