Arrival Friday, July 31
163 Miles | 3 Hours
Trip notes: There is no data or phone reception at the Ute campgrounds and Mari has an important WebEx in the morning so we get a very early start and hit the road looking for 2 bars and LTE, eventually finding it in an open cow pasture by the entrance to an obscure state park, where we set up shop with Mari doing business with her AirPod Pros blocking out the noise of passing trucks by the road where there’s strong reception while Datta and Sibri are on their devices in the Airstream and Audi, looking out onto a nearby ramshackle horse pasture and subsistence farm whose occupants don’t come out all morning.
Datta gets back on the road while Mari clicks away at her emails and presentations. We book us a spot at the Westerner RV park for $35 per night in Monticello, which is a little under an hour away from our next scenic destination, Natural Bridges National Monument.
We pull into the Westerner as the sun is starting to set, finding ourselves in a dusty little park with a mixture of nightly and long-term occupants just off the highway. Sibri calls it perfectly asking “Wait, we’re camping by the side of the Road?”
Fortunately it’s just a 2-lane road with very little traffic but all the same we pick a space near the back that seems to offer a little extra buffer. We wake up next to a guy in an older RV with a large political flag waving and a handmade sign that says “Pancake and Sausage Breakfast $10". After breakfast the sign is replaced with one that reads “Ribeye steak dinner $10”, we realize we’ve set up next door to the camp cook.
Saturday morning we are greeted by the very friendly and talkative cat-loving camp host who shares tips on some nearby hidden trails and attractions that we can check out via the little hand drawn map he hands us. It marks locations of nearby dinosaur tracks and petroglyphs.
Along the way, we find a cool reservoir where multiple locals are boondocking and boating, and we explore the rough roads and hang out for awhile on the rocks checking out the sights.
When we do finally find the obscure dirt road on our host’s map we realize it would take all day to explore the various sights along it, so we turn around and head towards Natural Bridges, passing though sprawling valleys and mesas that are becoming more and more picturesque the closer we get to our destination.
It’s late afternoon when we pull into the central parking lot and ranger station to find the place completely deserted. As we drive the main loop, we are struck by the majestic landscape of what was the first national monument in Utah, and we enjoy the hike down into the first of the 3 giant bridges in total silence, accompanied only by the occasional vulture or cliff swallows that inhabit these canyon lands.
The trail is an artful compilation of carved sandstone steps and log ladders randomly marked by rocks and cairns with with a few steel staircases thrown in where the cliffs were too steep to traverse with primitive means. In all, the hike takes us down 1.5 miles and 500 feet. Sibri gets a little grumpy toward the end but makes it all the way down and back. Having the entire place to ourselves in total silence with only our voices echoing underscores the majestic presence of the soaring archways and towering canyon walls that rise above us.
We make it to the overlook points for the other two major bridges in time to catch the sunset, seeing only 2 other parties during our entire visit and feeling fortunate to be able to experience magic moments like this. We speak briefly to a native Hopi family who tell us about how badly Covid has impacted their livelihood in their tourist town, not too far away. I don't know if it's me (Mari) but I always sense a deep underlying sadness when I meet native Americans. I'm always intrigued and want to ask so many questions. We get back to our campsite long after the final ribeye dinner has been served and the place has settled down for the night.
Departure Sunday, August 2
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