Sipapu Bridge View
Sipapu Bridge is a natural bridge or arch located in the Natural Bridges National Monument in the US state of Utah. The bridge spans White Canyon.
Sipapu has a span of 68.58m, making it the seventh-longest natural arch in the world. Based on specific criteria that separate natural arches from bridges, Sipapu is ranked as the second-longest natural bridge after the more famous Rainbow Bridge National Monument, also in Utah.
Sipapu can be viewed from a roadside viewpoint but is best viewed from a short hiking trail that leads down to its base from the canyon rim. This view is from a viewpoint on that trail down to the canyon. A closer view from further down the hiking trail can be found as the next image in my Utah album.
The name of the arch comes from the Hopi word sipapu, a word for a symbolic portal from which the first human ancestors emerged. Sipapu means "the place of emergence" in Hopi legends.
Natural Bridges National Monument is located about 80 km north-west of the Four Corners boundary of south-east Utah, at the junction of White Canyon and Armstrong Canyon, part of the Colorado River drainage.
The three bridges in the park were originally called Edwin, Augusta and Caroline after early explorers or their relatives. However, in 1909 President William Taft gave them their current Hopi Indian names of are named Owachomo, Sipapu (the largest), and Kachina.
A natural bridge is formed through erosion by water flowing in the stream bed of the canyon. During periods of flash floods, particularly, the stream undercuts the walls of rock that separate the meanders (or 'goosenecks') of the stream, until the rock wall within the meander is undercut and the meander is cut off; the new streambed then flows underneath the bridge. Eventually, as erosion and gravity enlarge the bridge's opening, the bridge collapses under its own weight. There is evidence of at least two collapsed natural bridges within the Monument.
A prospector, Cass Hite, is the first known Western to see the bridges, in 1883. In 1904, the National Geographic Magazine publicised their existence and the area was designated a National Monument on 16 April 1908 by President Theodore Roosevelt. It was Utah's first National Monument.
The Monument was nearly inaccessible for many decades (a three-day horseback ride from Blanding, UT., the nearest settlement), as reflected by the visitor log kept by the Monument's superintendents. The park received little visitation until after the uranium boom of the 1950s, which resulted in the creation of new roads in the area, including modern-day Utah State Route 95, which was paved in 1976.
The Monument's elevation ranges up to 2,000m. Its vegetation is predominantly pinyon-juniper forest, with grass and shrubs (brittle brush, Mormon tea, sage, etc.) typical of high-elevation Utah desert. In the canyons, where there is more water and seasonal streams, riparian desert plants, such as willow, oak and cottonwood trees, thrive. Some of those different ranges can be clearly seen above.
Scanned a negative.
Sipapu Bridge View
Sipapu Bridge is a natural bridge or arch located in the Natural Bridges National Monument in the US state of Utah. The bridge spans White Canyon.
Sipapu has a span of 68.58m, making it the seventh-longest natural arch in the world. Based on specific criteria that separate natural arches from bridges, Sipapu is ranked as the second-longest natural bridge after the more famous Rainbow Bridge National Monument, also in Utah.
Sipapu can be viewed from a roadside viewpoint but is best viewed from a short hiking trail that leads down to its base from the canyon rim. This view is from a viewpoint on that trail down to the canyon. A closer view from further down the hiking trail can be found as the next image in my Utah album.
The name of the arch comes from the Hopi word sipapu, a word for a symbolic portal from which the first human ancestors emerged. Sipapu means "the place of emergence" in Hopi legends.
Natural Bridges National Monument is located about 80 km north-west of the Four Corners boundary of south-east Utah, at the junction of White Canyon and Armstrong Canyon, part of the Colorado River drainage.
The three bridges in the park were originally called Edwin, Augusta and Caroline after early explorers or their relatives. However, in 1909 President William Taft gave them their current Hopi Indian names of are named Owachomo, Sipapu (the largest), and Kachina.
A natural bridge is formed through erosion by water flowing in the stream bed of the canyon. During periods of flash floods, particularly, the stream undercuts the walls of rock that separate the meanders (or 'goosenecks') of the stream, until the rock wall within the meander is undercut and the meander is cut off; the new streambed then flows underneath the bridge. Eventually, as erosion and gravity enlarge the bridge's opening, the bridge collapses under its own weight. There is evidence of at least two collapsed natural bridges within the Monument.
A prospector, Cass Hite, is the first known Western to see the bridges, in 1883. In 1904, the National Geographic Magazine publicised their existence and the area was designated a National Monument on 16 April 1908 by President Theodore Roosevelt. It was Utah's first National Monument.
The Monument was nearly inaccessible for many decades (a three-day horseback ride from Blanding, UT., the nearest settlement), as reflected by the visitor log kept by the Monument's superintendents. The park received little visitation until after the uranium boom of the 1950s, which resulted in the creation of new roads in the area, including modern-day Utah State Route 95, which was paved in 1976.
The Monument's elevation ranges up to 2,000m. Its vegetation is predominantly pinyon-juniper forest, with grass and shrubs (brittle brush, Mormon tea, sage, etc.) typical of high-elevation Utah desert. In the canyons, where there is more water and seasonal streams, riparian desert plants, such as willow, oak and cottonwood trees, thrive. Some of those different ranges can be clearly seen above.
Scanned a negative.