Crossing the bridge...

The Dead Horse Lookout was our first stop on this trip (click here to see - Late evening in Canyonland...) but not the only one on our plans. The next morning we continued towards Natural Bridges National Park. We've been to Utah before, but this park escaped our attention, so we decided to fix this and take a look. We started on the trail that runs along the edge of the canyon and just look at this view!

 

I know that no photo can capture the feeling of the canyon, bridge and surrounding hills. Let's move closer to the edge and look down. The canyon here curves and is deep. We stood there for a while and continued on our way, which began to slowly descend...

And soon we found the first bridge ;) It wasn't what we expected, but it was good :)

A few more turns of the trail and we got a really good view of another bridge. The wind and water created this natural wonder, and it was simply stunning.

Just look at this tree. Can you imagine the forces that caused the trunk to twist and turn so much? We knew the winds were crazy here, but we had no idea how crazy they were.

We still were far from reaching the bottom of the canyon and had a good opportunity to see it with all its twists and turns. I guess the weather affected not only the trees, but also the canyon was created by crazy natural forces and was far from straight...

Just a rock. Not the largest in the area, but one where a person can easily hide from the sun in its shadow.

All the trees there are real survivors. They fear nothing and can survive without anything to lay their roots through.

We were stunned to see the texture of the wall. It was incredibly cool and constantly changing.

We looked down the canyon and saw something in the shadow of a narrow cave...

It was hard to see, but when I zoomed in... I couldn't believe it... It was an ancient house! Horsecollar Ruin was located down the canyon. The ruin is well preserved and was inhabited by the Anasazy between A.D. 1050 and A.D. 1300. This site is unusual because it contains both round and square kivas (ceremonial chambers) representing two different architectural styles. The round kiva is associated with the Mesa Verde Anasazi of southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah while the square kiva is indicative of the Kayenta Anasazi of northern Arizona.

Pottery found at this site also reflects these different influences, indicating likely trading patterns. Horsecollar Ruin exhibits a strong Kayents tradition during the early period of occupation, with a Mesa Verde influence dominating the later period of use.

 

We didn't have a chance to go across the canyon and see the ruin. Instead we followed the changing rock texture and soon we found ourselves at the bottom of the canyon...

We continued on the trail and a few minutes later we found one of the largest bridges in the park.

It was big... no, it was huge!

By this time the sun had already risen into the sky and the temperature climbed up. This was to be expected because we were at the bottom of a narrow canyon where the hot air was trapped and created my toasty environment. It was at least 20 degrees hotter than on the edge where we started our adventure.

So we continued on the trail to see another bridge before turning back and heading to the car.

We saw these trees growing in the cracks between the rock all along the trail. These are real survivors, but not all of them will be able to live long. But it doesn't stop them from trying. What a spirit.

Click here to see what we discovered next - In the kingdom of sand...

The pictures were taken on May 25, 2012.