Natural Bridges National Monument, located about 45 minutes west of Blanding, Utah, is home to three remarkable bridges carved over the years by the power of flash flood runoff water. The bridges, named Sipapu "The Place of Emergence", Kachina "Dancer", and Owachomo "Rock Mounds" stand as testaments to the awesome power of erosion. Sipapu is the second largest natural bridge in the world, second to Rainbow Bridge.   A bridge forms when water cuts through the side of a thin canyon wall at at bend. Once through, the water will flow through the cutoff instead of around the bend. Evidence suggests that two additional bridges once existed nearby, but have since collapsed. For more information click here

President Theodore Roosevelt designated the bridges and the surrounding area as Utah's first National Monument on April 16th, 1908. Aside from being beautiful during the day, Natural Bridges has one of the darkest skies in the United States. In 2007, the International Dark-Sky Association designated Natural Bridges as the first International Dark-Sky Park, owed to the absence of light pollution in the area. For more information click here

Along the hiking trails leading to the base of each bridge you can also find ruins of ancient Anasazi dwellings. The Anasazi people abandoned the sites around 700 years ago, but many are intact and well-preserved, and can be reached on foot.