Pics - Lake Powell to Natural Bridges

[alrock]

I went up to the NE end of Lake Powell this weekend to Hite UT to meet the gang from www.biketheusforms.org. I've got a family member in that group that is pedaling from Virginia to SF to raise money for MS.

We camped at the lake on Saturday night then my buddy Jason and I explored some back roads between Hite and Natural Bridges National Monument.

On the way to Hite the road had some ominous signs - kinda reminded me of Shafer Switchbacks in Moab. Because it had been storming, Jason made the comment that it would probably be lousy to have to face this kind of road in a thunderstorm.

For reference, before the above pic we took this one - where the heck does the road go? It disappears into the rock and climbs up to the top.

The beginning of the switchbacks

Getting some nice views

Rain in the distance

We got to the top safely and as we got closer to Lake Powell we saw that the streams were flowing due to the rain

Arrived at Lake Powell and set up camp. The ground was solid rock and you couldn't stake down the tents.

Lake Powell

The boat ramp at Hite. There used to a marina here but I think it closed in 2002 due to low water. My best guess is that the water used to be up to where the short bus is on the right. Walking the boat ramp you can see it was greatly extended once and once again it is too short.

Awoke to a great sunrise. The changing position of the sun led to some very different pics just a few minutes apart.

 

[alrock]

A camper airing out his tent to start the day

We did some research and found a sixty mile dirt road from the campsite to Natural Bridges National Park.

Canyons everywhere!

Jacob's Chair

Lots of different greenery

Deer!

We finally made it to Natural Bridges. Came close to not making it as the trail we picked was washed out and came to a dead end. It was bad enough that I almost put the truck on its side but good karma (we changed a flat for a woman the day before) came to our rescue.

Here's Sipapu Bridge. The Natural Bridges differ from the arches at Arches National Park as arches are formed primarily by wind and water erosion and natural bridges are formed by rivers and streams.

Kachina Bridge, towards the left center. This was formed as the stream formed one of those typical horseshoe bends that you seen in rivers and streams, but it eventually wore through in the middle and created this bridge.

Here's some of the other erosion. Check out the pocket of water and the hole that's been formed.

Owachomo Bridge. Harder to spot here - it is just above the center of the pic. It's a very narrow bridge

We were happy to have gotten some mud on the truck

We were also happy to have the rain wash off the mud, but were not enthused that the storm hit us as we started down those switchbacks from the first picture.

Lots of mini waterfalls from the storm

One benefit of the rain is that it took the dust out the air, leading to some better pics of the scenery. Mexican Hat Rock

Overall a great trip. 19 hours of driving in a 34 hour period but lots of fun and new scenery.

 

[3Hummers]

Cool pictures

 

[H3nightrod]

Wow great shots!!!!!!

I would love to do a run like this with my family one day.

 

[06 H3]

The scenery is awesome out there. Looks like a fun trip!

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

[is350]

those pictures are awesome, always wanted to do a trip to that area

 

[Bigunit]

Great pics! Beautiful area.

 

[cbetts]

Nice writeup Alex! It has been almost twenty years since I have been out in that area. I forgot how scenic it is there. Thanks for sharing!

 

[j3jackson]

Wow , great pics.

 

[yellowh3]

Wow...:thumbs:

 

[Zach]

Great pics. Looks like you had fun

 

[SC_Hummer_Guy]

These pics make me miss being out back home in NM. We don't have anything like that our here in SC! Beautiful pics, and looks like a great trip!

 

[f5moab]

Nice photos. It appears you went down Cedar Mesa from Natural Bridges, then down the Moki Dugway (Switchbacks) over to Mexican Hat?
Did you do the valley of the gods after dropping down from the Moki?

 

[alrock]

Nope, we pretty much beelined out of there to get back to PHX at a reasonable time. More pics are here and as they are in chronological order you can see what we did. http://alrock.smugmug.com/Places/Lake-Powell-to-Natural-Bridges/24192311_sbZHWD

 

[Trekker]

Great pics! I love and really miss that scenery!

 

[H3Hrly]

Great pics!!! Thx for sharing

 

[autumn walker]

Great pics! I wish we had terrain like that around here. That is exactly the type of wheeling I want to do - adventure / overland type stuff.

 

[Pappibri]

Beautiful pictures.. Thanks for sharing them... Love the scenery