A Guide to
Natural Bridges
National Monument,
Utah
book designed and produced by visual communication center inc. denver, colorado
Published by the Canyonlands Natural History Association, an independent, non-profit corporation organized to complement the educational and environmental programs of the National Park Service.
Visitor Center
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to Natural BridgesNational Monument. We hope youcan take the time to enjoy a relaxed,leisurely visit to the area and that thisGuide will help you to do so. If youare like most visitors, you came herespecifically to see the three greatbridges. If that is all that you want todo, you can get through the area inless than two hours.
We suggest, however, that you planon spending more time here (if that’spossible in your situation). There aremore things here to see and do, andmore ways to look at the bridges, thanyou may have realized. You haveinvested time and money to get hereand you will gain a better return onthose investments if you can take a bitmore time to visit the Monument.
As you drive along the road, youwill occasionally find small parkingareas with numbered posts that looklike this:
The numbers on the posts refer tonumbered sections of this Guide, andeach section starts off something likethis:
4 1.7 (4.8) Meander Viewpoint
In the above example 4. is thestop number; this is the fourth stopon the trip, 1.7 is the distance (miles)from the previous stop, (4.8) is themileage from the start of trip at theVisitor Center, and boldface wordsare the name of the stop.
Some sites are not described in theGuide; there are parking placeswithout numbered posts. There arescenic views or other points of interestat these places, but we thought we’dleave some sites for you to “do yourown thing,” if you wish.
At any stop, numbered or not, youmust exercise care for your own andyour children’s safety and you must bereasonable in your use of the park.There are many unfenced cliffs youcan fall off, rocks you can trip over,and other natural hazards that couldinjure or kill you. We will remind younow and then about them, but wecan’t protect you from every hazard.You have to do your part, too. Beingreasonable in using the park involvesthings like not throwing rocks off cliffs(there may be someone below you),not entering or climbing on prehistoricruins, not defacing things, and stufflike that.
Actually, if you and the Monumentare both undamaged by your visit, weshould all be very pleased that youchose to come here today.
Your visit to the bridges reallybegins in the Visitor Center. If youlook over the exhibits, attend the slideprogram, and ask the InformationDesk Ran