The lower elevation on Comb Ridge Road did not help our temperature situation. It was 19 degrees again when I got up this morning. And, because we were in the shadow of Comb Ridge, the sun did not start melting the ice off the windshield until we were about ready to leave.
We afforded ourselves the luxury of a hot shower since we knew there was water available in Bluff, just a short distance away. Rather than take the entire length of Comb Ridge Road, which we had considered, we came out the same way we came in, drove to Sand Island campground, and topped off our water supply. No telling when the next water may be available.
We drove north on 191 towards Blanding, then west on 95, stopping at the Butler Wash Ruins. This is an easy hike to some ruins which can be seen across a small canyon. There is supposed to be another trail here to another set of ruins, called the Upper Butler Wash Ruins. This was supposed to be a longer hike, about 45 minutes one-way, and the trail branched off from the Butler Wash Ruins trail. However, we could not find it. We searched for a while, going over the instructions several times, but had to admit defeat. On to the next destination.
Cave Towers is a set of ruins perched on the edge of Mule Canyon. The parking area is not accessible to RVs due to rocks and pits, so we parked by the entrance gate and hiked in. Like many of the other canyons here, Mule Canyon is beautiful in it own right, the ruins just give a specific destination. It would be fun to hike the whole canyon but you gotta stick to the established trails.
We also stopped briefly at Mule Canyon Kiva, a set of ruins close to the highway that is accessible by a short paved path.
Since we were already headed in that direction, we decided to go the extra distance to Natural Bridges National Monument. We were here as a family nineteen years ago so some of this was a bit of a repeat, although nineteen years does fog the memory somewhat. I had to look up in my pictures from 2003 which natural bridges we had hiked to with the boys, and discovered we had done both the Sipapu Bridge and the Kachina Bridge. Back then we had more energy so we hiked to the bottom of both and still had time to have the kids sketch some of what they had seen. Today we made it just to the viewpoint, one-third of the way down to Sipapu Bridge, and all the way to the bottom of the Kachina Bridge. It didn’t help that we arrived mid-afternoon, when the sun was already low in the sky. The days are considerably shorter this time of year, so with sunset at 5:15, that didn’t give us a whole lot of daylight.
David, in 2003, sketching one of the bridges
Josh, in 2003, climbing out of Sipapu Bridge
We made it to the third bridge, Owachomo Bridge, just after the sun set, and looked at it from the viewpoint by the road. I got a picture of the Bears Ears, still illuminated by the sunlight, while everything else was shrouded in shadow. We made dinner right in the parking area for this last bridge, and watched the darkness settle in.
We wanted to get to lower elevations again, although it probably won’t make much of a difference. The forecast for tonight is a low of 19 again. Could be another three-dog night. We drove back to Comb Wash Road, although this time we are on the north end, found a level spot, and parked for the night.
Deb discovered that the fridge was turned off when she went to retrieve our nightly dose of ice cream. Not sure how that happened. I turned it back on, but the ice cream was runny. It will take all night to re-freeze everything. At least it has help from the below-freezing outside temperature. What a bummer. We’ll have to keep a close eye on it for a while. Just one of those things that happens.
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