Mexican Hat, Moki Dugway, Natural Bridges NM

The wind virtually carried us out of Monument Valley and before I could appreciate the terrain we had just experienced we were approaching the town of Mexican Hat. Now I thought this would be a rock resembling the said town, but no it turned out to be a mega ridge coloured in shades of grey and purple, circling around for miles and miles and you could imagine it was a sombrero. As if having the mighty San Juan River bisecting it wasn't enough to take in.

It was now time for Dude to have an adventure and ignoring all the huge yellow road signs advising RV's not recommended we promptly headed up the Moki Dugway, a short 1,100 foot rise on gravel with tight switchbacks....it was a bonus to get a great view of the terrrain below and it took us directly to Natural Bridges NM.

Feeling energetic we decided to hike the Canyon loop to see the 3 Natural Bridges. We just didn't want to be caught up in the throng of tourists driving around the viewpoints taking photos in a rush to get to their next destination. At first we started bushwahcking until we eventually found somewhat of a trail ...with annual flooding it's difficult to maintain a permanent trail. We followed an intermitent creek, passing refreshing groves of cottonwood trees and huge rock formations, zigzagging from the right to the left bank and scambling up the canyon walls and over rocks. The highligh of course was seeing the bridges. I really enjoyed this hike. 

Sipapu Bridge in the centre



Owachomo Bridge

Creek and interesting rock formations