One of the prettiest and least-traveled highways in southern Utah, Hwy-95 runs for over a hundred miles southeast from Capitol Reef, through dozens of red-rock canyons and across the Dirt Devil and Colorado rivers, before topping out on the sagebrush plains of San Juan County. En route it gives access to the marvellous collection of sandstone spans at NATURAL BRIDGES NATIONAL MONUMENT , forty miles west of US-191. Three canyons come together here, and at each junction the streams that carved them have also formed sandstone bridges. The largest, Sipapu Bridge , is 268ft across at its base and over 200ft high, and can be seen from the nine-mile paved road that loops through the monument; hike less than a mile down into the canyon for a closer look. Kachina Bridge , the next along the road, is nearly as high but twice as thick, and has Ancestral Puebloan pictographs at its base. The oldest, slimmest and most fragile bridge - Owachomo , a mile and a half up Armstrong Canyon - spans 180ft but is only nine feet thick at its thinnest point. A strenuous eight-mile trail along the canyon bottom leads past all three bridges.

Admission to the monument is $6 per vehicle. The visitor center (summer daily 8am-6pm; rest of year daily 8am-4.30pm; tel 435/692-1234, ), four miles off Hwy-95, has free trail guides and a slide show explaining how the bridges are formed, as well as a brief introduction to the Ancestral Puebloan sites. Camping is allowed only in the small campground ($10) near the visitor center, which also has the only drinkable water in the monument.

Natural Bridges National Monument

• Natural Bridges National Monument

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