Boat trip to Rainbow Bridge National Monument

Note: this is one of a series of posts that deal with topics covered before in the Blog, but now we have the pictures processed to prove it!

September 6, 2008
Rainbow Bridge National Monument, Utah

Here are another set of photos from one of our excursions while we were at Lake Powell. We booked ourselves on the 1/2 day boat tour "up river" to Rainbow Bridge National Monument. The Monument is contained within the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, and the only practical way to get there is by boat. The "overland route" is a hike of about 17 miles each way across the Navajo Reservation (guide required). The boat trip is about 50 miles each way but takes two hours as opposed to two days. Needless to say, we never even considered the hike.

The boat trip was nice and the hike about 3/4 of a mile from the boat to the namesake arch was easy. It was interesting to see how the NPS has constructed a flexible floating dock to accommodate visitors to the Monument. Since the arch is in what's called a "side canyon" off the Lake, the distance from the water's edge to the arch can vary considerably depending on the Lake's water level. When the Lake is full, the water is almost up to the bottom of the arch. With the lake level down, the dock extends over 1/4 of a mile, allowing for safe navigation and easy access. It was quite interesting to see the 65' tour boat navigate through the side canyon that was probably 100' or less wide at points. Fortunately, the high cliffs keep the winds relatively calm at the water level, so we weren't really in any danger of a crash.

I hiked most of the way to the arch ("bridge" is really a misnomer, since there isn't really a way to cross anything on it), and stayed back of the other tourists to try to get a photo or two without people in the foreground. I was a little disappointed at the behavior of some people on the trip; since this is a sacred site to the Navajo, Ute, and several other tribes, you're encouraged to "look but not touch" and to avoid the area immediately under the arch. Unfortunately, a few people seem to have taken this as a challenge. It would have been nice to leave them behind...

In any event, click here for some photos from this excursion. In the overall scheme of things we were happy that we did this trip but enjoyed the river rafting and Antelope Canyon (pictures still to come!) tours better, so our recommendation to anyone with limited time in the area would focus on being selective.