Bull Canyon and Gemini Bridges

Yesterday might be described as "the best laid plans...often go awry." We were up and out fairly early (for people who are on vacation) in order to have our ATV tires swapped out for new ones. We arrived at the motorcycle shop (since this is the place where one gets ATV tires) on time for our 8:00 a.m. appointment. The shop was still closed, and this didn't seem like a good sign. Clearly no one was particularly enthusiastic about changing our tires. Around 8:10 a couple of guys showed up, but they couldn't find the tires. The original guy we spoke with was unavailable by phone, and so we left, expecting a phone call at some point. Oh well. It isn't critical that the tires get switched out, but there's no time like the present, right?

Okay, well on to Item 2 on our agenda, which was to get breakfast at the Jailhouse Cafe. We parked and walked about a half block. Along our way, we passed by this "sculpture" (for lack of a better word).

It was a camera all made up of discarded wrenches, c-clamps, and all kinds of other hardware. Pretty clever.

Just around the corner was the Jailhouse Cafe. We've been there when it's been terribly busy. Since our last visit, they've opened up a second patio seating area, and we were seated right away.

Here's a little blurb from the menu about the restaurant and its name.

We each ordered the Southwest Eggs Benedict (like regular Eggs Benedict, only the hollandaise had an extra bit of cayenne to spice it up). It was served up in record time. While we were enjoying our breakfast, I looked up the hours for the quilt shop. It was to open soon, only the website said it was closed on 9/23...the date yesterday. No explanation. Just closed. Bummer. Okay, so we crossed Item 3 off our agenda, and then returned to our campsite, ATV's in tow. After jockeying things around to fit into our too-short site, we decided to get back in bed for a while. Two hours of milling around is exhausting, you know.

Mike tried calling the tire guy, only to get a recorded message that their store was closed on Mondays. Weird, since we had an appointment, and we'd just been there. At some point, he was able to talk to the guy, who admitted he'd simply neglected to order the tires. He was going to check with the distributor to see how fast he could have them. There were several back-and-forths about this over the course of the day. As it stands, they are supposed to arrive around noon today, and so maybe it will happen. And if it doesn't, oh well.

So, we ended up riding yesterday after all, and what a ride it was. We rode the Bull Canyon trail out to Gemini Bridges, which are natural bridges. After leaving the staging area, we rode up high above US Hwy 191 below. In the distance, we could see Arches National Park.

Continuing on, we rode a fairly easy trail through an impressive canyon. Just off center and to the lower left in the image below, you can see Mike riding ahead of me for scale.

We rode quite some distance into a box canyon. From there, we could see the north side of Canyonlands National Park. What an incredible landscape! I took picture after picture trying to get it in the best light. The image below was the best of the bunch.

Our guide book told us we could see the natural bridges from below and above. From the canyon, we rode to a trailhead. It was about a half mile to where we could see them. No ATV's here. We needed to get off and walk.

So, we left our mechanical horses tied up at the hitching post...

and hiked a short distance into the box canyon.

It was an easy trail with rock walls towering on both sides of us. And check out the little tree at the top of the cliff in the image below. Growing there against all odds. The dark patina on the wall in the center of the image is known as desert varnish.

Also, we passed patches of prickly pear cactus...this one with a little prickly pear on it.

We walked to the end of the canyon in order to see the bridges. We first noticed the hole high on the cliff in the image below. It turned out not to be a bridge, but just a scooped out area on the wall.

We took shelter under an overhang, sat for a while, eating our Clif bars, and drinking some water. Looking in the other direction, we could see a natural bridge on the opposite side. It's just below center in the image below.

And we were expecting more than one bridge since the name of this place was "Gemini Bridges." We noticed a very large boulder leaning against the rock wall, and wondered if it counted as a bridge. Bridge or not, it was impressive. In the image below, you can see Mike standing there for scale.

Standing under it and looking up, we could see daylight between the rocks, and so that hardly qualified as a natural bridge. Its size was impressive enough, however. In the image below, I was standing with the large boulder to my back (at the top of the image).

Walking through to the other side was a large field of boulders that had fallen from the cliff above at some point in time.

Okay, so we hiked back out to where we'd left the ATV's and then rode on down the trail to where we could get above the natural bridges and look down. When we reached the point where we needed to hike some, the landscape looked like this:

It wasn't a difficult hike, and it was short, but it still had us scrambling over some rocks. Fortunately, there was someone already out looking at it, and he pointed to where the bridge was located.

If you look just to the left of center in the image below, you can see the hole where the bridge is.

Walking to the edge, we looked down to the canyon floor.

Mike walked out onto the bridge for scale. The area where he was walking was about five or six feet in width, and heck, even I could walk across it.

And the plural nature of "Gemini Bridges" was made clear to us here. There are actually two bridges side by side, separated by a crack in the rock about 3-4 feet wide.

Looking down, we could see the canyon floor below.

In this next image, you can see the overhang below (just above and to the right of center), where we stopped and ate our Clif bars earlier. Just below that is the hiking trail we went in on.

And from there, we rode back to the staging area. It was kind of interesting to be so high above the highway. On the ride back, we looked up at the red cliff walls. One would never know there's a narrow road near the top.

All-in-all, our ride was about 24 miles yesterday. 

When we got back to the camper, we were exhausted. We took naps, and then took showers. Our plan for later was to have dinner at the local Moab Brewery. We've eaten there each time we've visited Moab, and it gets busier every time. The wait last night was nearly an hour, and so we bagged that idea and went down the street for Mexican food. It was delicious, and it turned out to be the better choice. And that was our day. 

We really are taking today off from riding. We're still hopeful we'll get our new tires this afternoon. The quilt shop opens at 9:30, and so we'll try again to pay them a visit. We need to make a trip to the grocery store, and I should probably do some laundry. Sometimes we get so busy sight-seeing when we're traveling, these off days to take care of "life" stuff can be a welcome relief. A vacation from our vacation, you might say. Of course, I'll be right back here tomorrow with the nitty gritty details.