Today was another fairly early start to beat the afternoon heat. It was 79 degrees when we started before 9am -- and 91 degrees 3 hours later when we finished (and 100+ later in the afternoon!) The hike is 4+ miles round trip and traverses the beautiful Negro Bill Canyon and then a side canyon to the natural bridge. William Granstaff, for whom the canyon is named, settled in the Moab area in 1877 and was one of the first non-Native Americans to live here.
The hike is on Bureau of Land Management land and they are waging battle with the invasive Tamarisk, which has displaced native vegetation on 1.6 million acres of our western lands. After 20 years of study, various agencies have imported Tamarisk leaf beetles to defoliate the plants without affecting any other plant or animal species. I read that a large tamarisk plant can have a root system 100 feet deep and can consume thousands of gallons of river water daily! Below shows the successful result of the battle in one section of this canyon...
There are about 8 easy creek crossings on the hike...
Morning Glory Natural Bridge is 243 feet in length, making it the sixth longest rock span in the country. The pool below it somewhat reminds me of Morning Glory Pool in Yellowstone's Old Faithful area, making me wonder if that accounts for the bridge's name. The bridge is adjacent to the nearby cliff face but is only connected to the mountain on the 2 sides (you can see light between the bridge and the cliff.)
We saw people atop the bridge, and then 10 minutes later they began rappelling down the cliff face and joined us on the ground as seen here. (They were with an outfitter and they drove and hiked up top to get to the cliff.)
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