The strange thing about Natural Bridges is how quiet it is. Three great sandstone spans, Sipapu, Kachina and Owachomo, arch across dry canyon floors a short distance off Highway 95, in a corner of Utah that most people drive past on the way to somewhere with a more famous name. President Theodore Roosevelt made this Utah's first national monument in 1908, and the monument has stayed small, sparsely visited and unspoilt ever since. The bridges were carved by running water, not by wind, which is easy to forget when the creek beds are bone dry.
For a rider the one-way loop road is a pleasant detour, with short walks to overlooks, though the real ride is the highway on either side. Highway 95 crosses Cedar Mesa here, rising among pinyon and juniper to a high, cool plateau, with long, graceful curves and wide views to the Abajo Mountains and, farther off, the twin ears of the Bears Ears buttes. Heading east toward Blanding the road descends through slickrock canyons with a few tight bends. Heading west it drops toward Lake Powell. The surface is good, the traffic light, and the main hazards are livestock on unfenced stretches, crosswinds, and the occasional rock fallen from a cut.
The place is also rich in human history. Ancestral Puebloan people lived in these canyons for centuries, and the names Sipapu and Kachina come from Hopi tradition, with sipapu referring to the place of emergence from an earlier world. Rock art and cliff dwellings are scattered across Cedar Mesa, and you should treat all of it with care: do not touch the rock art and stay out of ruins. The monument is also an International Dark Sky Park, recognised in 2007 as the first of its kind, and on a clear night the Milky Way is startling.
Blanding is the nearest proper town to the east, with petrol and motels, and Bluff is another good base; Hanksville is the other direction and far. Spring and autumn are lovely, summer mornings are fine, and afternoon thunderstorms can fill the dry washes with sudden floods.