Even though there is still plenty for us to see in Moab, we wanted to stretch our legs a little so opted to head south toward Blanding, Utah to visit some parks near there. Our plan was to go to Natural Bridges National Monument and Hovenweep National Monument. We changed our plans slightly after a visit to the Blanding Visitor Center – a place we had stopped before with good results. We were directed to Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum instead of Hovenweep because the parks are similar but Cedars was closer. As promised the museum did have a lot of artifacts, but there were not many ruins. If you enjoy the outdoors as much as I do, a trip to Hovenweep would offer more outside ruins to explore.
Natural Bridges was a delight with a 9 mile driving loop that took us past all three bridges. We enjoyed the use of their lovely picnic area and even took a short hike down underneath the last arch. After our Natural Bridges hike we wanted to enjoy a couple of beautiful roads so we started with the Moki Dugway, took in a quick stop at Goosenecks State Park, then drove through Valley of the Gods (a very long dirt road that the Prius really enjoyed :-). Back to Bluff, Utah (established in 950 AD – check out the picture in the video below) for a delicious Shrimp Taco dinner at the Twin Rocks Cafe. This was an all day adventure with little time to hike, but spectacular views well worth the trip.
