Kachina Bridge is a large natural arch located in Natural Bridges National Monument near

Blanding, Utah Blanding () () is a city in San Juan County, Utah, San Juan County, Utah, United States. The population was 3,394 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, making it the most populated city in San Juan County. It was settled in the late 19t ...

Background

The bridge has a width of 44 feet and a span of 210 feet, making it the widest girth in the park and one of the longest natural arches in the United States. It can be reached via a 1.4 mile round trip hike.

History

The area was first settled by early

Ancestral Pueblo The Ancestral Puebloans, also known as Ancestral Pueblo peoples or the Basketmaker-Pueblo culture, were an ancient Native American culture of Pueblo peoples spanning the present-day Four Corners region of the United States, comprising southeas ...

(Anasazi) cliff dwellers as early as early as 7500 BCE. The current name of the arch was given by government surveyor William Douglas. He based the name off the

petroglyphs A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...

and pictographs depicted on the base of the bridge, believing that the carved figures represented

Kachina A kachina (; Hopi language, Hopi: ''katsina'' , plural ''katsinim'' ) is a spirit being in the religious beliefs of the Pueblo people, Native Americans in the United States, Native American cultures located in the south-western part of the Unite ...

dancers. In July 1992, Approximately 4,000 tons of sandstone fell from the inside of the Kachina bridge, enlarging the opening considerably.

References

{{Utah-geo-stub Natural arches of San Juan County, Utah