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Rainbow Bridge National Monument, Utah
Author: Sbuckley (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported)
Rainbow Bridge National Monument is a nature site preserving the highest natural bridge in the United States. It is located in San Juan County, Utah.
At 290 feet (88 m) in height, Rainbow Bridge is taller than Kolob Arch and Landscape Arch, both also located in Utah, though the other two are longer. It is however much lower than the Shipton's Arch in China, at 1,200 feet (370 m) and the Aloba Arch in Chad, which is 394 feet (120 m) above ground.
Rainbow Bridge is however one of the most easily accessed large arches in the world. Tours to view the natural bridge is through a two-hour boat ride on Lake Powell from Page in Arizona, followed by a mile-long walk from the park wharf at Bridge Canyon.
Rainbow Bridge, Utah
Author: Jason Hickey (Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic)
Rainbow Bridge is made of sandstone. It was formed at the end of the Triassic and Jurassic periods. Extreme fluctuations in climate created layers of sandstone with differeing levels of hardness. During the Jurassic period, the area was submerged by the sea. Later, as the sea dropped away, the Colorado River carved windy bends on the softer soil away from the solid sandstone that became Rainbow Bridge.
Rainbow Bridge was regarded as a sacred object by the early Native Americans, such as the Ancient Pueblo, the Paiute and the Navajo. The earliest European to have seen it were wandering trappers, prospectors and cowboys, in the early part of the 19th century. Serious exploration of the area only got started in the early 20th century, with a team from the University of Utah headed by dean Byron Cummings, and a government surveyor team by WB Douglass.
President William Howard Taft arrived at Rainbow Bridge, and established it as a national monument on 30 May, 1910. The site remains sacred to the various Native American groups, such as the Navajo, Hopi, San Juan Southern Paiute, Kaibab Paiute and the White Mesa Ute. As such, visitors to the site are asked to respect its significance and not to approach or walk under it.
Visiting Rainbow Bridge National Monument, Utah
Rainbow Bridge is best reached by boat across Lake Powell from Page, Arizona. See location on map. Tours are available all year round. There are no entrance fees for Rainbow Bridge National Monument, aside from tour charges. There is however an entrance fee to the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, from which visitors take the boat to Rainbow Bridge.Other sites in Utah with natural bridges and arches include Arches National Park and Natural Bridges National Monument.
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