Owachomo Bridge is the southern most of the major bridges in Natural Bridges National Monument. Owachomo is the Hopi word for ‘rock mound’, and the bridge takes its name from the sandstone feature that lies along the top strata near the center left.
The image above was recorded on 2/14/2009 at 14:30 MST (UTC-7)with the Nikon D700 and the AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED at 14mm. Exposure was f/16 at 1/160s with an ISO of 200. White balance was set at Daylight, but was subsequently corrected to a color temperature of 5000 and tint of -6. The final image is a crop of the original 14mm, and I would most probably reduce the height by another 10-20% for a final print version.
Of the three bridges in the Monument, Owachomo was the only one we could visit directly on this trip. The path underneath the bridge was nearly free of snow and ice. Incidentally, it would be possible to access Kachina and Sipapu Bridges by following the Loop Trail from here even when snow and ice block the more direct routes down to those bridges. The distance along the Loop Trail from Owachomo Bridge to Sipapu Bridge and back is approximately 8.6 miles. For more information on Sipapu and other natural bridges and arches, check out the web pages of the The Natural Arch and Bridge Society and UtahArches.com.
Tags: Add new tag, Cedar Mesa, natural bridges, Natural Bridges NM, Owachomo Bridge, Utah
The white balance appears to be dead on. Very nice image with nice whites and blues. Do people ever walk across those arches?
Hi B,
Thanks for the note. Yep, the HP got the light just right on that one!
Yeah, unfortunately some folks apparently imagine that the coolest thing they can do is to impress their girlfriends* by walking on top of an arch. People travel for thousands of miles to get to a place only to find some dork in a Joe’s Feed & Seed hat pretending to do goofy ballet moves on top of the span. STG (swear to God), every time we get to Mesa Arch there is literally a line of knuckleheads waiting to strut around on top of the arch. ‘Hey Dude, did you know that this is a sacred place for us secular humanists’ – stop walking on the altar dammit. Fortunately, the Park Service strictly forbids walking or climbing on Owachomo Arch.
Okay, rant over.
* Girlfriends only. Wives will gut you for such nonsense.