Rainbow Bridge, 1988

In 1988, I went on a backpacking trip with my father to Rainbow Bridge. My father's directions to the trail head were "Drive to Navajo Mountain and turn left." He'd been there before, so we had no problems finding the trail head. We had a four wheel drive vehicle, and at times you felt like 6 wheels would be more reasonable.

We backpacked in one day, and then took a day hike to Rainbow Bridge the next day, and a second day hike up another side canyon the next day. We then backpacked out.

After backpacking for one day and day hiking a second day, we arrived at the bridge. You can also take a boat to the bridge, since Lake Powell has flooded the creek below the bridge, allowing lazy tourists access to the bridge, and likely hastening the bridge's collapse. After having hiked a day and a half through the desert, the most entertaining comment we overheard one of the tourists make at the dock near the bridge was

I'm not hiking to the bridge - a quarter mile is too far to walk!