Yesterday’s caching trip was a success. Mark and I visited two existing caches (one of which I’d found before), and placed a new one. The natural bridge that we hiked to was indeed worth the effort. When we started our hike, the ground was nothing but shale, and I couldn’t see how a decent natural bridge could exist in that type of rock. As we climbed higher up, however, the canyons started cutting deeper to reveal a massive layer of Navajo sandstone under the shale. When we reached the bridge, I was amazed by how cool it was.
We spent almost as much time hiking around the bridge, taking pictures and finding a place for the cache, as we did hiking to and from the bridge. After getting back to the truck, we drove further south and stopped at an old abandoned ranch. There, we found another cache, then relaxed for a bit and ate lunch. After that, we headed even farther south and briefly explored some old uranium mines in the area. I think I was intrigued by this area the most out of all the places we’d visited during the day, and I want to go back another day to explore some more. There were dozens of old mines, most of which appeared to be strip mines, which is a method I’ve never seen to mine uranium. There was that same dry, pungent odor hanging in the air that you normally smell around uranium mines, but it was everywhere. Even driving along the road, far from any of the mine openings, we would occasionally catch a whiff. I’m not sure what that smell is, but I hope it’s not bad for me…