THE GREAT RAINBOW NATURAL BRIDGE 
OF SOUTHERN UTAH* 
By JosepH E. Pocut, Unirep States Nationa, MusEum 
With Photographs by the Author 
EAR the southeast corner of 
N Utah, in a remote and well-nigh 
inaccessible part of the Navaho 
reservation now given over to the use of 
the Piutes, is situated a natural bridge, 
called by the Navahoes Nonnezoshe, the 
stone arch, by the Piutes Barohoim, the 
rainbow, which surpasses any structure 
of its kind known to man. Even the 
other great bridges of southern Utah, the 
Caroline, the Augusta, and the Edwin, 
known since 1902, are exceeded in size 
and beauty by the rainbow arch. Dis- 
covered but little over a year ago, it has 
thus far been visited by less than 25 
white men and described but once.+ 
Recently a United States Geological 
Survey party, consisting of H. E. Greg- 
Ob, 1 “change, john Wetherill Ke (© 
Heald, and the writer, stood upon the 
summit of Navaho Mountain and looked 
over a country of wildness and grandeur. 
Fifty miles to the north the graceful 
peaks of the Henry Mountains outlined 
themselves against the horizon; much 
nearer, the Colorado and San Juan 
rivers united in the midst of a tilted and 
disjointed table-land; to the west, the 
Colorado was already beginning to make 
that wonderful mile-deep gash so fitly 
called the Grand Canyon; while to the 
south was visible the even skyline formed 
by the extensive tops of Black and White 
mesas. ‘Turn in whatever direction one 
would, the scene was one of bewildering 
magnitude. 
Nearer at hand, surrounding the moun- 
tain like an island, surged a billowy sea 
of red sandstone, carved into fantastic, 
rounded, and oval masses, colossal in 
* Published by permission of the Director 
of the United States Geological Survey. 
+ Byron Cummings. The Great Natural 
Bridges of Utah. Nationa G£roCGRAPHIC 
MAGAZINE, v. 21 (1910), pages 157-167. 
size, between whose cross-bedded and 
swirling slopes wound deep and tortuous 
canyons. Hidden away in such a laby- 
rinth, it is not surprising that the bridge 
remained so long unknown. Yet it is 
only four miles distant in a northerly 
direction from the mountain’s summit, 
and is visible from this point as a tiny 
arch, provided one knows exactly where 
to look. Otherwise the eye may wander 
at will over this wilderness of rock with- 
out sighting its most interesting feature. 
Although so close at hand, this goal 
was only reached after two days’ time 
and a journey of 35 miles over a very 
indirect route. The mountain had to be 
descended to the south, a long detour 
made around its eastern flank, and a 
devious and winding course followed 
northward down the bridge canyon, over 
a trail ever difficult and ofttimes danger- 
ous. ‘The way led between lofty and 
perpendicular cliffs, towering to a sheer 
height of one-fifth of a mile, on whose 
vertical sides could now and then be 
descried the crumbling ruins of some 
ancient cliff-dwelling. 
In places the walls overhung to 
form vast semi-spherical chambers, large 
enough to shelter a cathedral, and in 
which a shout echoed and re-echoed 
many times; in other places the sides 
approached so closely that the only foot- 
hold was in the rocky bed of the small 
stream below, where one was forced to 
pick a precarious passage from boulder 
to boulder. 
After hours of laborious and intricate 
travel, a point was rounded and 500 
yards ahead a graceful arch was out- 
lined, beneath which the canyon and 
stream continued their flexuous partner- 
ship. ‘The first view of the bridge is 
minimized by the lofty walls beyond and 
