Kachina Bridge lies between Sipapu Bridge to the north and Owachomo Bridge to the south in Natural Bridges National Monument. Kachina is a Hopi word that refers to spiritual characters – Hopi Kachina dolls are made to represent one of the specific spirits. The span of Kachina Bridge has been reported by Wilbur and Shelley to be ~192 ft.
The image above was recorded on 2/14/2009 at about 14:00 MST (UTC-7) using the Nikon D700 and the AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED lens at 24mm. The exposure was f/16 at 1/200s with an ISO of 200. White balance was set using the WhiBal card, except that instead of the indicated tint of -14 (color temperature 5700 in ACR5.2) I used -4 to prevent the sky and snow from becoming too cyan (green).
The bridge was named for the rock art that adorns the eastern and northeastern faces of its base, and a false color image of a portion of the Kachina Bridge pictography is shown below. Hand prints are a common signature element of rock art in the region. This image was recorded in the summer of 2006 using the Nikon D70s with the AF-S Zoom-NIKKOR 18-70 f/3.5-4.5 IF-ED lens.
Tags: Cedar Mesa, hand print, Kachina, natural bridges, Natural Bridges NM, pictograph, rock art, Utah
