Otho Natural Bridge, Mill Creek Hike Moab, Utah Sand Flats Recreation Area
- peteuga
- Jan 2, 2022
- 7 min read
Updated: Mar 27
Otho Natural Bridge is a must-see destination that truly comes to life in person, as pictures simply can't capture its landform's magnificence. The bridge itself is only part of the experience; the breathtaking scenery of the Mill Creek Wilderness area on the way to the bridge is equally remarkable.
During this trip, I had been staying at our 10A7 Moab Vacation Rental Condo for about a week, enjoying several excellent hikes. However, I was determined to find that one signature hike to make the trip truly remarkable. I came across a few online posts about the Otho Bridge, but details about the hike itself or the hike's length were scarce. I discovered that most people had accessed Otho Bridge as a round trip hike, starting either from downstream on Mill Creek or upstream from Sand Flats Road. It did not appear from my online searches that anyone had visited Otho Bridge as part of a through hike. After completing my research and feeling confident in my plan, I decided to have my wife drop me off on Sand Flats Road so I could hike through to the Mill Creek day use area on the edge of town.
If you are only interested in bagging the bridge and nothing more, I would recommend starting from Sand Flats Road and hiking down into Mill Creek Canyon from upstream of the natural bridge. If you have a capable vehicle, you can save 0.6 miles of walking each way by following an old Jeep road to the edge of Mill Creek Canyon and wilderness area boundary. The vistas as one nears the edge of the canyon are awesome, there is one huge amphitheater shaped arch that is forming in a giant sandstone fin.
The next point of interest is the overlook into Mill Creek Canyon. Spend a little time here and try to work out the lay of the land. Having an idea of the landscape will help you with your descent into the Mill Creek Canyon. The overlook will be the last place you are on a trail for a while. Once you start down the canyon wall, there will be no trail, and you will mostly be scambling over rocks. To be honest, there really isn’t a trail for the next few miles. With no cairns, it is difficult to tell what is a hiker-made trail and what is an animal trail. Try to set a goal while you are on top of the mesa of where you want to end up, this will help guide you into the canyon.
To your right, there will be a sandstone shelf; get on it and follow it around. A huge sandstone dome that kind of looks like three monsters fighting to get out of the ground will come into view and walk toward them. This is where I made my first major mistake: I turned down the canyon too soon and got punched out on the outcropping shown in the image above and was forced to backtrack. Look for the fin with the towers at the end, you will want to walk fully around that fin before dropping into the canyon, knowing this shortcut will save you a lot of time.
Notice that at no point have I mentioned following a trail. There are faint paths here and there but nothing that makes you think, "Awe, this is the way." Once I climbed down to the canyon floor, I thought the route finding would become more straightforward- wrong! Now you are dealing with cow paths going every which way. The poor cows must have also been lost, as they are not supposed to be in Mill Creek Wilderness Area. Just keep going downstream as best you can, all the while keeping an eye out for a canyon on your left. You will know it’s the right canyon as you will start to see a more defined trail going upstream.
As you go deeper into Otho Bridge side canyon, the trees start to become much larger. Also, the canyon begins to get more and more narrower. When I saw this I started to think the bridge was just going to be wedged into the back of the canyon against the canyon wall like nearby Morning Glory Bridge. To my surprise just before the back of the canyon is reached, the walls open up and you are greeted with a huge arch forming on the left wall.
This huge, forming, alcove arch is very magnificent to look at in its own right. However impressive this arch may be, it pales in comparison to the site you will see when you turn around and get your first view of the large Otho Natural Bridge. The bridge acts as a gateway into a lovely oasis in thehttp://area.One desert, it almost seems like Mother Nature’s patio. When I got back behind Otho Bridge, I had to sit down for a few minutes so I could take in such a wonderful place. By this time, you have likely been hiking for an hour or two, and this unique natural area makes a great lunch stop. You will likely be the only person here, so take time to enjoy the peace and quiet of the area. One thing that I found fascinating about the bridge was the bedding planes of the sandstone. Most arches around Moab have a uniform smoothness about them. However, on Otho, there is one group of rocks sticking out of the upstream side of the rock that simply don’t look like they belong. How did this crossbedded rock form in an otherwise smooth rock formation?
After spending a little time exploring the area along with some of the alcoves in the area, I returned to the main canyon. The next mile or two was the most frustrating part of the entire hike. Hiking with no trail is one thing, hiking with cow paths in every direction is another. After what seemed like a hundred wrong turns I was able to make steady progress downstream.
This might sound like I’m giving the hike a bad name, but I’m not. The canyon is just so lovely. Every direction you look, you are greeted with fanciable rock formations. If you let your imagination take off, you can make out all types of interesting designs in the rocks. When my daughter was younger, we spent much of our time in Moab searching for people and creatures frozen in the rocks.
Eventually, all of the random paths will start to form into one obvious hiking trail. The single trail is such a relief. I bet if the trail were better, this hike would be nearly as popular as the hike to Coronah Arch along the Colorado River.
The next point of interest I came to was Cliffhanger Arch. At 40 feet, this arch was very impressive by itself. Normally, I feel drawn to arches and would climb up the side of the canyon to get to an arch like this one. However, by this point, I was starting to feel the hike, and all of the wrong turns had added up. I decided to keep going and only view the arch from a distance, which was likely the best viewpoint anyway.
Once past the arch, the trail starts to take shape and becomes easier to follow. I wonder if some hike up to this Cliffhanger Arch and, due to its large size, mistake it for Otho Bridge? Now that I had a trail to follow, I was able to do a better job scanning the canyon walls for rock art. The first I found was a group of pictograph handprints painted in red in an alcove above the trail. Next, I was greeted by a panel of goats, a common site in the Moab area. If you like this area and would like to see other pictographs and petroglyphs, you might want to check out Right Fork Mill Creek Canyon. Combining both hikes would be too much for one day.
Now you can tell the trail is getting a lot more use. Somehow, I followed a trail and lead way up high on the edge of the canyon. Down below I could see a lovely cascade, it looked like a great place to enjoy Mill Creek away from the crowds that can form at the waterfall on a warm day.
I really felt I had gone the wrong way and was going to have to backtrack yet again. However, to my surprise, I found a path down from the bench back to the main trail. That’s right, I said trail; there was actually a trail in the canyon now. By now, I was just above the falls, and I could tell I was in the heavily used area around Mill Creek Falls that most tourists visit. There are several good rock art panels below the falls with the best being on some boulders immediately upstream of where Right Fork and Left Fork split. The boulder is actually only one of the most impressive sites in the Moab region. Due to the boulders' angle, most visitors to the waller fall walk right past this beautiful sit and never notice the images. Also, just as you exit the canyon near the end of the hike at the old power station, there is a large rock art panel on the far wall.
In the end, I would rate this as a 4-star hike. If there was a better trail, I might give it 5 stars. Well, maybe I should give it 5 stars since there was no trail. If you are wanting to hike this trail, know that it is 9 miles as described here. Many of these miles are bushwhacking miles that are unlevel at best and are very physically draining. I would only recommend this for strong hikers. Don’t drag an intermediate hiker or reluctant friend along. It’s not for kids and your marriage may depend on you not doing this hike as a couple.
Well, after reading this far, you know you want to explore Moab now. If that is the case, we hope you will consider us for your vacation lodging. You might be surprised to find that a vacation rental is reasonably priced as compared to a hotel room and offers all the conveniences of home.
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