A hike into the wilderness.

Today we hike into the wilderness to see the Onyx Bridge.

Today, the plan is to hike another "Off the beaten path" hikes.  This one is about 4 miles round trip down a mesa, across the open "wilderness" area and washes, and up to an Onyx bridge.  The bridge is actually a large petrified log across a wash.  It should be a neat hike. Almost all of the hike is unmarked and requires the use of a compass and observing landmarks. Of course, we have our plan, backup plan, emergency plan, and our emergency backup plan just in case.

This is our view before starting the hike.  Far out in the distance is our destination just about in the very center of the picture.  Yes, it is a bit of a hike.

At the mid way point, it was surprising how far away we are from the starting point.

Yep, it looks like a wilderness.

We reached our turn from the open area to the wash where we will find the bridge. We are surrounded by petrified wood.

Hike up on the ridge and almost there.

Wow!

There were not many flowers but the ones I found were amazing.

We stopped at the “Painted Desert Inn” after our hike.  It was built in the 1920s as a small inn, cafe, and soda fountain. Originally, it was named the "Stone Tree House".  It was built using the local resources. Petrified wood!  No kidding.  They used petrified wood as the rock and then covered that with mud.

The Fred Harvey company took over management in the 1950's and had "Harvey Girls" oversee the property and work the cafe.

Inside, the building is restored and very nice.  The cafe was restored and had the original menus.  Several walls had murals painted by native american artists.

We ended the day with ice cream from the soda fountain looking out over the painted desert.