This national monument is famous for three impressive natural bridges spanning White Canyon. A 9-mile loop road connects the tree, which have Hopi names: Kachina, a representation of Hopi gods; Owachomo, a flat-rock mound; and Sipapu, the gateway to this world from the other world below. Dwelling sites of Ancestral Puebloans have been found at the monument, and it is easy to see why they wanted to live here.

The trail down to White Canyon leads through a desert garden. A stream runs through the bottom of the canyon, and tracks of coyote, ringtail cat, deer, and other small game line its banks. Horsecollar Ruin, an Ancestral Puebloan site, is accessible from the trail between Sipapu and Kachina bridges.

President Theodore Roosevelt established the national monument in 1908 after National Geographic magazine publicized the three great bridges. Unfortunately, fame also brought vandalism, as it does all too often today.