Sipapu

Exit78 Photo of the Day #32

Replete with great views and natural wonders, Utah has a lot of popular destinations to visit.  Natural Bridges National Monument, Utah’s first National Park Service property, is a bit out of the way, with far fewer visitors than the state’s better known attractions. With three large natural bridges and an ancestral Puebloan ruin, the monument is well worth a visit.

Sipapu Natural Bridge Trail, Natural Bridges National Monument, Utah, September 30, 2011 (Pentax K-r)

Our hike to and through Sipapu Natural Bridge was quite memorable.  The largest and most spectacular of the monument’s three bridges, with a span of 268 feet, it ranks as the fourth largest natural arch in the world.

Sipapu is a Hopi word for a small hole or indentation in the floor of a kiva or pithouse. Kivas were used by the Ancestral Puebloans and continue to be used by modern-day Puebloans. The sipapu symbolizes the portal through which their ancient ancestors first emerged to enter the present world.

Moreover, The Hopi Sacred Stories explain that this is the hole in which the first peoples of this world entered. As “They” stepped outside of the “Sipapu”, they changed from lizard-like beings into homo sapiens, or human form. It is from this point that the “First Peoples” of the Earth began to divide and separate, creating differing tribes along the first journeys of the first humans. (Source: Wikipedia)

Series notes:

• The photos in this series are randomly selected from a batch of photos specifically “curated” for Exit78 Photo of the Day.
• Each photo in this series is an “original work” – a copyright term – of Michael Goad.