#12 Dead Horse Point & Canyonlands 7-26-08

This day we spent a lot of time in the car. First we drove up to Dead Horse Point State Park and then on to Canyonlands. On the overlook at Dead Horse Point we looked down on the horseshoe bend of the Colorado River that we had been on the day before. We did see a jet boat on the river while we were looking, but it was too far away for my little camera to get a decent shot of it.

Horseshoe bend on the Colorado River. Most of the river at this time of the year is very shallow. Our guide the day before told us that most places you could wade across. They are really funny when they tell us about the life vests. They show us where they are kept. Tell us if anything happens to take one and hold it over you head and walk out of the river!

If you look at the "white" rock formation it looks like a horse. The story about Dead Horse Point was very interesting. The point is separated from the rest of the mesa by a narrow neck of land and the in the old days the cowboys used to round up the wild mustangs and head them onto the point, then fence the neck so the horses couldn't get out. Then they will cull out the bad ones and keep the good ones to ride. Evidently, so the story goes, some of the horses went over the edge and died. Thus the outline of the "dead" horse.

This is the Green River cutting its way through the canyons. We are on a big Mesa overlooking the canyons. The difference between a Mesa and A butte is--a Mesa is wider then it is tall, and a butte is taller than it is wide. Just a little tidbit of information we learned on this trip.

This is a very, very steep four wheel trail down the mesa to the canyon below. It was originally a wild animal path and was widened by the ranchers, then improved again by the miners for uranium. Now it is used for four wheelers and very ambitious hikers!

We were out on a point overlooking the canyons. That is as close as I got to the edge. There wasn't any guard rails and it was very, very deep.

These two rocks look like ships. They were named the Merimack and the Monitor after the real ships.

Even in the Canyonlands National park there was a beautiful arch that we could climb right up to and sit under. The view beyond the arch was spectacular. The rock you see in front of the arch is called "slick" rock. I guess when it get wet, it is slick. We didn't have any rain while we were hiking, so I can't be sure!

Now Moab (and other parts of Utah) have done it right. The parking places at the grocery store that are close to the door are reserved for us old folks. No wonder we ended up staying over a week. They even gave discounts at the gas station if you bought your groceries at their market. Very cool! The gasoline prices were 4.09.9 without the discount, or 4.06.9 with the discount. Better then CA.