Summer Tales – Dead Horse Point State Park and Canyonlands NP

I am recapping the three weeks of fun that I had with my family this summer.
See all related posts under the category:  summer tales.

We spent Sunday (7/31) checking out more of the area around Moab,UT. It’s an amazing landscape with so much to see. The first stop on our agenda was at the  Dead Horse Point State Park.
We paid a quick visit to the Visitors Center, which features a dramatic overlook of Canyonlands NP and then drove over to the Dead Horse Point Overlook and its beautiful view of the meandering Colorado River.
According to legend, cowboys used the point as a natural corral in the 19th century. After the corral was abandoned, some horses were left behind. The gate was supposedly left open so the horses could return to the open range, but for some unknown reason, the horses remained on the Point. There they died of thirst within sight of the Colorado River, 2,000 feet below.

If you look closely, the white rocks on the left in the picture resemble the shape of a horse. Do you see it?

After we had enjoyed the view for quite a while, we made our way to the adjacent Canyonlands National Park.

We stopped at the Visitors Center again (where I couldn’t resist and bought a geology book – what can I say? I am a nerd!) and then took a short hike to yet another natural arch – Mesa Arch. The view was stunningly beautiful.

More hiking ensued when we arrived at our next stop: “Upheaval Dome”, a huge crater in the center of the park. There were two theories about the origin of the upheaval. One theory was that the upheaval was a salt dome, another theory was that the upheaval were the remnants of a deeply eroded meteorite impact crater. Latest studies support the latter.

The crater is 5km in diameter and estimated to be less than 170 million years old.

It was a fun hike up the steep slopes.

By the time we returned back to our car,  it was after lunch time and we had a late lunch in the shaded picnic area.

We decided to spend the rest of the afternoon back in Arches National Park, where we visited some arches that we missed the day before: “North and South Windows”, “Turret Arch” und dem “Double Arch”.

That’s Basti up there :)

I can only repeat myself – the National Parks are simply breath-taking. I wish we had had more time to explore more, but we were going to leave the next morning to drive south.

We ended yet another amazing day with another delicious dinner at Eddie McStiff’s Restaurant.

…stay tuned.