Day 10 - Dead Horse State Park and Island in the Sky.

Note:  We traveled 460 miles yesterday from Zion to Moab.

We had breakfast at the hotel (Comfort Suites) and headed back north to the cutoff (highway 313) to Canyonlands National Park. The road climbed through very picturesque red hills to a plateau even with the top of the hills.  We took the left fork to Dead Horse State Park.

We arrived just before 9am and paid our $10 fee at the Visitor Center.  The ranger told us the best view was at the point a mile and half down the road, so we headed out there and parked.  The view of the canyon carved out by the Colorado river was spectacular.  The colors were great and the river made many twists and turns in front of us (goosenecks).

Dead Horse State Park has an interesting history.  The natural features were such that early folks used the area as a natural coral for horses.  There is a very narrow "neck" along the rim of the canyon that widens out into a wider area that is surrounded by shear cliffs (and island).  If you run the horses onto the island and block off the neck, they are effectively caged.  At one point the horses were corralled and the people never came back to open the fence.... A sad state of affairs that gave rise to the name of the State Park.

There is a rim trail that we hiked starting to the right along the canyon with some spectacular views.  We passed the "neck" where we saw a twisted branch fence on the side of the road that may have been part of the fence used to keep in the horses.  The neck was the width of the road with about a half width on each side.  We had to walk next to the road to get through here (on both sides).

We continues several miles along a slick rock trail looking for rock cairns (I call them rock pagodas) that are used to mark the trail (since you are on stone and the trail is often not obvious).

We strayed from the path several times but always eventually found a marker.  We took several half mile side trails to view points along the canyon.  We could see Canyonlands Park across the canyon.

Finally we arrived at the Visitor Center again for a break.  Then we took the shorter trail along the east rim out to the point again.

We could see the neck and island aspect of the point easier from this side.

There was also a very blue pool of water which we discovered was a desalination facility used to get the salt out of the land here.  Evidently they put die into the water which makes it more scenic.  This area is called the mini Grand Canyon.  The cliffs are only half the height of the Grand Canyon but the scenery is similar.  I even saw some similar looking rock formations.  This is a very beautiful park.

We made it back to the point and our car and drove to the Visitor Center for a break, then headed back to 313 and on to Canyonlands National Park Island in the Sky.  This park also has a neck and an island surrounded by cliffs, but no horse history that I know of.

The gate was closed with a sign to go on through and the Visitors Center was closed, but we stopped there at a picnic area and had some lunch out of our traveling food bag.

Then we drove out to the Grand View area (about 12 miles). This area is on the island and looks down at the canyon carved by the Colorado river and the Needles area of the park.  We took the trail (2 miles round trip) to the view point where you can see the Colorado and Green river meet up.  Then walking along the rim of the Green River canyon.

When we got back to the car we drove down the Green River side to a view point and then north to Upheaval Dome, a strange feature that is perhaps a meteor crater.

We climbed up the trail to the viewpoint.  This is Saturday and the weather is great so we encountered quite a group of people at the viewpoint.

On our way out of the park, we stopped at the trail to Mesa Arch.  We followed the loop slick rock trail and were reward with a great view of the arch and preview of the arches we will see in Arches National Park tomorrow.  The inside of the arch provided a nice view of the canyon and the La Salle Mountains in the background.

We stopped again at the visitor center for a break and a last view of the canyon made more colorful by dusk.  We stopped at a La Salle Mountain viewpoint on our way back down 313 as it wound bad down to Moab.

A full and exhausting day with lots of hiking and sites.