9/22 Dead Horse Point SP, Moab, UT

 I was here a few years ago, but just for one night, and at that time I decided I really needed to come back here again to do more exploring.  This place has some of the most impressive views of any state park I have ever been to. 

First, it is right next to Canyonlands National Park and very close to Arches National Park, so the scenery can't help but be spectacular.  The nearest town is Moab, and most of the year, especially the summer, it is extremely hot here.  Like way too hot for most people.  However, things are a little cooler here in late September. 

As you can see, it is a long drive across a slightly boring plain to get here.  I keep seeing cattle crossings, but no cattle.  

 It is hard to get a good photo of this, but supposedly the reason this point is named "Dead Horse" is that the early settlers used to herd wild horses beyond this very narrow area of the point and then pile up brush so they could not escape.  Then, at their leisure, they would pick out the horses they wanted to keep, and leave the rest to die of thirst and  hunger.

However, the flat plain is not why people come here.  The real scenery is down below, in the canyons that surround this area!  And this is just a tiny part of the canyons around here. 

There are snow-capped mountains in the distance that you can usually see, but the smoky haze has made them almost invisible.  

The white thing in the middle of this photo are the drying ponds from a potash plant.

The best result of this plant is that the company put in  is a paved road from Moab to the plant, and it also constructed a dirt road past the plant, through the canyons, and up the wall at the far end in Canyonlands National Park.  See it in the lower right?  It is graded regularly and mostly drive-able by a 4-wheeled vehicle.  "Mostly" will be described in more detail later.  

This grader is moving the drying potash around for some reason.

The river in the distance is the Colorado.  There are raft trips through this ,and you can also take a motorboat on the river.

This is more of the road that intrigued me the last time I was here.  I am determined to get down there somehow this week!  Might rent a jeep or take a tour, if I can find the right one.

It is incredibly gorgeous down in this canyon.

Another view of the Colorado River.

And how did these guys get here???  I used a telephoto lens here, so it is a lot farther away than it looks. 

 

 

Last photo is this chunk of sand dune!   Most of the rock in this area is a variety of sandstone, but some of it looks more like a sand dune than the rest.