9/25 Canyonlands National Park, Islands in the Sky Area

 Canyonlands National Park really includes several separated areas.  The part nearest Dead Horse Point SP is called the Island in the Sky.  After spending a few days at Dead Horse, and having taken a tour in the bottom of the canyonlands, I spent a few hours on this day trying to see the part of the national park on the top of the mesas. 

Unfortunately, all the people who could not take a vacation in June and July are now taking their vacations, so the national parks are incredibly crowded.  I could not find a place to park near the visitor center or a lot of scenic areas.

However, I did get some pictures of the Shafer Trail, from the top. Glad I took a tour instead of renting a jeep as I had originally planned!

Lots of zigzagging!

Back to my campground.

9/23 Canyon Below Dead Horse Point, UT

 I have been wanting to go down into this valley for several years, but I originally thought it was accessible only by one of those dune buggy things that climbs rocks--not for me.  

However, I discovered it was accessible by a regular, enclosed 4-wheel-drive vehicle, and that there were tours available.  (That helped me eliminate my original idea of renting a jeep and driving it myself.  Another factor to taking a tour instead of driving myself was looking at the far end of Shafer road where it exited the canyon via a bunch of narrow switchbacks.)

Unfortunately, I was not able to get a reservation for earlier in the day, so I ended up with the 4 - 8 pm tour.  WARNING:  There are a lot of photos in this posting, so you might want to skim over them, but don't miss the last few photos. 

The first few miles were paved, and this part went through a wall with pictographs. 

The next section follows a quiet stretch of the Colorado River.  We are just beginning to drop down into the canyon.

The pavement does not last long, however.

This road, both the paved part and the dirt part was built to access a potash plant. The paved part is between Moab and the plant, and the dirt part goes another 20+ miles past the plant and exits in Canyonlands National Park.

No boy scout leaders in the area, so this rock is apparently safe.

These are part of the potash drying ponds seen from the top of the mesa at Dead Horse Point.

Guess I am glad I did not rent that jeep! 

Just a few photos of the mesa edges and the rock layers from the bottom.

Wonderful views!!

A long, straight section of the Shafer road.  It is regularly graded, but parts of it are really just flat rock.

This looks a little iffy!

A view of the river from about halfway up to the top of the canyon.

Getting near the top now.  No stops for photos, so I took these out of the window.

OOOOOhhhhh!

I took this looking straight up the cliff next to the vehicle.  Scary.

This is the road we were just on!!

And a section of the switchbacks.

This was the vehicle that we rode in.  At about two-thirds of the way, the driver stopped where another vehicle from the same company had broken down.  They had sent a mechanic down with a third vehicle, so the passengers from the broken down vehicle rode up to the top in that one, and we had enough space for the mechanic.  They will have to return tomorrow with parts for the broken-down vehicle.

All-in-all, this was a fantastic tour and well worth the price.  It gave me the chance to see part of the canyon I could never have seen otherwise. 

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.