Dead Horse Point State Park.

Sandy and John were all alone today so we drove up to Dead Horse Point State Park to take in the views and a hike. John’s brother Jim started his rafting trip this morning and Paul and Mary were going to take a hike that we’ve been on so we decided to see Dead Horse.

The drive out to the park was a nice trip, we turned onto Hwy 313 and stopped at several view points on the way up to the plateau. We paid the $10.00 entrance fee for the park and drove directly out to the point. We parked at a pullout and walked  around the point using the trail, it was a little windy on the point but the sun kept us warm as we walked.

 

Highway 313 is a good road with great views.

 

To the left you see part of Big Mesa, the two buttes beyond are named Monitor and Merrimac.

 

This is the 30 yard wide entrance to Dead Horse Point, in the 1800s cowboys would herd wild horses out to the point and block it off at the narrow entrance with a wood fence like this one. The sheer cliffs around the point made a natural corral that the cowboys used to hold the horses; according to legend a group of horses was once left on the waterless point and they died of thirst, thus the name Dead Horse Point.

 

One of the views from Dead Horse Point.

 

The Colorado River is about 2,000 feet below Sandy.

 

It’s a tremendous view, take another look!

 

 

After our walk we pulled up to a picnic table and ate our lunch and laughed at the chipmunks that circled us while begging for food. We then drove back to the Visitor Center and found the trailhead, we followed the trail to the Rim Overlook turnoff where we completed the 1 mile walk out to the edge of the canyon. The views were nice but not as spectacular as from Dead Horse Point so we turned back for the car after capturing a few images.

 

John enjoys the view but not the wind at Rim Overlook.

 

We had a good view of the La Sal Mountains from the trail.

 

This cactus was taking advantage of the wet and now warm weather but only one of it’s flowers was open.

 

John is not a real reptile fan but he sucked it up to get an image of this foot long fellow.

 

We enjoyed our visit to Dead Horse Point today, tomorrow we will drive down to the Needles area of Canyon Lands National Park before the big weekend kicks in.