Today we visited Dead Horse Point State Park, Canyonlands National Park and did Canyonlands by Night.
First - Dead Horse Point State Park. The park got it’s name because when cowboys were trying to break some wild horses, they drove them out onto this point (peninsula) because it was a natural corral. This point, or mesa, is surrounded by cliffs 2,000 feet high. Legend has it that one group of horses was left without food or water, and they all starved to death. Today this area is a beautiful state park that overlooks the Colorado River.
The entire area around Moab has been the scene of many movies. The final scene of Thelma and Louise was filmed in Dead Horse Point State Park. Early westerns like Stagecoach and recent films like Mission Impossible were filmed here in Canyonlands NP.
Canyonlands NP is 527 sq. miles of canyons, mesas, buttes, fins, arches, and spires. Fins are narrow vertical sheets of rock that look like the fins on a fish. Spires are tall rock columns that stand alone. You probably already knew these definitions. I just learned about them in the past few days. The park was established in 1964 when Lyndon Johnson was president. Prior to it becoming a national park, it was under the control of the Bureau of Land Management. The park is divided into three sections by the Green and Colorado Rivers. The views are similar, but on a smaller scale, to the Grand Canyon.
For dinner, we went to a ‘Cowboy Dutch Oven’ dinner. After dinner, we took a two hour boat cruise and light show on the Colorado River. The package is bundled as ‘Canyonlands by Night.’ A ‘Cowboy Dutch Oven’ dinner is a marketing phrase for a buffet dinner. The cruise left at about 7:00 and after sunset, they did a light show against the canyon walls with music and a narrative of the history of the area from creation to present day. It was a nice ride and show. We were not allowed to take pictures, but they told us we could download pictures from their website: canyonlandsbynight.com., but I couldn’t get them from the website to our blog.
Now, the photos of the day:
These shots are from Dead Horse Point State Park. The Colorado River is in the background behind me. The right photo shows what the cowboys might have laid up as a fence at the end of the mesa.
On the left is where we are today. Next is Buck Canyon, Canyonlands NP.
These are two photos from Grand View Point Overlook, Canyonlands NP.
The arch on the left is Mesa Arch, Canyonlands NP. The arch on the right is the improved version of Mesa Arch, thanks to Connie.
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