Farewell Utah! We’ll Miss You!

Utah, oh Utah. We have loved your beauty! Our three weeks of exploring the Mighty Five national parks and more will never be forgotten. We hope you’ve enjoyed the journey with us.

Our final adventure in Utah brought us to the Dead Horse Point state park. As we hiked the perimeter of the Shafer Canyon rim on our first day in the park, Skip observed, “This looks like a mini Grand Canyon.” That’s exactly right. The views were magical, in spite of an overcast sky. The image below reminded us of the Horseshoe Bend we’d seen in Page, Arizona.

We drove to the actual Dead Horse Point at sunset, hoping to capture more dramatic views of the canyon. We did! We loved how the Colorado River serpentined through the canyon, adding beautiful blue and green to the landscape of pink and orange canyon walls.

So why is it named Dead Horse Point, you ask? Legend has it that local cowboys in the early 1900’s would gather wild mustangs from the area and drive them out to the point of the peninsula along the spectacular Shafer canyon. The edge of the canyon wall created a natural corral. By building a bramble and brush gate of sorts, the cowboys boxed the horses into the corral. They would determined which horses were worthy for sale and separate them from the herd. Sadly, sometimes the less desirable horses were left on the point to die. How awful! The name stuck.

We intended to use this state park as home base while exploring the Canyonlands national park. We drove through Canyonlands and found it nearly impossible to park at any of the viewpoints or trailheads. Feeling frustrated, we returned to Dead Horse Point and savored all it had to offer. Sorry, Canyonlands.

On our second day, we hiked out to the Bighorn Overlook point and relished having the place all to ourselves, for a brief spell. We were grateful for the cairns (rock piles) placed along the way to keep us on the trail. We marveled at the dips in the slick rock where pools of water collect when rain comes. We were in awe of the millions of years of evolutionary forces that created this masterpiece.

Through our many hikes, we’ve delighted in the beautiful flowers we’ve encountered. We’ll share lots of these with you in our next post. We’re sad to leave Utah, but excited for our adventures in Colorado!