What’s In a Name? Dead Horse Point State Park

Phew! It has been a LONG couple of years but so glad to be back with you! Hope all is well with you and yours!!

So, what’s in a name? I’ll get to that shortly, but Dead Horse Point State Park, only 13 miles from Canyonlands National Park Island in the Sky, is an often-overlooked gem. Come on along to see the wonder of this very small state park–canyons, cliffs, and the Colorado River.

I will hold you in suspense no longer. Why the name for such a beautiful area? Dead Horse Point is a long, narrow mesa. The entire park is no more than two square miles. The narrowest point on the mesa, called the Neck, is 30 yards wide with steep drops on both sides. Crossing the Neck we are on Dead Horse Point, a peninsula of rock atop sheer sandstone cliffs.

The legend tells, with tweaks to the details, that cowboys rounded up wild horses and corralled them at this far end by building a fence of brush and branches across the narrowest point, the Neck. This created a natural corral with sheer cliffs on three sides offering no escape. Cowboys then chose the best mustangs and released the others. One time, for some unknown reason, horses were left in the corral. Since it is a waterless area, the horses all died of thirst.

From the Neck to the furthest lookout south is about half a mile to a view that goes on and on. Welcome to Dead Horse Point.

From here we see the gooseneck of the Colorado River with Canyonlands National Park behind it and right. Here’s the part that always stuns me–it is a 2,000 foot drop to the river!

We are visiting one of six sections of the Colorado Plateau, the Canyonlands Section, known for deep canyons, high mountains, and meandering rivers, most joining the Colorado River on its journey south. The geology visible here is typical in southeastern Utah but never fails to take your breath away!

This early-morning view allows us to see reflections in the river, but as the sun rises the water color changes. You will see pictures where the river looks green, others where it looks brown, others the red color of the rocks. Flowing through so many red-rock canyons, eroding as it goes, not only makes the canyons deeper but picks up that eroded rock coloring the water red. Colorado River means red river, but the story of its naming is interesting. I’ll let you decide.

From the headwaters in Rocky Mountain National Park not far from Grand Lake, Colorado, the river travels 1,450 miles into Mexico near Baja California. Here at Dead Horse Point, near Moab, we are about one third of the length of the river from its start.

Looking southeast. Even if there were people down there, they would look like ants and only their movement would take your eye to them. We are high!

It is spring in the desert and I’m so happy to see flowers blooming. Crescent Milkvetch (Astragalus amphioxys). It’s been a long, drab winter at home.

There are so many fascinating rock features in these canyon areas. These are the smallest hoodoo I’ve ever seen, about five feet tall. What’s a hoodoo? Sometimes Wikipedia is the best resource. Hint: those round, short in this case, spires.

Eroding in front of our eyes. As rocks break off and tumble, weather erodes the rock into sand. How many hundreds of thousands of years until this mount is a pile of dirt on the canyon floor? In the meantime, it is a gorgeous geologic wonder.

On the mesa’s top are Utah Junipers (Juniperus osteosperma). It is amazing how they grow within and on rocks, thriving in the most inhospitable environments possible. They survive baking heat, bone-chilling cold, intense sun, little water, and merciless winds. How do they survive? They have a massive underground root system which can be two-thirds of the tree’s total mass. Its tap root can grow 25 feet down searching for water and lateral roots more than 100 feet from the tree. They rarely exceed 30 feet high, grow very slow, and can live 700 years, some reaching 100.

To conserve water, the juniper can self-prune, stopping nutrients to one or more branches in order to ensure the tree’s survival. One important feature it offers is the dense foliage providing shade for all kinds of mammals in a land of unbearably intense sun and heat. Not to mention the oddly twisted trunks and branches making each tree a unique work of art.

One last look from Meander Outlook. In spite of being named Dead Horse Point, was a stupendous view!

Until next time my friend. Stay tuned, this was not the only amazingly gorgeous place I visited in Utah!