Day 10: Canyonlands and Dead Horse Point State Park
📍Humans first visited Canyonlands over 10,000 years ago. Nomadic groups of hunter-gatherers roamed throughout the southwest from 8,000 BCE (Before Common Era) to 500 BCE. Living off the land, these people depended on the availability of wild plants and animals for their survival. They do not appear to have stayed in any one area for very long. They left little in the way of artifacts and didn’t build homes or other lasting structures. However, the hunter-gatherers during this time created a great deal of intriguing rock art. Roughly two thousand years ago, the hunter-gatherers began to rely more domesticated animals and plants for food. These early farmers are called the ancestral Puebloan (formerly known as Anasazi) and Fremont people. They grew maize, beans, and squash, and kept dogs and turkeys.
We had a little lay-in this morning (7:30am), and hit the Moab Garage, Inc for coffee before heading out. It’s such a cute little coffee shop, nice people and delicious baked goods if you want to grab and go.
We headed to Canyonlands National Park, about 30 minutes from Moab. It was a beautiful drive, grand meadows as far as the eye can see, mixed with red rock monoliths that reach for the sky. Just amazing!
Our first stop before the weather went nuts was The Whale Rock hike. We started the hike when it was just 85 degrees. We must be getting used to the heat, because it didn’t feel that hot. This trail is mostly unmarked and you follow cairns (stacks of rocks) all the way up. The hiker rule is that you are NOT to move the cairns, ever; a written rule at the trailhead, but overall an unwritten rule everywhere too! The ones on this trail even looked like some had been cemented together, but not all of them.
We made our way up to the tippy top of whale rock, along the edge (eek), and around the dome. What an amazing view from up there! We took a few photos, even a plank for my sister (she is the plank queen), and as I was standing back up, my water bottle went flying out of my backpack side pocket. It rolled for what seemed like forever. It was unsafe to chase after it on top of the dome, so I had to just let it go. Then all of a sudden, it hit a dip in the dome and turned sideways and stopped rolling. Man we laughed so hard, I thought we might roll off the dome. I wish we could’ve gotten that on video, it was a comedy of errors. Anyway, did a safe twirl, and then headed back down. The whole thing took just under an hour.
We hopped back in the car and drove to the Green River Overlook and then onto the Grandview Overlook. We didn’t do the Rim Hike here (2 miles, labeled easy), as we were on a bit of a time crunch today, but I feel sometimes you have to leave a few things in life to come back to for another time.
There were more amazing views all along the way, so it’s definitely worth going to all of the overlooks.
It’s now 85 degrees and we had one more hike to do before we headed out to our next destination. The “Mesa Arch“ hike is 1 mile Roundtrip, easy and fun with some rock scrambles and red sand, as fine as powder. Ken and I both agreed, that outside of the “Delicate Arch” in Arches National Park, THIS arch in Canyonlands National Park was the most impressive; breathtaking! We spent time here just enjoying the views, and looking out over the edge!
It’s now 90 degrees and we decided to do some last bits of glamorous laundry during the heat of the day, grab a snack and head out to our next destination later in the afternoon.
Side Note: The great thing about every park we’ve visited so far is the safety measures they take to make sure people are safe. There are signs about ensuring you are drinking enough water, and bottle refill stations at all the visitor centers (and even at our hotel). The water tastes great too! I forgot to mention yesterday, that at Arches National Park, there were also rangers at the trailheads to make sure people had proper gear and water, before they started on their journey. Some folks went back to their cars, others carried on.
Around 4:30pm we stepped out the front door of the hotel, and into a furnace. So much for waiting until the weather cooled down. We got into our car to a temp gauge of 118 degrees, but by the time the car got moving, it held steady at 100 degrees. We had one last place to see before we leave Moab tomorrow, so even though it was crazy hot, away we went.
Next stop, Dead Horse Point State Park, which has a gruesome history (we found out once in the park), but also some pretty amazing views of the canyon and Colorado River below.
Note: Since Dead Horse Point is a State Park, the National Park pasa does not work. It is a $20 fee to enter, and the pass is good for 3 days. They also have great looking campsites and yurts!
So the story of Dead Horse Point is, “the Point was once used as a corral for wild mustangs roaming the Mesa. Cowboys rounded up these horses and herded them across the narrow neck of land onto the point. The neck, which is only 30 yards wide, was then fenced off with branches and brush, creating a natural corral surrounded by precipitous cliffs. The cowboys then chose the horses they wanted and, for reasons unknown, left the other horses corralled on the waterless point, where they died of thirst within view of the Colorado River 2,000 feet below.”
I asked Ken, “why are we here again?”!! How horrible!
Anyway, after that lovely history lesson, we drove to the very end and did the 1 mile walk around part of the rim and to what I will call, “The Birds Nest”. More amazing cliff side views and scary drop-offs. There is another longer hike (East and West “Dead Horse Rim Trail”) which is 5 miles, but in 100 degree heat, we opted for the shorter one. Maybe next time.
Back into the car, and never have I loved air conditioning so much as I did today! Time for a shower and a good nights sleep, for tomorrow is another adventure. Thank you for reading!
Byrds On A Wire 