9/6/12 - Dead Horse Point SP

There's a legend that in the early 1900s cowboys rounded up wild mustangs on the mesa, herded them to the point and fenced off the 30 yard-wide neck for a corral.  They chose the horses they wanted and left the rest corralled on the waterless point, 2000 feet above the Colorado River, where they died of thirst. 


I don't much like this story, but it's what the park publishes in the brochure. 

I suppose it's plausible.


I decided to check out the other legend.

Much simpler--it was named by early Mormon pioneers for a rock formation at the base of the plateau that looks like a dead white horse lying on its side.  Looking at my own pictures, I do see what they mean--although I didn't see it when we were on the rim. 

Can you see it?  

Which story do you believe?

Or maybe I should ask, which legend will you repeat?

There's a trail along the east rim of the canyon just outside the Visitor Center.  George took off without me, but I found him.

We drove down to the Point, and walked around the whole rim, up to the neck and back again.  The views down into Canyonlands NP are spectacular!

 

        

Since we visited this park, I've got the chorus to the America song A Horse with No Name stuck in my head.  Can I remember more than that?  No, of course not!

 

More pictures at Dead Horse Point State Park
 

9/4/12 - Arches NP

I've seen lots of pictures of Arches National Park, but had never been there.  Go as soon as you can--they think that Landscape Arch could break anytime!  You want to see it first.


Landscape Arch is 306 feet long.  A 60 foot-long chunk fell off in 1991.

Did you know there are over 2,500 arches in the park? 
(Whose job is it to count them?)

Skyscape Arch














Turret Arch has a big window and a little one.

Did you know an arch is defined as a hole in stone that is at least 3 feet long in any direction? 
(Up and down? 
North and south? 
Sideways?)

 

The hike to Delicate Arch is a long one, and it was hot.  We opted for the shorter hike to a viewpoint across the canyon from it.  (This is the arch that's on the Utah license plates.)

Delicate Arch way across the canyon

Sometimes they call arches "windows".

George and me at the Windows.



And there's a lot more than arches in Arches. 

(Like fins, spires and balanced rocks.) 



Park Avenue (Do you think these look like skyscrapers?)

Balanced Rock



Fiery Furnace Fins



My favorite was Double Arch--it's like two-arches-for-the-price-of-one.  This is the one where I got stuck up and George had to help me a bit.  I'd climbed up on the base of the back arch--but I got to a point where I couldn't go up and couldn't go back down.  He'd gone up a slightly different way, and was able to reach over and lift me up.  


Double Arch

Of course, his story is that he rescued me. 

   Well, maybe he did...

Umm, probably he did...

 

There are more pictures of Arches NP at this link:  Arches National Park 



 

9/2/12 - Colorado NM

Colorado National Monument is just outside Grand Junction, CO.  I really didn't know what to expect until we got there. 

Rim Rock Drive climbs about 2000' feet from the Colorado River valley to a plateau and then winds around the rim of several different canyons. 

It's a twisty, windy road but not scary.  (I wasn't driving; if George was scared, he hid it well.) 

There are 3-1/2 tunnels on the drive.  Sorry, I didn't read the sign so I can't tell you about the half tunnel. 

There are lots of canyons and red rocks and monoliths--cool stuff!  We hiked the Canyon Rim Trail from the Visitors Center, and then on to the Window Rock Trail.  

Down below in Wedding Canyon are spectacular monoliths.  These are Independence Monument, Praying Hands and Pipe Organ.  The other one is Kissing Couple.

The view back towards Grand Junction is a study in contrasts.  Everything around us was hard rock and desert.  Down in the valley, we could see the Colorado River and lots of green farmland.  (I know it's farmland because we drove past a lot of corn and alfalfa yesterday.)

 

I seem to have (mostly) gotten over my acrophobia.  I still keep a healthy distance between me and the edge unless there's a guardrail.  Good thing because the views down into the canyons are amazing.  I heard someone compare it to the Grand Canyon...well, I don't think so--although it is a lot more accessible.

 

We stopped at every overlook and viewpoint where there we could park. I figured we'd drive the whole 23 miles of the road and then stop at the few we missed when we reversed the journey....but then it started raining.

We drove right past Cold Shivers Point because by that time the 30% chance of rain was a downpour.  "Shivers" would have been the right word if we'd stopped! 

 

There are more pictures here:  Colorado National Monument