Dead Horse Point SP & Canyonlands NP - July 2016

As I said in my previous post, we combined Arches NP (National Park) with Dead Horse Point SP (State Park) & Canyonlands NP. I mean, it's all so close together, that you just háve to visit all of them.

But again, as we only had 2 days, it was going to be limited to a sampler.

Dead Horse Point State Park
The day after Arches NP, we drove to Dead Horse Point early in the morning. As it is a State Park and not a National Park, we couldn't use our annual pass for this one (at that moment we didn't have a annual pass for the SPs yet). However, we were so early that there was nobody yet to collect the $10 entrance fee. Although we were the only ones, as good housekeepers, we put the fee in a box ...  😇.  We just drove to the Dead Horse Point overlook point at the end of the paved route in the park. This main overlook point sits at 6000 feet above sea level with the Colorado river winding 2000 feet below. 

The legend  

This point provided a natural round-up (corral) as the cliffs served as fences, into which wild mustangs were driven by the cowboys in the 1800s.  They would select the best ones and let the rest go. However for an unknown reason, at one instance the unwanted mustangs didn't leave the corral and died there of thirst ... within sight of the water of the Colorado river!

A short paved trail loops around this point providing views of the canyons on either side. This is all we did as we didn't have time to do other 'real' trails ... but "we'll be back" for those!

Canyonlands NP

After only a 30 minutes drive from Dead Horse Point we arrived at the 'Island in the Sky' district of Canyonlands. The Green River and Colorado River trisects Canyonlands into 3 districts: 'Island in the Sky', 'Needles' and 'The Maze'.

We did the 'Island in the sky' district as it was the closest to Dead Horse Point. This district is a 'Mesa', which is a flat tableland with steep edges all around ... hence the name 'Island in the Sky'! 
The paved scenic drive follows the rim of this mesa with many pullouts to enjoy the gorgeous views, which we did. At the 'Grand View Point', the last point of the scenic drive, we did the 2 miles (round trip) easy trail which leads along the mesa edge ... 

... and gives great views on the complex network of canyons laid out below, carved by the converging Colorado and Green river. 

On our way back on the scenic drive, we also did the short (0,7 miles round trip) and easy 'Mesa Arch' trail of course. Why 'of course' ... well, it is an Arch that features as one of the standard desktop backgrounds on Windows 7! 

Mesa Arch is a 'pothole arch', which is formed due to a (pot)hole created by surface water on the edge of the cliff, which grew deeper and deeper until it wear through the cliff wall below. The result is an arch that dangles across the mesa's edge, providing a natural frame for a stunning view on the Buck Canyon below.

The view on Buck Canyon below the Arch

If you can you should try to be at the Mesa Arch for sunrise as you will be treated with the red glow of the rising sun reflecting off the underside of the arch. The best timing to do this is during the winter as it gives the best lighting angle, and also to avoid the 'battle' between fellow photographers for getting the best spot 😏. I hope to update this post with such an amazing shot in the future!!

We're definitely also planning to visit the 'Needles' district in the future, which forms the Southeast corner of the park. It is an area for hiking and 4 wheel drive ... very little of it is accessible via a paved route, so less tourist visit that district ... which we like 😜.
It is in this district that you have an overlook on the  confluence of the Colorado and Green river which you can apparently see very clearly as the water from both rivers have a different colour. But more about that once we've done this hike!

Tips

• If you want to have a picnic @ one of these parks and you're coming from Moab, don't forget to buy your stuff in Moab, because there is nothing in the parks or even right outside of these parks (although I mentioned in my previous post that there is a Subway around the corner of every park, I probably should have said 'almost' every park...😬)

General Tips

• If you're planning to travel around In Utah (or/and Arizona, Nevada, California) during the summer, buy yourself a styrofoam coolbox when you get here. Great way to avoid drinking hot water and half cooked sandwiches for lunch when you return to your car after a hike 😏. You can find them in Target or Walmart for not even $3! And if you can, take a reusable ice pack with you from home to put in your coolbox, that way you can keep everything even cooler! In most hotels you have a fridge with a freezer drawer, so you can freeze your ice pack overnight ... but if you're like me, just don't forget to take it out the next morning 😬.  
• An App that I find indispensable these days for hiking is 'AllTrails'. It's a great tool to plan your hike as you can look up all the available trails in the neighbourhood of your destination, it gives you the level of the hike (from easy to strenuous), reviews (with pictures) and directions on how to get to the trailhead. Once on the trail you can use the App's tracking feature to see your progress along the route using your smartphone's GPS. I just love it!! This way I've found so many trails, I otherwise never would have done. And the trails in the NPs and SPs are in there too. There is a Free version and a Pro version with additional features for which you pay $49,99/year

Restaurant tips

None 😆 ... As I've mentioned in my previous post (Arches NP), there is not much around here, so we had our dinner at Moab on our way back home.