JULY 9 & 10, 2013 DEAD HORSE POINT STATE PARK AND CANYONLAND – ISLANDS IN THE SKY

After a day of rest we ventured over to Dead Horse State Park which was about a 1 hour drive from the RV Park.  Dead Horse Point is rumored to have gotten its name from cowboy legend.  The cowboys used the point as a natural corral to catch the wild mustangs that roamed the area.  At one roundup they took what horses they wanted and left the rest on the point with the fence still in place.  Due to heat with no water and no way to get off the point the horses slowly died.  Hence the name, or so it goes.

We did not get a real early start so when we arrived the sun was almost overhead so it was not a good time to be taking pictures.  It was also very hazy and we were told that it was the result of a forest fire burning in Colorado.  We took a few pictures anyways but decided not to stay too long.

 

 

 

We headed down the road to Canyon National Monument.  This time we were in the portion called Island in the Sky and we wanted to do a little hiking, emphasis on little.

We decided to do our hike first so we headed to Upheaval Basin.  I didn’t know the up in Upheaval Dome really and truly meant up.  We left the trail head and started up and up and up.



Starting Up



And Up



What are you waiting for, slowpoke.



And up some more



The last little bit.

We reached the first overlook and discovered that Upheaval Dome is still a mystery. The rock layers below are fractured and tilted, forming a circular depression more than 2 miles wide.  Scientists still debate what forces disrupted these once-orderly rock layers. Erosion exposed many clues, but others lay buried.  The visible evidence supports different explanations.  We continued on to the second overlook, took a few pictures and then headed back down.
 

The next stop on our agenda was Green River Overlook but on the way we stopped at Whale Rock and Aztec Buttes.

Whale Rock



Aztec Buttes

When we reached Green River Outlook the sun was in a bad position for taking pictures.  The fog, mist or smoke, we are not sure which made all of the pictures very hard to see.  So I only posted one.  The view was still great to the human eye; it just wasn’t suitable for pictures.

We found the same thing at Buck Canyon Overlook and White Rim Overlook but took some pictures anyways.

White Rim Canyon

White Rim Canyon

Buck Canyon

At this point in the day we had two areas left that we wanted to look at, Grand View Point Overlook and Mesa Arch.  The good news is that is later in the day so the sun is in a better position for taking pictures.  We still had the problem with the haze which eliminated the view of the sky.  However, the view from this high was incredible and we spent a little time walking the rim trail.

In order to view Mesa Arch we had to make a short ½ mile hike.  It was worth the trip as it gave us a clear view with the right conditions.  The only problem was that it was starting to fall so Kathy had to hold it up while I got pictures.

Oh, all right, it's trick photography.

 

We finished up in The Island in the Sky portion of Canyonland National Monument and we were quite pleased with our time here.  We got to do a little hiking and we saw some beautiful scenery, even if the pictures weren’t all that great. 

However, our day was not finished.  When  we were at Dead Horse Point we were told by the rangers that they get some phenomenal sunsets so we thought we would go back to check it out and maybe get a few shots.  When we arrived we could see that the smoke had settled in even more which made getting landscape shots not any better than it was during the day.  However, we were able to get a few unique sun set pictures.
 

 

 

We left Dead Horse Point for the RV Park with mixed feelings.  We really enjoyed the date as the sights were incredible and we definitely enjoyed the sunset overlooking the canyon.  The only aspect that was disappointing was the quality of the pictures.  I guess you can’t have everything.  Tomorrow we are going to spend some time in Arches National Monument.