dare2go

Canyonlands & Dead Horse Point


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Canyonlands also lives up to its name. It seems to be a really large plateau (called "Island in the Sky"), sitting on an even larger plateau, and the viewpoints look down to that plateau and the canyons at the edge of it far below. The canyons seem to go on as far as the eye can see - and the maps show us that they do extend a very long way. Once again the mighty Colorado is responsible, at least in the eastern part of the park. The Green River carved its way through the westerly side and it joins the Colorado in the southern part of the park, from whence the Colorado flows on down towards its other great work - the Grand Canyon - and probably through many other wonders that we won't have the time to see. As we said the other day, we can't spend the rest of our lives just checking out the nature in the United States!
I thought the Grand Canyon was impressive because of its size - Canyonlands is in some ways more impressive because you can actually get a sense of its enormity from a number of vantage points, whereas in the Grand Canyon, you felt like you were just seeing a tiny piece of the enormity.
After driving all the available tar, checking out a number of viewpoints and hiking to a few that were a bit away from the road (and even checking out the campsite - far inferior to the one in the nearby State Park), we returned to Dead Horse Point. This place gets its unfortunate name from a legend of the cowboy era. The point is only 30 yards wide at its entrance. Cowboys used it as a natural corral to catch wild horses. The Point looks out over the canyonlands and has sheer drops on all sides. The horses were herded toward this rock outcrop and then fenced in at the narrowest part. Legend has it that some were left there without water and died within view of the Colorado, 2000 feet below.
This park is dubbed "Utah's Grand Canyon". From the Point you get such of view of the canyonlands that all the views seen already today almost fade into insignificance! That may be a slight exaggeration - I would definitely recommend a visit to Canyonlands and we will return there tomorrow. But the view from Dead Horse Point covers an even larger vista and the Colorado River is clearly seen winding its way through the landscape. So if you head to this part of the United States, go and see all the famous Parks - Arches, Canyonlands, Bryce, Zion, etc - but don't miss Colorado National Monument or Dead Horse Point State Park!

Friday, June 16, 2006, Capitol Reef National Park, UT
On Tuesday evening we experienced a really beautiful sunset from our campsite over the red cliffs of the canyon in the distance. Unfortunately the beauty and serenity of the place was spoilt overnight by a wild wind blowing through. The shaking of the camper and rattling and noises kept waking me the whole night. But the place still looked beautiful in the morning, and no real damage was done.
We set off to Canyonlands again to walk a little to places we hadn't seen on Tuesday. First we drove again to Green River Overlook because it should be more scenic in the morning light. On Tuesday the light wasn't really good anywhere in the park as it was very hazy. We found out that the cause was some fires to the west of us and the smoke was being blown over. On Wednesday morning the light was much better and we found the view over Green River excellent. The only problem was the wind - it was still very strong and not really pleasant to be out in for very long. But we decided to walk to Mesa Arch which is not visible from any overlooks. It was worth it, once again. Almost every time we make the effort to get to a sight, even though the conditions may not be the most pleasurable, we find it worth it.
We even got to see a large section of the 'biological soil crust' on this walk. This is mentioned on all the signage at all the trails in all the Parks around here, together with the warning not to leave the trails. It looks like a crumbly, black dried out cover on the soil - and very dead. In fact it is a living thing made up of bacteria, mosses, soil lichens, green algae and microfungi. It provides stable soil and holds moisture and nutrients in which other desert plants can grow. It basically holds the desert together, and is so delicate that if trodden on can take years to recover.
On the way out of the Park we stopped at the visitors' centre to enquire about Shafer's Trail. This is a stunning dirt road, which winds its way down from the Island in the Sky onto the plateau below, where it zig-zags between the mesas and buttes along the White Rim, and then descends towards Moab. We could see it from the overlooks and thought it might be interesting to drive it, so wanted to get advice from the rangers. I was a bit sceptical, after seeing the windy way down, that it would be very secure with the camper and the ranger basically said the same thing. Without the camper on the truck, I think it would have been quite exciting, but with it would be more petrifying. We weighed up the pros and cons and decided against it.
Back at the campground in the early afternoon, we had decided to have a rest and do a few things that needed doing. I wanted to clean up the hard disc on the computer, which is getting a bit full with all the photos. And Juergen needed to do some things on the truck. It would have been such a pleasant afternoon I'm sure if it hadn't been for the wind - at the visitors' centre they told us that the wind was 25-30 miles/hour with gusts up to 40. Add to that the red dust that came with it and being outside was no fun. I stayed in the shelter with the computer for about half an hour before I decided to retreat inside the camper.
Fortunately the wind died down by the time we went to bed and we had a relatively good night's sleep. Yesterday morning we drove again to the end of the point and looked a last time at Utah's Grand Canyon. We both felt like we could have spent much more time in this area, but we are feeling the pull of Canada and Alaska and want to be there before the end of summer!
To leave the canyonlands we had to retrace our steps to the 191 and then drive north to the Interstate 70. We made a stop at Green River for fuel, propane and to fill up our water tank - we also found a service station with free wifi and checked our emails. We are sometimes surprised where we get internet access. This town is basically a highway stop with service stations and motels. We were looking for a supermarket, but decided to try further on as we only passed a small grocery store.
A few miles later we turned off the highway and headed south on the 24. This is a Scenic Byway which passes through desert scenery with mesas, buttes and reefs to be seen - sometimes close to the road and sometimes off in the distance. We took a detour to Goblin Valley State Park. A conversation with Juergen when he suggested making the detour:
    Yasha - 'What's in Goblin Valley?'
    Juergen - 'Goblins!'
    Y - 'What do you mean?'
    J - 'Goblins - gnomes - little men...'
    Y - 'But there is no such thing as goblins.'
    J - 'There is in Goblin Valley!'
I really had no idea what he was talking about - he'd read about it in the old German guide book that we have been using sometimes for this south-west tour. But when we arrived in Goblin Valley, that's what we found - more eroded sandstone structures which really looked just like a whole population of goblins!!! An exciting maze-like adventure is to be had by all children, young and old, walking amongst them. I have to repeat myself, again! I can't believe that I can continue to be awed by new eroded sandstone structures! Even the cliff-faces around here look like they have goblins just pushing their way out - here a nose, there a pointy hat and somewhere else a whole face...
We left this Park and continued south on the 24 through an amazing moon-scape. At one point Juergen said, 'we can't be on earth!' It is sometimes difficult to photograph these landscapes, but the Caineville Mesa [nicknamed "the world's most worthless piece of real estate"] may give some indication of it. It is very grey, but all different grey colours. There are small hills that look like some enormous tip-truck has dropped there - the locals seem to like riding dirt bikes up them as they are covered with tyre marks! There are huge mesas standing isolated in a plain. There are even dark-grey cliff-faces right next to the road. It certainly made a change from the predominantly red landscape we had been experiencing, but it was definitely eerie. [Some of the "Badlands" photos were taken just outside Capitol Reef N.P. the next day]
On the way, we reached towns with the expectation of finding a reasonable sized town with at least one supermarket. We were to be disappointed. We stopped at a grocery store in Hanksville, which appears to be quite large on the map, and found the shelves to be largely empty. We did manage the basics though - milk and water - and for the rest we will have to rely on our canned, packaged and frozen supplies. Luckily we did stop, because the next town marked clearly on the map was nothing but a rather large motel, with an open sign but no apparent occupants! We were also looking for a place to stay and saw nothing that looked very appealing. So we continued on to Capitol Reef National Park.
We knew there was a campground in the Park, but based on our experience so far in the Parks of Utah, we didn't really expect to find an available site at 6.00 in the evening. We drove in anyway, as the 24 goes straight through the middle of the park. What we found was an oasis - not like those we had sometimes seen along the road, with a few irrigated fields and several green trees, often a bit stunted. This was an oasis with very mature trees, grassed areas in between and very pretty. And it had plenty of sites - none of them reserved, as it is a first come, first served campground. We liked the feel of the place so much that we immediately decided to stay 2 nights. The desert is in most cases very beautiful - although it can become a bit boring if it's miles of no change - but sometimes one just needs some lush green around. It makes the air seem fresher, and even though it is a bit cool this morning, I chose to sit outside and write this. Now it must be time to go and explore this Park. I wonder if it also has some eroded sandstone structures to wow us yet again.