Portal RV Resort, Moab, Utah
If a man digs a pit, he will fall into it; if a man rolls a stone, it will roll back on him. ~ Proverbs 26:27
We traveled NW today to Dead Horse Point State Park (what’s with the dead horse themes at State Parks?). The sun was really bright this morning. Let’s just say, it’s a good thing I wasn’t driving because I had my eyes squeezed shut to try to block out the blazing sun.
I don’t know if they ever did, but there’s certainly enough grazing area here. : )
This Park was highly recommended by numerous people on-line, despite the $20/vehicle charge. However, the Park brochure we were given when we arrived, was virtually worthless. It had a map of the trails, but didn’t say how long they were, or anything about them. Still, we managed to find everything and clocked an additional seven miles or so on our boots. Hiking and mountain biking are really all that’s here. The guy from Gearheads (where I bought my boots) who helped map out Jeep trails told us that if Dead Horse hadn’t already been a State Park, it would’ve been incorporated into Canyonlands National Park. It didn’t take long for us to see why! They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so most of the pictures from here, I’ve let speak for themselves. What a fantastic place!
Here’s where the Park says it got its name.
Certainly they could’ve come up with something better than that! Why would you want to immortalize something so absolutely horrible? The more I pondered it though, the more I thought maybe it’s not true, because nowhere does their information mention that they ever found bones out there. Surely, if multiple horses were left there to die of thirst, there would be numerous bones. What say you?
Guess I don’t have a good enough imagination. Blaine said he saw it though. : )
It wasn’t easy to re-find the trail markers (cairns), but we eventually did. : )
Why? And why didn’t they tell us?
Lunch time!
About lunchtime, we were back at the Visitor Center where we’d left the Jeep, so we walked around inside. There were doors to a patio outside, so we went out to take in the view, and we got locked out! The doors open out, but you can’t get back in!
Fortunately, there was another way off the patio. Whew! We didn’t want to be stuck out there! We were hungry!
This area has those potholes that fill with water from the rain, but eventually dry up.
And believe it or not, we saw stuff swimming in there!
We came to find out, those are tadpoles!
Whodathunk?!?
Turns out to be a Mule Deer fawn, and the Ranger said their sightings are extremely rare here. : )
Guess where we ate lunch? That’s right. On that patio, where they had barstool tables. There was only one other family sitting at a table and when they left, we had the place to ourselves. Except for the people who came out to see the view and got locked out. 😊 We tried to warn them when we could, but sometimes it was too late.
More hiking after lunch. More gorgeous scenery. More burning hot sun – – hence the stinking hot shirt and too-big shorts today.
We sat out on the edge of the rock to eat a cookie, and after a few minutes we could hear our skin sizzling like steaks on a grill, so unfortunately, we weren’t able to linger as long as we would’ve liked.
Once we completed our Park tour, we drove home via the Gemini Bridges Road. We didn’t take any pictures, because you got enough of them a few days ago. The only difference between then and today? Blaine had me drive us home. That meant I had to drive that crazy skinny mountain road at the end! YIKES!!
But I did it, praying the entire time that no one would come the other way! And they didn’t, until we were back off the mountain. Praise God from Whom all blessings flow!