The Agnew Family aboard the "Dog House"

When we were at the Utah information centre the gentleman there told us to make sure that we didn’t miss Dead Horse Point State Park. According to cowboy legend Dead Horse Point received its name when some cowboys corralled wild horses on the point, took the horses they wanted and left the remaining horses to die of thirst. The point is more than a 1,000 feet above the Colorado River, there is no way down and no water. More recently the park is famous for being the location of the final scene in “Thelma and Louise”. The park is relatively small but has some great views — Zaph liked it as he was allowed to walk on the trails. We also saw a couple of mule deer on the side of the road drinking water that had collected in a pothole.

Down the road from the state park is the much larger Canyonland National Park. This park is divided into 3 sections and we visited the one called Island in the Sky. The “island” is joined to the rest of the land by a narrow “neck” of land. The views of the canyons are beautiful, you can see the Colorado River and from one point the Green River. The most interesting spot in the park was a place called Upheaval Dome — white / grey rocks were pushed up from underneath forming a dome (the top of the dome has eroded into a bit of bowl) — a real contrast to the red walls around it.

The map showed an alternate route back to Moab and after checking with a ranger and learning that they recommended a four wheel vehicle with high ground clearance (our truck is four wheel drive with reasonably high clearance) we decided to take it. The first section of “the road” involved driving down from the high plateau. The road was very narrow, had sharp hairpin turns, was extremely steep and had a surface composed of broken rocks, some bits of gravel and sand as well as some deep ruts and washouts. Of course there were 2 vehicles coming up the hill while we were going down — we saw them a couple of hairpin turns ahead so we stopped when we reached one of the few wider section of road and let them pass. Driving in the bottom of the canyon was breathtaking. It’s one thing to look down into the canyon but it’s a totally different feeling to look up at the walls and rocks. At one point we looked across the valley and saw a Hummer sitting on the plateau overlooking the Colorado River — it reminded me of a TV commercial.



the Canyon below dead horse point


A mule deer buck alone a park road side


The famous two headed mule deer


A view down into the canyon and a very interesting road


Same road, going across bottom of canyon and to the potash salt drying lakes in the distance


That road again


No one said this was going to be an easy road to drive on, let alone meeting anyone


Part way down, the view is great


At the bottom, and the river


The Potash salt drying lake at the bottom of the canyon makes a nice reflecting pond