Adventure 29: Dead Horse Point State Park/Post E

Tandem Heaven!

After a day of rest, reading, painting, cribbing, and the obligatory rest day hike of 5.75 miles, we road thirty miles to Canyon Lands National Park. It was a great ride, but we soon realized that the best thing to do would have been to drive to the visitor center and ride the "Island in the Sky", which is about thirty miles of paved road to various view points. Instead, we enjoyed our thirty-two miler and drove back out to the park the next day for the views. By the way we've been averaging about six miles a day of walking, and this past week we rode 76 miles. It seems we walk one day, ride the next, and walk a little more in between. I've realized that if I could just sit in one spot, the light would change every fifteen minutes or so, which in turn would change my experience. The same rock looks much different at sunset than it does at noon, and every minute in between. It's all quite stunning, and here in Utah, life is good, especially today.

 

Though a great speaker, this typically fervent ranger was extolling (lamenting) the legacy of modern man. He chided: "What will they find two hundred thousand years from now? In a word: Garbage!--most likely Nike golf balls shanked into the dirt for future archeologists to decipher."

 The needles-very tall hoodoos peeking up through the canyons: eons of erosion.

 The view that-a-way.

 The view this-away. (Peek-a-boo!)

 Two hundred pound stone stairways deftly placed for the tourists wearing CROCS.

 The Hunny Bunny next to a friendly cairn.

 Okay. This is quite a wow.

 Judy's next step drops about a thousand feet.

 The rim trails are so groomed, I can walk in CROCS.

 They're not rocks--they're Japanese tourists. They are as prolific as rocks, however.

 This is a typical drop off, but from a much less nerve wracking angle.

 A very famous pumpkin petroglyph, circa 2013.

 The San Juan Mountains in the far distance, more than a hundred miles South.

 I would never tire of looking at the La Salle Mountains.

 Judy and I in front of the Mesa Arch, arguably the most famous one of all.

 The view through the Mesa Arch.

The flat mesa on the left is Dead Horse Point, which is where Frac was parked. This view is from the visitor's center at Canyon Lands.  The La Salles in the rear.