Dead Horse Point and Canyonlands

After picking up a sandwich in Moab I drove up onto the plateau to eat lunch. First stop - Dead Horse Point State Park. The name of the park wasn't that appetizing, but view from the visitor's center was good, and reasonably conducive to good digestion. The two lakes are are next to a place called Potash, so my guess is they're pools having to do with the production of potassium at the plant nearby. On the horizon are the La Sal mountains, about 27 mi due east.

This picture is looking south from the Dead Horse Point overlook (6000 ft) at a couple of bends in the Colorado. The river is about 2000 ft below the overlook. The biggest trouble with a trip like this is, it's basically a one-shot deal. You don't have the luxury of waiting around for the clouds to show up - or leave - or, even more importantly, for the light to change. I was here in the early afternoon. Sunrise or sunset would have been nice.

After 45 minutes or so in the state park, I backtracked a few miles and took the fork leading into Canyonlands National Park. The focus of Canyonlands is the confluence of the Green River, flowing from the north, and the Colorado River, coming in from the east-northeast. The V-shaped portion of the Colorado Plateau bounded by the rivers (you are Here) is called the Island In The Sky. As the merged river (Colorado) flows south, it separates the two other portions of the park - the Needles district to the east and the Maze to the west.

The picture above is the view looking east to the La Sal Mountains from Shafer Canyon Overlook. You can't see it in the picture, but to the left there's a dirt road from the plateau down into Shafer Canyon and (eventually) to the Colorado with more switchbacks than any reasonable person would ever undertake. And, of course, there are hiking trails all over the place. See the people out near the point? Going out there crossed my mind, but then I remembered the Black Canyon - the notion that there might be a "View" down there, quickly passed.

This view looks south-southeast down the eastern edge of the Island In The Sky from  Buck Canyon Overlook. The mountain range on the horizon to the left of the tree is the Abajo Mountains and is similar to the La Sal Mountains and the Henry Mountains in that each of the ranges was "formed about igneous intrusions" in the Colorado Plateau between 22 and 27 million years ago. These intrusions are relatively resistant to erosion; their isolation from other ranges makes them all the more impressive when you happen upon them, and all the more interesting when you see them in the distance.

Still at Buck Canyon Overlook, this eastern view towards the La Sals is startling, to say the least. Maybe it's just the angles, but my first instinct on seeing Buck Canyon was to look closely and assure myself the Earth wasn't - still - in the process of opening up. I determined that it is safe for tourists and there's little danger that they'll be swallowed up while taking their pictures.

This shot is looking west-southwest from the Orange Cliffs overlook. The mesa in the middle distance in called Cleopatra's Chair, about 6200 ft. Directly behind it, on the horizon, is the third range of igneous intrusions in the Colorado Plateau, the Henry Mountains. No, they're not clouds. The highest peak, Mt Ellen, is 11,506 ft and about 55 miles away. The Henries were named by John Wesley Powell for Joseph Henry, first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. They were also the last mountain range added to the map of the 48 contiguous states (in 1872).