Dead Horse Point

Dead Horse Point is a State Park 35 miles from Moab. There’s some interesting scenery on the way. The information board names these two outcrops, properly called buttes, as the Monitor and the Merrimack respectively. These two ironclad battleships fought each other to a standstill in the Civil War. These guys don’t look as if they’ve moved much in the last couple of million years.

A few miles along the route is another stopping point. We pull over. Doesn’t look too interesting, but the board tells us that these flat rock areas are fundamental to supporting life in such dry regions. Rain is captured by the rock hollows, from which animals drink, with some containing life forms like fairy shrimps. Algae grows in patches on the rocks. This is all part of the fragile ecosystem.

At mile 35 we pay our $10 park entry and carry on to the first overlook. It’s something like the Grand Canyon but not so deep.

In the top right hand corner is a river or lake. Closer inspection reveals several large ponds that the ever-present info board tells us are potash beds. Water is pumped down to dissolve underground mineral salts and brought to the surface as a solution, then piped into shallow evaporation beds. Once fully dried out, the potash is harvested by laser-guided 20 tonne scrapers. 

We have a mini Grand Canyon here because it’s the same Colorado river that has created big brother a few hundred miles downstream.

Outside the visitor centre is a dinosaur footprint captured in rock. It’s about 6 inches square and looks like a giant chicken footprint. How many soldiers would you need for that boiled egg?

Dead Horse Point itself is the end of the road. There’s a sheer drop on all sides apart from the narrow access strip. Notices warn to keep away from the edges.There are too many viewpoints to be fenced and, anyway, it really is up to visitors to take responsibility for following the safety code and using common sense. The couple sat by the wall overlooking the 2000 foot drop are just about safe enough, but we saw people stood on the wall and even jumping up for photos and selfies. “Smile…back a bit…!”

Finally, the sad tale of how Dead Horse Point got its name. Wild mustangs roamed this area in the 19^th century and cowboys would round them up to select the most marketable ones first and come back for the others later. Dead Horse point was the ideal place for such a round-up. The mustangs could be herded onto the neck of land and then the narrow access barricaded. They were thus firmy corralled. One time, they contained a herd, taking the prime horses and leaving the others. But they didn’t return, and the remaining horses died of thirst and starvation, in sight of, but unable to reach, the Colorado River.

Looking in the direction of the flow of the river from this high vantage point, the vastness of the canyon system created over the millennia becomes apparent.

I’m sure we all take too many digital photos, but showing you any more of the park would be like, um,….flogging a dead horse. Boom boom.