Leslie and David's Wanderings: 20 May 2021 Return to Dead Horse

Our plans for today include a drive to Dead Horse Point State Park and then on to Canyonlands National Park to hike the Mesa Arch and Grand View Point Rim Trail. Again, David and I had done this a few days earlier but knew that Cynthia and Felix would enjoy seeing it all. Dead Horse Point was a spectacle and we had a great time exploring to point, taking dozens of pictures and gawking down into the massive canyon. We all agreed the legend of the point was a tragic story. After a successful stop in the Visitor Center, we loaded back into the behemoth and took off down the road to Canyonlands. We enjoyed stopping at the Visitor Center overlook. As we hiked down to the overlook point, a gust of wind nearly blew Cynthia and I over the edge! It was so strong and obvious it was here to stay for the rest of the day. Finding the trailhead for Mesa Arch, we hiked the short trail down. It was fun to see Cynthia and Felix’s reactions to the sight of this beautiful marvel. It looks so old and crumbly but reveals a majestic view through the arch of a jaw dropping painted canyon of pinks, blues and purples. You can’t really see that until you walk right up to it. We waited in the buddy line to get our picture taken. It was about a 30 minute wait. I swear one family was making a movie up there! We enjoyed talking to a conservative from Ohio who was very vocal about his disdain for liberal conservatives and liberals overall. He wasn’t shy about his opinions. They were so entertaining! He saw 2 lizards run under the foot of a woman walking back to the trail. As she took another step she almost stepped on one and screamed. He very loudly yelled “She’s a lizard stomper. She needs to be thrown out of the park!” We were doubled over laughing. We took their picture and they went on their way. The couple behind us, of course, had been listening to our entire conversation. When it came time for them to take our picture in front of the arch, we smiled and posed. It looked like he took 2 or more good pics, but upon inspection later that day, we found he hadn’t taken a single shot. On purpose? Who knows…

We then drove to Grand View Point and it certainly is! We ate our lunch in front of a spectacular view. We got out and explored a little and then decided we had enough of hikes. Felix and Cynthia wanted to see the dinosaur exhibits David and I had told them of because it fit their oil and gas careers. We then drove out to Mills Canyon and enjoyed the dinosaur tracks exhibit and the dinosaur trail exhibit. While hiking the short and fun dinosaur trail exhibit, we saw numerous fossils in the hillsides. Unless you were told you would have no idea what you were looking at. On our way back to the behemoth, we looked up to see a single pronghorn doe very close to us walking back up the hill from the wash (which had a little water in it). Great close to our day! We went to pick up David at the Wanderer for dinner.

We wrapped up the day with dinner on the patio at the Sunset Grill. Built into the side of a cliff, the views over Moab and the canyons were wonderful. Sunset Grill was the home of a miner that struck it rich after finding and exploiting a big Uranium deposit back in the 1950s.