3 May 2021 Dead Horse

 We got a bit of a late start today. We drove down to Arches NP entrance. After stopping to fight a crowed to get a picture of the entrance sign, we drove into the park only to be turned around. The park has set capacity limits due to COVID and parking limits and the park was “Full” at 1:30pm. Disappointed, we quickly came up with a plan B and headed for Dead Horse Point State Park ($20 entrance fee). The park received its name from the way the cowboys would herd maverick horses out onto the rocky point and fence them in. With fence on one side and 2500 foot drops on the other three sides, the wild horses were trapped. The cowboys would pick the horse they wanted for stock and leave the rest to die on the rocky point with no water. Seems they were competition with the cattle for grazing. The park is fairly small but has nice picnic areas, campground and several mountain biking trails which seemed quite popular. We stopped at the store so Leslie could pick up some more post cards. There were some trails along the rim by the visitor center that had incredible views into the canyons and the Colorado River. In the distance was the evaporation ponds of a phosphate mine which disrupted the views. We then drove out to the point and walked the rim trail while shooting LOTs of photos. The views of the deep canyons cut by the Colorado River were awe inspiring. The spectacular variation of colors in the cliffs are just not the same in the photos as in person. It gave us a taste of what to look forward too in the northern portion of Canyonlands NP. After soaking in the views, we headed into Moab to grab a early dinner and go grocery shopping (it’s the nearest store to where we are staying). We were surprised to find many of the restaurants closed until 5pm. We tried a recommended steak restaurant only to find it was not opening for dinner for an hour. The owner came out to apologize and explained he could not find people to hire. But the owner recommended we go over to Pasta Jays since they were open and said the Jumbo Stuffed Shells were fantastic. 

So we strolled over to Pasta Jays and got an outside table by the sidewalk along Main street. It was amusing to watch who was wearing face masks and who was not (Moab requires a face mask in town.). The food was pretty good an we relaxed and enjoyed ourselves. Then we headed to the grocery store. It was chaos! The place was packed with shoppers (everyone was wearing their masks) and we were constantly dodging around folks to find the things on our shopping list. We were really happy to get out of that chaotic environment and back to the peace of the Behemoth for our 34 mile drive back to the Wanderer.

Entrance Sign

Colorado River