A group of us recently toured the main national parks in Utah, visiting Arches, Bryce and Zion. On these travels we also visited Dead Horse Point State Park and drove through Capital Reef National Park. The scenery both in the parks and between them along the byways we spectacular.
Dead Horse Point is a small state park near Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, and just north of Moab, UT. It was formed in 1959. The park is on a mesa which narrows to a point which is only about 100′ wide and surrounded on three sides by steep cliffs which drop 200′ or so to the basin formed by the Colorado River. It provides a spectacular view of the river and Canyonlands NP, and should be a must stop if you are in the area. The park is best visited in late afternoon.
The name is derived from legends. The most popular has it that local settlers corraled a bunch of wild horses on the point, trapping them with a fence made from brush. After selecting the best, they left the rest to die from lack of water in order the keep the horses out of the hands of the Utes, the local Indian tribe.
The site has appeared in a number of movies including the car scene in “Thelma and Louise”.
The Carefree Photographer 