Twisp of Fate

On our third day here we moved the trailer to the new spot, did laundry, and just kind of took it easy.  In the afternoon we took off in the truck to explore the mesa top country.  The access road to the Island in the Sky section of Canyonlands NP takes off just a quarter mile down the highway from where we are staying, and it also leads to Dead Horse Point State Park.  We decided to make that our destination for the afternoon.

Dead Horse Point is a small mesa separated from the “mainland” by only a 30-ft wide neck of land.  The main vista is to the east over the canyonlands and the Colorado River.  Quite spectacular, but so vast it is hard to take in, much less photograph.  There were a lot of high clouds that day and the light was flat, colors washed, but after a bit the sun broke through and we were able to make out more relief in the rock formations.

Dead Horse Point State Park

That’s a potash evaporation pond in the far distance.  They pump water from the river into the layer that contains the potash, then dry the liquid in lined evaporation ponds.  Then they “mine” it with bulldozers and take it to a refining plant nearby.  The blue color is from something they add to speed up the evaporation process.

A woman we met from Australia had told us the bike trail at this park was really great and quite civilized compared to what she was used to at home.  So we got our folding bikes out of the truck and set off from the visitor center parking  lot only to discover that neither bikes nor riders were up to the challenge.  It was a mix of red dirt and slick rock and way too bumpy and uneven for the little tires on our folding bikes!  Oh well, worth a try.

Sunday we went back up the same road to explore the Island in the Sky district of the national park.  Much of it is also an isolated mesa, separated from the adjoining land by a 40-ft wide neck called “The Neck”, strangely enough.  This mesa is quite convoluted in shape but fairly large, 43 square miles.  We hiked a total of about 7 miles this day, but not all in the same place.  The shortest one was a half-mile nature walk to see Mesa Arch, through which you look down on the canyonlands below:

Mesa Arch at Canyonlands

The longest one was a 3.6 mile round trip to Murphy Point, which looks out to the southwest over the Green River as it flows down to join the Colorado, and also an area of the park called The Maze, which is accessible only by jeep trail and hiking trails.

the view from Murphy Point at Canyonlands

It was another gorgeous sunny day, temps in the 80’s, but extremely windy.  When we got back to camp, we discovered our Kelty awning had imploded and some of the edge binding had torn loose, so we had to take it down.  I should be able to repair it once I get back home to my sewing machine, but no more vestibule/shelter for the side of the trailer for the rest of this trip.

Yesterday was our last full day here, and we went back to Arches NP to explore the Devils Garden area trails.  It was a high overcast day, windy, temps in the mid-70’s – very comfortable for hiking, but the light and colors were very flat for photography.  This trail starts off very groomed and civilized and there were many people.  There are a number of arches to visit on spur trails along the way.

Partition Arch in the Devils Garden

After about a mile you have to climb up a steep rock fin, and that is where the wheat is separated from the chaff, so to speak.  There are many visitors from Europe, Japan, Australia, and Canada (we heard a lot of French, which could mean people from France – or from Quebec) and they all seemed to make the distance to the end of the trail.  But some of this trail is not for the agoraphobic!

check out the signpost

Rick on a rock fin at Devils Garden

Last night we had dinner in Moab at a nice place called the Desert Bistro.  It was really windy with strong gusts during the night, and began raining this morning.  We feel lucky to have had such beautiful weather during our 5 days here exploring the 2 parks.  I felt so sorry for the people here camped in tents, it must have been a miserable night and a muddy red morning.  But we are packing up and heading off to Colorado, where hopefully the weather will improve!