Moab: Dead Horse Point and Canyonlands

On day three in Moab, Kona and I got up before dawn again, packed lots of water, lunch, sunglasses, cowboy hat, hiking shoes and dog biscuits, and headed for Dead Horse Point State Park.  It's one of the places in the area that is recommended for sunrise viewing.

You can see why.

From the high mesa that is the park, you look out over the canyons created by the Colorado River.  Kona stayed in the car, for although there is a nice trail that dogs are allowed on, in places it travels very close to the edge and I didn't want to endanger either of us. 

It's been pretty hazy around here lately because of the fires in Utah and neighboring states. So unless I was focusing on areas in direct sunlight, or close by, I was getting lots of muted colors, as in the shot above.

The day and I were still somewhat young and cool...  : )  so I decided to go on to Canyonlands National Park, part of which is in the same basic vicinity.  Canyonlands is an immense park, divided into three major districts: Needles, the Maze, and Island in the Sky (where we went).  Like Dead Horse Point, Island in the Sky is up on a mesa, and the park has lots of opportunities to look down into canyons and over great vistas.  Because Kona was with me I didn't do any hiking, but just stopped at overlooks along the road and took some pictures.  (Dogs are not allowed on any of the trails in the NP.)

The first stop was the Grand View Point Overlook. 

There were quite a few overlooks. This one is called the Orange Cliffs Overlook. Really.

Further on we stopped at the Shafer Canyon Overlook, out on this peninsula into the canyon.

I thought the most interesting thing about this canyon was the Shafer Trail Road, a very long and narrow dirt road that starts in the nearby town of Potash and zig-zags up the canyon walls until it ends on top of the mesa.  It is not a road I'd want to drive in Ms. Subaru or any other vehicle. No sir-ee bob.

By then is was getting too hot for dogs and fancy ladies, and these days that start off before sunrise are lo-ong. (I've been listening to too much Blake Shelton. I'm developing a good ol' boy twang.) We got back to the RV and like yesterday, took a nap. But we were back up again for more fun at sunset!