We left Durango on Tuesday, July 8th and headed to Moab, Utah. The drive over was pretty easy as we only had to travel 160 miles. We got settled into our RV Park, Spanish Trail and decided to go out to do some sight seeing. We found ourselves at Canyonlands National Park, just thirty five miles west of Moab, the largest national park in the state of Utah. We found ourselves headed to the part of the park known at Island in the Sky. Views from Island in the Sky reach from the depths of the Green and Colorado rivers to the mountaintops and above., They stretch across canyon after canyon to the horizon 100 miles distant, Island in the Sky - a broad mesa wedged between the Green and Colorado - serves as Canyonland's observation tower. From here you can see vistas of almost incomprehensible dimensions, Closest to the mesa another 1,00 feet beneath White Rim are the rivers, shadowed by sheer canyon cliffs; beyond them lie the Maze and the Needles.
The middle photo was taken at the Mesa Arch. It is perched at the top of a cliff at the edge of the mesa. What an incredible sight!
After we left Canyonlands we stopped at Dead Horse Point State Park. This phenomenal park sits on a sandstone promontory towering 2,000ft directly above the Colorado River. The views from the edge are s
spectacular! Below you, the Colorado River makes a sharp bend through a landscape broken into a series of eroded terraces, pinnacles and buttes of the Canyonlands National Park. (See bottom photo)Why Dead Horse? The name of the park comes from the legend that cowboys chased wild horses onto the peninsula and corralled them by building a fence across the narrowest part. The animals were left too long without water and all died of thirst.
I was amazed to learn about the mighty Colorado River...it begins as a trickle of snow melt high in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. It starts its 1,440 mile journey through mountain canyons and flows through the middle of three major deserts on the way to the Sea of Cortez. The river and the use of its water, through the Colorado River Compact, has shaped the history of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, California, Nevada and New Mexico, which all depend on the Colorado River and its tributaries. In these states, the Colorado River has transformed 3.4 million acres of desert land into cities, farms and recreational playgrounds., From Colorado to California, the water flows through 33 reservoirs, 990 miles of pipes, 230 miles of tunnels, 188 pumping plants, 345 diversion dams, 50 power plants and 14,590 miles of canals. All from a trickle of melting snow.
That is all for the day. tomorrow we are off again...
Until later,
Candy and Johnny
