Master Plan Adventures: Canyonlands National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park

Greetings again!

As a follow up to my previous post, here I will detail our multiple visits to Canyonlands National Park as well as our visit to Dead Horse Point State Park, which is right next to Canyonlands National Park.

Canyonlands National Park is known for its dramatic desert landscape carved by the Colorado River. The area we visited is its most popular - called the Island in the Sky - it is a huge, flat-topped mesa with beautiful panoramic overlooks.

I am going to go a bit out of sequence as I want to start with our early morning Monday venture for sunrise at Mesa Arch. Paul captured a beautiful time lapse:

This is a very popular thing to do! First light was at 6:40am with sunrise at 7:05am and we arrived to the Arch around 6:15am after a 5-10 minute hike in the dark (with flashlights!) and there were already about 10 people there. Most were legit photographers with thousands of dollars worth of equipment and in we came and Paul set up his GoPro right nearby - it was perfect! As time went on, more and more arrived and it was fun people-watching while witnessing the magic unfold with the sunrise.

The day before (Sunday), we visited the park and checked out the visitor center and went on a beautiful 3.5 mile hike - the Murphy Trail. It was a pretty flat trail along a mesa top, and as you went further, the scenery got more and more magical.

This view was steps from the Visitor Center

After our Murphy Trail trek, we headed to the end of the scenic drive to the Grand View Overlook.

On Wednesday, we returned to the area and explored Dead Horse Point State Park, which is right next to Canyonlands. This state park is magnificent and the facilities are top-notch. We had a picnic lunch and then hiked along the rim of the canyon. Dead Horse Point is named for a local legend where cowboys corralled wild mustangs on the plateau with a narrow exit, then left them trapped without water, leading to their deaths from thirst on the high, dry point while the Colorado River flowed 2,000 below. Yikes. It is also famous as the filming location for the final scene of Thelma and Louise.

A beautiful blue bird visited while we were having lunch.

The Colorado River below

You can see our truck in this photo - where we had lunch before the hike.

After Dead Horse Point, we took the short ride back to Canyonlands National park and this time, we drove the Shafer Trail. While hiking in Dead Horse Point, we noticed a road below and realized that we could go there! This historic off-road is known for its exhilarating, switchback descent (over 1000 feet) into the canyon, dramatic scenery and past use for ranching. 4-wheel drive definitely required!