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Dead Horse Point State Park, Utah

Introduction Dead Horse Point State Park Dead Horse Point State Park at Colorado River level Related Links

Dead Horse Point slideshow.jpg
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Dead Horse Point State Park in Utah, used to be used as a natural horse corral. The mesa is surrounded by sheer drop-offs on all sides, except for an easily blocked strip of land about 15 feet wide (called the Neck) that's attached to a peninsula of land. There are several versions of why it's called "Dead" Horse Point, so ask at the Visitors Center.

That was then. Today you can drive through the Neck, to the end of the mesa for a spectacular view of the Colorado River and canyons it created, as well as the gooseneck the Colorado forms as it enters Canyonlands National Park.

Dead Horse Point State Park Map
Cropped map of Dead Horse Point State Park.
Click on the map for a larger view.
Unfortunately, Mother Nature badly placed everything here, and the Colorado River lies to the South of the Point, so the sun will always be in front of you. Morning would probably be best for photography. I was there in the afternoon, which washed out the sky to the West...

In any event, Dead Horse Point is literally on the way to or from the Islands in the Sky District of Canyonlands National Park. A definite stop is in order, if only to get a better view of the river itself.

Dead Horse Point State Park
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In 2005 we took a Jet Boat tour down the Colorado from Moab to Canyonlands (highly recommended, by the way), and one of the stops was near Dead Horse Point at river level.

Dead Horse Point State Park at Colorado River level
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Related Links

Arches and Canyonlands National Parks are neighbors of Dead Horse Point State Park.

Arches National Park
Arches Link Arches National Park is a unique park, a sandstone desert with a unique geology that allows the formation of stone arches. Arches National Park has the greatest density of stone arches in the world.

Although it's only a few dozen river miles upriver from Canyonlands, the two parks are completely different in character and content.
Near Moab, Utah / 58 Images. Visited Sep 1997, Sep 2005
Canyonlands National Park
Canyonlands Link Canyonlands National Park is proto-Grand Canyon, and in my opinion even more impressive in many ways. It is the confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers, a major contributor making the Colorado the powerhouse river of the Southwest. Once the Colorado enters Canyonlands, it doesn't leave Federal land until the river reaches the California.

I've only been to the Island In The Sky District, since it was the most accessible.

Near Moab, UT / 49 Images. Visited Sep 1997, Sep 2008.
Colorado River
Colo River Link The Colorado River starts as a small stream in Rocky Mountain National Park, and gathers hundreds of other streams and rivers along the way to become the lifeline of the Southwest, providing water, electricity and recreation to millions in the five states the river flows through or touches.

I've actually followed the river in one form or another, from Rocky Mountain National Park to Grand Canyon. I've also done more river miles on the Colorado than any other river...

Colorado, Utah and Arizona / 55 Images. Visited Sep 2005, Sep 2008.

Dead Horse Point Trip Reports: Sep 2005, Sep 2008.

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