RV Travels 2020 – Moab, Utah (Arches NP, Canyonlands NP, Dead Horse Point SP)

By Kathleen Ennen / September 17, 2020

SEP 11-18, 2020 – Moab, UT

This is a long delayed posting, finalized in early 2021, of our tour of Utah and the Big Five National Parks there. Since leaving Utah and then Arizona and New Mexico we returned to the the east cost. These posts are likely the last travel posts for a while as we decide to stay put and wait for the pandemic to end… Travel and planning has become a challenge!!! So back to Utah in September:

We turned off of I70 and headed south to Moab. As we got closer, it was like arriving on Mars! The terrain was rocky as we descended into a valley or canyon, surrounded by the red sandstone so prevalent, we learned, in southern Utah.

We spent about a week in the Moab area in order to see Needles (1 night) in the southern part of Canyonlands NP, spent one day driving around Arches NP, spent another day driving around the northern part of Canyonlands NP and two nights in Dead Horse Point State Park.

We enjoyed a walk around the town though didn’t spend much time in shops. There were lots of outfitter-type shops and 4 wheel vehicle rental shops. What we saw on the street or being towed around are street legal ATVs which have more safety gear than off road ATVs. If a ATV is not street legal it has to be towed to trail heads and not all trails are available for off road riding.

SEP 13, 2020 – Canyonlands National Park (Needles District)

Our first night out under the stars was at Needles and it was spectacular. We clearly saw Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The Milky Way was a bright swath across the dark sky. I sometimes wonder if getting a telescope for night sky viewing might be a good investment. Turns out that on following nights, as well as days, we started to encounter tremendous amounts of haze. One NPS staff member suggested it was smoke from the CA fires, and possibly the Creek fire. It’s with us for the remainder of our visits in Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. Subsequent conversations with several NPS staff confirmed the source of the ever-present haze were the California forest fires.

SEP 15, 2020 – Arches National Park

We had a rental car to navigate around Arches which proved to be a good idea. Driving and parking the RV at the many stops we made would have really slowed us down. At nearly every stop we had to occasionally wait for a space to open up and we were glad it was just a car that we had to park.

Having the car also enabled me to take the loop drive from Moab up to the La Sal Mountains. I followed the route that started south of Moab and ended coming down along the Colorado River and into town from the north. There were cows wandering in and near the road, some turkeys and several mule deer. It wasn’t crowded at all! Again there was a lot of haze so it was hard to actually see the town. There were several motorcycles making the run as well. A very good motorcycle road!!! Though the late afternoon sun would be in your eyes if you drove the north to south route.

SEP 17, 2020 – Canyonlands National Park (Island in the Sky District) and Dead Horse Point State Park

Dead Horse Point State Park is conveniently located next to the northern portions of Canyonlands National Park, Island in the Sky, and on the way from Moab. It’s at the top of the canyons so we saw more great vistas. Before going to our campsite at DHPSP we spent a few hours driving in Island in the Sky to see the overlooks. We had good, though hazy, views of both the Colorado River and its canyon and the Green River and canyon.

Dead Horse Point State Park is interestingly named:

The Legend of Dead Horse Point
Dead Horse Point is a peninsula of rock atop sheer sandstone cliffs. The peninsula is connected to the mesa by a narrow strip of land called the neck. There are many stories about how this high promontory of land received its name.

According to one legend, around the turn of the century the point was used as a corral for wild mustangs roaming the mesa top. Cowboys rounded up these horses, herded them across the narrow neck of land and onto the point. The neck, which is only 30-yards-wide, was then fenced off with branches and brush. This created a natural corral surrounded by precipitous cliffs straight down on all sides, affording no escape. Cowboys then chose the horses they wanted and let the culls or broomtails go free. One time, for some unknown reason, horses were left corralled on the waterless point where they died of thirst within view of the Colorado River, 2,000 feet below.

https://stateparks.utah.gov/parks/dead-horse/discover/

The road to the overlook at the end of the point is still only 30 yards wide making for an interesting experience as you drive along in an RV peering down both sides of steep cliffs!

On Sept 19 we left Dead Horse Point SP and Moab UT for Capital Reef NP.