Dead Horse State Park

 To finish up Canyonlands, we continued to walk along that edge of the canyon for more wonderful views!

More "western movie" views!

We later found out that you can DRIVE down in this canyon - you must have a permit and it takes 2 to 3 days to get to the end of it so you have to camp along the way.  I think we'll leave that trip to the younger ones!

We stopped at a couple more overlooks and had plans to do one more hike but my leg was hurting so we opted to just drive through the rest of the park.  We stopped at Canyonlands Visitor Center but had the same results as Arches - only the gift shop was open!  But I did get a really cool Christmas ornament!

Since Dead Horse State Park was on the same road, we headed there next.  Our national park pass wouldn't work here of course but we gladly paid the fee to get in!  We had planned to just drive through this state park but since the road was blocked off, you had to go through the visitor parking lot to get back to the main road!  I saw a bunch of people walking a trail so told Glenn to park so we could walk it and I'm sure glad we did!  It was a gorgeous trail and the views were outstanding!

We were glad we had our jackets on for this outing as it was windy and cool!

And as you can see by the picture, the clouds were rolling in and we even had a few sprinkles!

That's the Colorado River that you see below, cutting its way through all of the canyons!  The park only receives about 10" of rain a year so it really is an arid desert environment!

And how did the park get its name?  According to one legend, the point was once used as a corral for wild mustangs roaming the mesa.  Cowboys rounded up these horses and herded them across the narrow neck of land onto the point.  The neck, which is only 30 yards wide, was then fenced off with branches and brush to create a natural corral  surrounded by cliffs.  The cowboys then chose the horses they wanted and for reasons unknown, left the others there on the waterless point where they died of thirst.  That's an awful story!!!!!

We ate our lunch at a picnic area and then headed back to the hotel  - Glenn's nap time you know!

That evening we had decided to get to the Broken Oak Restaurant right when it opened at 5:00 because then it would be daylight!  We found the turn just fine and it was a beautiful log building inside and out.

We had an awesome waitress who even made Glenn blush!!  I had decided to order the sweet potato fries (even though I'm not a sweet potato fan) and I'm SO GLAD I did!  OMG - they were absolutely delicious!  Probably because they were drizzled with their signature sauce made of cinnamon, sugar, salt, caramel and lemon zest!  WOW - what a great meal!!  (and the shrimp was good too!!)  We sat right by a massive fireplace so I highly recommend this place if you are ever in Moab!