Saturday, November 7, 2015

At Dead Horse Point State Park

The Logan Temple has been closed for cleaning and maintenance for a couple of weeks. With no temple duties, Iris and I decided to take a little trip over to Pueblo, Colorado, where our son Philip and his family live. We haven't been able to spend much time with them recently, so this was a good opportunity for us. We decided to take our time and enjoy the trip, and of course, see some of the beauties of nature along the way. We spent the first night in Green River, Utah. Not much very scenic about Green River, but it's close to Dead Horse Point State Park, Canyonlands National Park, Moab and Arches National Park. The weather was kind of nip and tuck changeable, but with a little patience, we were able to see some truly amazing scenery, and of course get a few pictures to remind us of our trip, and to share with any who are interested, Dead Horse Point State Park first.
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.

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