Red

Red everywhere 10/20/2012

Linda, Brent and I took a driving tour (thanks Brent for driving us) to ogle some of the beauty that surrounds us.

Linda and Brent

Whenever I plan to go on a trip I shall be sure to tell my friend Lynne where I am going. She is well traveled, and keeps well informed about travel and sights to see. Thanks to Lynne, I was able to share with Linda and Brent the Dead Horse Point State Park. As Lynne so aptly put it -- it is the most spectacular place I had never heard of. As with the Grand Canyon, photos cannot show the true depth of beauty of the canyon. Among other things, this canyon is of Thelma and Louise fame. Makes me want to rent that movie. Older movies like "Stagecoach" and "Covered Wagon" were filmed here as well.

Dead Horse

Legend has it that cowboys, back in the day, corralled wild mustangs onto the neck of the land on this point. It made for a natural corral surrounded by cliffs which would allow no escape. The cowboys would chose the horses they wanted and let the others go free. One time (the legend says) the horses were left on this (waterless) point and died of thirst.

At Dead Horse Point

This note posted in the restroom tells us that this park has no water:

 

From Dead Horse Point we drove on to Arches National Park. There are over 2000 stone arches in the 119 square mile park. We were on a mission for a mile and a half walk for a glorious view of the Landscape Arch at road's end -- the longest arch in the country and second longest in the world, or something like that. We arrived at the trailhead to find that we were not the only ones with this idea, and there was not a parking spot to be found anywhere in the lot or alongside of the road. So we aborted that plan believing that our tour guide will bring us here as one of the attractions -- and if not, we will return on our own.

Around every turn there is something spectacular to see, admire, wonder at, and to take a photo of. We did get to see one arch -- Skyline Arch.

Skyline Arch

Not seeing more arches did not detract from all that we did see. The work of water (once the inland sea), ice and wind have created sculptured monuments throughout the park.

 

 

Sheep Rock

 

Balance Rock

 

Brent doing his artistic bit to get Linda balancing the Balance Rock on her fingertip.

We left the park and Brent drove us for more views along the Colorado River before returning to our motel. We went on our separate ways for the afternoon and I finished my "shopping", took a walk to City Market to check out where we could purchase lunch makings for the week. All this brought me home by quite late afternoon and I was pretty much done for the day.

We meet with our tour group tomorrow afternoon for orientation and bike fitting.

 

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