What a strange name – Dead Horse! Yeah, I also thought about this all that day. But let me start from the beginning.

We woke up in Moab. When waited for our pancakes on the hotel breakfast I watched the family of deer stopped at the intersection on the red light. At first, I thought: “I need sleep more. I have visions…” But then all start seeing them… The place of the red canyon, green river, and the not so wild animals wished me good morning.
From the very first day I started to imagine that I’m walking on Mars. And the second day left exactly the same feeling. That day we spend in the Canyonlands. On both side of Colorado River.
We drove one of the scenic Utah’s road #313 when Merrimac and Monitor Buttes caught my sight. And didn’t release until I made a photo of them.




When I read John Carter from Mars, I imagine exactly the same red land. Buttes. Rocks. Strange cactuses. Canyons. And dead horses…
I never pissed to see Grand Canyon. I still think it’s touristy overrated. The red wide canyon. But why no one told me that canyons are not so unique. That Canyonlands are not worse than Grand Canyon?!


Every time I return to the vacation that day in Canyonlands woke up more sweet memories than the whole trip. I dunno why because I didn’t like that much Canyonlands National Park.
At the Mesa Arch (yeah, arch like in Arches but with the view of the canyon) we didn’t find crowds.



And it’s truly one of the best places in the park



I didn’t plan long the long hike for that day. Temperatures were surprisingly high for us not my breezy Sf Bay Area summer. But we walked to Upheal Dome (hiked?). And I expected more… From the upper viewpoint was hard to make decent photo


Unexpectedly lower viewpoint gave us better look

We visited only 1/3 of the park – Island in the sky – the rocky land in between two rivers: Green and Columbia. And as you could imagine everything we watched this day was about rivers and their canyons.
Green River

Candlestick

and Buck Canyon



The epic of the park is Grandview Point (like Grand Canyon but Grand View)





I told that I didn’t plan hike… But I actually planned adevture. I should tell that Eugene is always picky about the road quality. He almost killed me because of the way to Golden and Silver Falls. That why I asked to rent a jeep alike car for Utah trip. So we did. Kia Sorento. Thank you so much, beutiful and reliable mechanism, you helped us a lot!
So what about adventure you’ll ask. There is a place in the park named Gooseneck. I wanted ti check it out but the only way to it was 6-7 miles dirt 4×4 road downhill from the wall of the Columbia River canyon. I didn’t take a photo of the way down. Not because I didn’t like it. But because I was so afraid and scared. Road with thigh, and dirt, and with the abyss on my sight. And Eugene told dirt jokes about falling rock. Not funny. I was afraid mostly of him not of me 🙁
So Gooseneck


But I always feel better on the uphill road 🙂


That’s all photos of the road we took: compare first and second, ha-ha!
So we left the national park near 6 pm which is actually good time to wait for sunset. And we drove to the Dead Horse. Yeah, they named it after all cowboy’s dead horses. And if the national park was about two rivers, state park is everything about beauty of Green River canyon. Check it out.








The same Gooseneck from the different viewpoint




This was the place were we decide to wait for sunset