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| Dead Horse Point |
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| "Cooking" at the campsite |
Based on tips from a fellow RV doctor mom, we chose to stay at Dead Horse State Park as a home base to explore Canylonds National Park. Canyonlands does have a campground in the park but it is first come first served only and until we are comfortable with dispersed camping if we find a desired campsite full, we feel most comfortable with reserved sites. We stayed at the Kayenta Campground at Dead Horse and it was lovely. The kids greatly enjoyed the picnic area and the cabinets which allowed them to take their pretend kitchen game to the next level.
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| Dead Horse Point |
Dead Horse Point is incredible. Absolutely incredible. No pictures do it justice. I went by myself at sunset the first night and wow. It was way more impressive to me than the Grand Canyon. I ran around enjoying it from every angle, in some ways made all the more sweet by the fact that I knew I had to soak it all in quickly to get back to help with bedtime. We breakfasted at the point the next morning and even the kids understood they were seeing something amazing and were appropriately awestruck. There are some hikes that look great in this area but we had limited time and a couple must dos on our list so we headed off for some exploring outside of Moab.
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| Allosaurus track |
Our first stop was the Copper Ridge Dinosaur Trail. This was super cool. After a 0.15 mile stroll you can see tracks of a Brontosaurus and an Allosaurus (somewhat similar to a T rex) here in the Morrison Formation - a rock formation of mudstone, siltstone and sandstone deposited 150 million years ago during the Jurassic period. In Jurassic times this area was covered in rivers, swamps and dense tropical forests. One set of tracks is from a large Brontosaurus with his 2 foot wide hind feet. Much is made of the fact that this dinosaur is captured in mid-turn- he was turning to the right. Why? Your guess is as good as mine but it is fun to guess! There are also Allosaurus tracks - and one of them appeared to have been limping! You can even see the claw marks in the soft stone. So amazing. One more really cool experience I got to have for the first time with my favorite little people.
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| Brontosaurus track |
Next we went to the Mill Canyon Tracksite Interpretive Trail (0.4 mile loop) which is described as a living history museum. The trail also explores the Morrison Formation. This area used to be covered with swamps, river and forest. You are even able to see some of the outlines of the riverbed pebbles on the sides of rocks which really causes your brain to somersault a bit. This lovely short walk takes you past many labelled bones of various dinosaurs. These creatures likely lived along the river and after dying their bones deposited along this past time river bed and over millions of years, fossilized. Some are obvious and others require a bit of hunting which adds to the fun- they have turned purple with time so can be seen as distinct from the rock even for the least archeologically inclined among us.
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| Intrepid Trail |
Lastly, we mountain biked the Intrepid Trail System at Dead Horse. The views were great but the terrain was much more difficult for my daughter so we didn't go as long as I would have liked. It was a different learning curve that at Goblin Valley - lots of rocks and large patches of slick rock. She picked up on it quickly and by the end was more confident than me but the was tuckered out. That girl's got grit though and I was so proud of her.
Canyonlands is about 15 minutes from Dead Horse so we were able to spend a full day at Canyonlands with minimal driving. See my Canyonlands National Park for details of that park.
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