Day 4

Another day looking at red rocks. We went to Deadhorse Point State Park. The park contains a point that overlooks the Colorado river. The point is several acres in size. It's sides are sheer cliffs that drop several hundred feet. The entry to the point is a narrow neck of land that is less than 100 feet across.

The point got its name in the 1800's when cowboys would drive wild horses onto it. They would corral the horses there by building a fence across the neck of the point. Usually the cowboys would separate out the horses they needed and release the rest. Apparently on one occasion they forgot to release a group of horses. The horses subsequently died of thirst.

I suspect that this may be be a sanitized version of the story. The point would also be a great place to strand wild horses that were competing with cattle for the available fodder.

Views from the point include sheer red rock walls hundreds of feet high. These end in deep canyons that lead to the Colorado. The Colorado here is a grass green in color. The wind was blowing hard at times. Hard enough that it was difficult to stand straight. The wind went all the way down to the river (maybe 1500 feet below). We could see the waves it kicked up on the river's surface.

The point overlooks an interesting mining operation. There are 400 acres of evaporation ponds. They contain water from the Colorado that has been pumped underground to a formation containing potash. The potash goes into solution and the water is pumped back up to the evaporation ponds. The operation produces 240,000 tons of potash a year. I wonder how much water they take out of the Colorado.

There are a couple of things that I've been meaning to mention and have forgotten to write about. First is the effects of the lack of humidity. One finds oneself drinking a lot more liquid than usual. I drink at least twice as much as I do when I'm in Oregon. More if I'm hiking in the desert. I've also gotten right back into the swing of desert hiking. Just set a comfortable pace that I can keep up indefinitely. Don't hurry and the distance will disappear sooner than I expect.

The second thing is the stars. There is little in the way of air or light pollution in either Snowville or Moab. An elevation of over 5,000 feet helps, too. The stars are numerous and brilliant. The Milky Way is a solid haze of stars. It's the kind of show that makes you stand outside looking up until your neck aches.

Tomorrow is a travel day, so I'll have to set the alarm. I hate it when that happens.