DEAD HORSE POINT EXPEDITION!

 Strange name for an incredible location:

The story of how Dead Horse Point got its name, reminds me of Jesus' "Parable of the Sower".   In both stories, plants and animals died, because they did not get what they needed to survive.   In the case of this Utah park, it is located at the very end of a mesa 2,000 feet above the Colorado River.  According to legend, cowboys of the 1800's used the end point of the mesa as a corral to keep a herd of horses together, by blocking off the only escape route (a strip of the mesa peninsula that was only 30 feet wide), so that they could not wonder away from the corral, which was surrounded on three sides by 2,000 foot bluffs.  Since this is a desert landscape, with no year-round water source, and no cover from extreme weather conditions, the horses (unable to leave to search for water) all died.  Even to this day, all water used at Dead Horse Point State Park has to be trucked in from Moab, Utah (about 30 miles away).

A tag line I have seen for the state of Utah, is "Greatest Earth on Show"---a paradigm shift from "Greatest show on earth"!  This placard illustrates that boast.

I had visited this park years ago on a group tour, but did not get to do any hiking there.  So I was delighted to have the opportunity to return with my son, so we could do some exploring of their trails together. 

 We hiked the East Rim Trail, which is accessible via a paved path near the visitor center.  This photo shows how the trail descends from the visitor center:

There are 8 miles of hiking trails in the park, and over twice that number of bicycle trails; but, notice bicycles are not allowed on the East Rim Hiking Trail, where we were exploring.

This trail will take you by several scenic overlooks, where one is looking out at the distant mountain range, the canyons, and unusual-looking, blue water features:

The placards explain these water features are potash evaporation ponds.  They are part of a large operation to mine potassium chloride---more commonly referred to as muriate of potash (MOP)---from ore buried underground.  MOP is in high demand as fertilizer because there are no easy substitutes for potassium, an essential nutrient for plant growth.  The ponds go through different color stages, with the different colors indicating a different state of evaporation.  The deep, royal blue color is due to a dye that is added to a full pond of potash brine and water, in order to speed up the rate of heat absorption. The seafoam green colors indicate shallower water (with less dye) that are well into the evaporation process.  The tan colored ponds are nearly dry; finally, salt crystals (the final product) are left over in the pond, and ready for collection.  The whole process takes about 300 days.   (Some folks on low sodium diets, use salt substitutes that are potassium chloride.  Common table salt is sodium chloride.)

Here is a photo of my son, as he scouts out the trail ahead of me.  He is the person in blue, standing at an overlook in the center of the photo.

One thing he scouted out for a photo opp, was a hole in the rock to serve as a frame for the potash evaporation ponds, thousands of feet below on the valley floor.  By the way, I read on the Internet that Dead Horse Point State Park is the only way a land-bound visitor can view the potash ponds, in a place that does not require a four-wheel drive vehicle.  Of course, they can be seen from the air, and there are also photographs of them, taken by astronauts on the International Space Station.  The white border of the pond in this photo indicates that evaporation is complete, and the potash is ready to be harvested.

When I asked my son what he was so intently photographing, he said he was getting shots that could be used later as close-up landscapes for miniatures, because there was nothing on the surfaces of the rock bluff that would give an indication of scale. 

An example of the "deceitfulness" of scale is below:

We did not see many people along the trail on the chilly day we hiked it, but we did encounter one couple who kindly offered to take a photo of the two of us together:

One of the hazards listed on the park website is falling from the steep cliffs, and this photo shows why the low rock walls should serve as a reminder not to get too close to the edge.  A few weeks before we visited, a man had fallen to his death, when he lost his footing as he got too close to the edge.

As we continued along the east rim trail, we eventually reached a covered pavilion, where the most popular lookout is located, because it is accessible via car. 

I was glad to reach the covered pavilion, because there were placards there, that told what we were looking at.

A short distance from the covered pavilion there is a different overlook that will put you directly over the big horseshoe shape of the Colorado River below:

This long-awaited visit to this park could not go without expressing gratitude for being able to be here:

By now, the light sprinkle of rain had become heavier, so my son offered to jog back to the car in the rain, while I waited under the covered pavilion.  I took him up on this very "gentleman-like" courtesy! The paved road led to the pavilion and adjacent restrooms:

Following our hike on the first day, we went to our yurt, which had been arranged through the official vendor of the park, Reserve America at 1-800-452-5687.

This was the first time either my son or me had spent the night in a yurt, so we were eager to see what it was like:

I climbed up on top of the bunk beds, to take an overhead shot:

There have been numerous movies filmed in this park, and one of them shows Tom Cruise in the Mission Impossible series, free climbing at a very high elevation.  I wanted to be like him, and be able to say I also "went climbing" at Dead Horse Point State Park, so I climbed to the highest elevation available---the top bunk---and insisted my son take my photo:

One takes their own sleeping bags for their overnight yurt stay, and I had brought ours from Arkansas when I drove to Utah  .  A maximum of six people are allowed in the yurt, which accounts for the six chairs around the table.   The bunk beds will sleep four, and the futon will sleep two.

As the sun went down in the west, I went outside to get a photo:

By the time we turned off the lights to go to sleep, another storm had blown in, and although it may not have been that severe, it sounded like a monsoon, to us, as it pelted the soft vinyl walls with raindrops, and shook the lattice supports, like a porch swing! But wonder of wonders, the structure did not blow away, and kept us dry throughout the night!  When I awoke the next morning, everything outside had been given a good bath, and a new day of exploring was ready to commence!

Cooking is not allowed inside the yurt, but there is a grill on the deck, as well as a fire-pit beside each yurt. 

There is also a cooking grill on the deck:

We were in the Moenkop yurt area, and in addition to the yurts, there was a pavilion with picnic tables, where groups could gather.

Also, beside our yurt was the "Big Chief Trail":

The park has spaces devoted to groups only, although I did not see anyone using these sites.  With the "social distancing" that was recommended to mitigate the spread of COVID19, there seems to be a trend to family units camping together, rather than large groups.  If you want to get away from crowded parks, I would definitely recommend Dead Horse Point State Park in Utah!

The park's Intrepid system has 17 miles of single track mountain biking trails, which explains why there would be a bicycle rack adjacent to the yurt area.

Since the water has to be trucked in from Moab (30 minutes away) each morning, it is understandable why there are no shower facilities in any of the campgrounds or yurt areas.  Which makes me that much more thankful for the 4 bathrooms beside the yurts, that had flush toilets and handwashing facilities!

On the positive side, the trips to the bathroom across the parking lot, helped me easily make my goal of 10,000 steps per day!  The photo below is taken through the window of the front door of the yurt.  Our car was the only one in the "cul-de-sac" the entire time we were there.  The building beyond the car is the bathroom structure, with four individual rooms.

The bathroom building had a deep sink, for dishwashing only.  Perhaps the camp management was concerned I might try to get inside the sink and take a bath, and thus the need for the warning sign!

Our second day in the park, the sun was out, so we wanted to return to the scenic overlook to do some photography under different light conditions.  One reason this view may look so familiar to folks who have never been there, is that it is often used in  movies, as a "stand-in" vista, to represent the Grand Canyon.  In general, it is less expensive and less red tape, for a movie to be produced in a state park, rather than a national park.  Remember the movie, "Thelma and Louise", where the two ladies drove their car off a cliff at the (supposedly) Grand Canyon?  In reality, the scene was filmed at Dead Horse Point State Park!

I like to give my "arms uplifted in gratitude" gesture, whenever I get the chance, so here is a photo my son took of me at the lower viewpoint, as he stood on the upper, wheelchair accessible deck:

I was pleased to see such a nice and sturdy wheelchair accessible deck that provided (possibly the best!) views of the Canyonlands National Park in the distance:

This is a photo of my son that I took on the lower observation point, as he stood on the wheelchair-accessible viewing deck, that reached out over the rocks:

On our first day in the park, the distant mountain range did not show up well, but with the clear skies of the second day, one can see the snow capped beauty of the La Sal Mountain range in the background.

Whereas dogs are not allowed on hiking trails in national parks, dogs (on a leash) are allowed on most of the hiking trails in this state park.  As you can see from the shear dropoffs, however, it needs to be a short leash!

This state park has an unusual name, as I explained at the beginning of this article, and I can see how it relates to Jesus' parable about the sower of the seeds; that parable contains a verse I am trying to memorize for my healthy living program, called First Place 4 Health (www.FirstPlace4Health.com).  Mark 4:19 says, "But the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the Word, making it unfruitful."   Just as those horses of the early pioneers were abandoned and left to die from lack of nourishment, so God's Word will die in our lives, if we do not nourish it.  

Before we left the park, we made one last stop in the Visitor Center, as I had some "unfinished business" there.  For one thing, I did not get to take any photos inside the previous day, so here is a photo of some of their souvenir items, as well as the second story veranda that looks out over the canyon rim. Although the brochures say this is a coffee shop, it was not functioning as such when I was there---possibly because of COVID issues. You can phone the visitor center at 435-259-2614 to check the status of its coffee shop operation.  Likewise, visit the website, www.stateparks.utah.gov , to find out the latest updates about  park conditions.

The main reason I returned to the Visitor Center, was to leave a check in their donation box, to express my gratitude to the Park Ranger who had driven out to our yurt, trying to return my phone to me, that another visitor had found along the trail.  To say I was thankful is an understatement!  (I had tried to give the Ranger a monetary reward for returning my phone.  He said they were not allowed to accept such a gift, and suggested I put it in their donation box at the Visitor Center, instead.)   All the photos you see of me in this blog with my arms uplifted in gratitude, are heartfelt expressions of thankfulness for the honest person who found my phone, and turned it in to the Visitor Center.  If they had kept it, hoping to profit from it in some way, this trip would have had a whole different mood!  That example of integrity, gave me "MILES OF SMILES"!!!

GOBLIN VALLEY STATE PARK EXPEDITION!

It was a post card that first alerted me to the fact that there was such a place as Goblin Valley State Park.  It was back in the eighties, when my husband and I were on a motorcycle trip out west.  I had taken a photography course where the instructor advised the participants to always look at the post cards of new places they were visiting, to determine what was important to photograph/visit in a particular area. (This was before the days of the Internet, where you can just Google "Top ten things to see in such and such")

The word "goblin" may not denote anything other than Halloween to most people; but to me, it was a word I had heard and seen, almost daily,  all my life !  That is because I grew up and attended school for 12 years, where our mascot was a goblin, and I strongly identified myself as a  "Harrison Goblin"! 

So you can imagine how delighted I was to actually be on my way to visit Goblin Valley State Park!

 

What made this occasion even more special is that I was visiting with my son, who is also a Goblin! (notice his shirt has the Harrison Goblin logo on the front)

 

 I had visited the park back in July of 2021, but did not hike there because the visitor center had a sign,  warning of the dangers of venturing out onto the desert terrain in such harsh conditions.  The photo below shows that the outside temperature  was 93 degrees, but the warning sign in the visitor center stated the heat index was over 100.  (the large butte on the horizon, is the one used as a "landmark" for directing explorers back to the visitor center).

Ever since July, 2021, I had the goal of returning to Goblin Valley with a fellow Goblin, (my son), and here he is, walking into the Visitor Center, when we visited in November, 2021.  My goal was achieved!  Although there was no line of cars to get into the park on the autumn day we visited, the rangers told me that during the height of the pandemic, the line of cars waiting to get into the park, might stretch as long as a mile. (because people were searching for outdoor activities to do as a family unit)  If you want to check on how busy the park is on a particular day, the phone number for the Visitor Center is 435-275-4584, and their website is www.stateparks.utah.gov

 Once inside the visitor center, there are exhibits that tell about the park, and its location to the greater San Rafael Swell.  The San Rafael Swell is a massive anticline that was uplifted ages ago, and covers a large expanse in the state of Utah.  Interstate 70 provides a very scenic drive through the San Rafael Swell, and has scenic overlooks in several areas, that provide views which make for great photo opportunities. 

 

 

As the above photo shows, the gift shop also sells souvenirs, and the one I was looking for was a metal medallion for my hiking stick:

There is also a display of rock types:

 The park brochures recommend using the Wild Horse Butte ( shown in photo below), easily visible beside the Visitor Center, as your landmark in case you get lost exploring the park, since hiking towards it, will eventually get you back to the park entrance station:

 

 The scientific name for these "goblins" my son is gazing at in the valley below, is "hoodoos".  The hoodoos were formed through the erosion of Entrada sandstone, which was deposited ages ago, when the area was a tidal flat, situated next to an ancient sea.  As sand washed in with the tides, the surrounding area eroded into the sea, depositing silt and clay.  These components layered to form inter-bedded sandstone.  This tidal phenomenon is easy for me to visualize when I think back to my visit to the Bay of Fundy on the Atlantic Canadian coast, known for the greatest tidal fluctuations in the world!

In addition to the picnic tables under the covered pavilion, there was a picnic table on an uncovered ledge, right on the edge of the overlook.  By the way, I would recommend you take with you any meals you hope to consume at the park, as there are no foodservice facilities. 

From the area where the picnic tables are, there are steps going down to the Valley Floor:

My son, the Harrison Goblin, amongst the hoodoo goblins (he is the blue one)!

 Down in Goblin Valley, one can be a long way off, but still visible.  The dry channels seen in this photograph shows the downward direction that water travels, whenever there is rain. 

One of the first things I did upon arriving, was purchase matching Goblin Valley State Park tee shirts for my son and me, that we could wear while exploring the park;  my son set up his smart phone on a tripod, to take the photo shown below.  When you see the shape of the formations surrounding us, it is understandable why this place was originally called "Mushroom Valley".  Nature sculpts the unusual shapes through a process called spheroidal weathering.  Because the siltstone and shale layers are softer than the more resistant sandstone layers, they dissolve more quickly.  As vertical cracks appear, the sandstone's sharp corners are smoothed by chemical decomposition and erosion, forming the rounded caps and curves of these otherworldly formations. 

When I looked into lodging for us at Goblin Valley, I read they had yurts for rent, and photos showed they were in very scenic locations.  However, when I phoned the number to make a reservation to rent one of these yurts (800-322-3770), I learned they were not available during the time my son and I would be visiting.  However, the effort was worthwhile, as the operator said there was a yurt available to rent at a (somewhat) nearby state park, called Dead Horse Point State Park.  The result was that we ended up renting a yurt for an overnight stay, after all, when we visited Dead Horse Point State Park the following day .  (that experience will be the subject of a separate blog)

Since there are only two yurts for rent at Goblin Valley  (and the closest "big city" with ample lodging available, is the 50-miles-away Green River, Utah), this sign almost always says "Campground Full"!

Although there are some marked trails along the ridges surrounding the valley, there are no designated paths or hiking trails in the valley, so one can just wander around to their hearts content.  My wandering had a goal, however, and that was to find neat locations for photographs, like the one below where I am photographing my son through a "window" of orange sandstone:

We walked across the valley to a distant, aqua colored dome, and climbed to the top.  My son took this photo of me on top of the dome, hoping to show some of the fascinating landscape in the background.  One can see paths traversing the ridge behind me, that indicate where most visitors try to make their way to the top of the valley. 

To give you some perspective on where above photo was taken, in photo below, the light colored dome is the one we climbed and that I am sitting on, in above photo (notice there are two "windows" in the sandstone ledge on the horizon:)  Looking at this unique landscape, it is easy to see why the producers of the science fiction movie, Galaxy Quest, chose Goblin Valley, for the scenes depicting astronauts, landing on a distant planet in outer space. 

On the far right of the photo below, the viewer sees a top layer of lighter-colored stone, which the brochure says is part of the Curtis Formation.  It also says that the red cliffs on the edge of the valley will gradually erode and expand the goblin landscape.

This is one of my favorite photos, because it illustrates so well the effects of erosion on different types of stone.  Some of the rock layers erode faster than other layers, resulting in the overhanging ledges.  The official brochure for Goblin Valley listed the layers as Morrison Formation, Summerville Formation, Curtis Formation, and Entrada Sandstone.  The Entrada Sandstone shown in this photo is a fine-grain sandstone, along with siltstone, and gypsum.

Since my son has much longer legs, and is used to rock climbing, he made it to the "Top of the Rock" quite some time before I did!

 

 I took a semester-long college photography course when my son was a pre-schooler.  Every week we had a new assignment involving some principle of photography and composition to learn, so I took hundreds of photos of the cutest thing around at that time---my little boy!  To say I wore him out with photos is an understatement, and accounts for the fact that many of the photos in this blog are taken from behind him, to avoid his objections.  One of my favorite pictures I have from that college class in the 1970's is the black and white photo below ( we had to develop our own prints in the darkroom, for the course!)  His quote as a youngster is shown in the caption, and says, "When I grow up, I am going to climb big rocks."  He did just that, even summiting the famous "El Cap" in Yosemite!

We were incredibly blessed to have fantastic weather on the day we spent in Goblin Valley.  As the photo below shows, the walking surface was very dry.  This was an answer to prayers, because friends who visited this park when it was damp and rainy, warned that it was a very muddy trudge, in wet conditions. 

I am using this photo of me "pressing" against the rock surfaces, as the visual aid for one of my First Place 4 Health (www.FirstPlace4Health.com) memory verses that says, "I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."  Philippians 3:14

The tiny black spot you can see in the photo below, is me with arms uplifted in gratitude.  I am so thankful I had this opportunity to explore Utah's Goblin Valley State Park with a fellow Harrison Goblin ---my son!  Spending time with him in Goblin Valley, gave me "MILES OF GOBLIN SMILES"!!