Dead Horse Point State Park, Utah - Oct. 2013

Dead Horse Point State Park is south west of Moab UT. The park is on a mesa that looks down into canyons and a gooseneck of the Colorado River. The potash evaporation ponds in the canyon are a vivid blue.

There are some easy hikes that cross cairn marked areas smoothed rock with potholes of water; it had rained recently enough for tadpoles to be swimming in the deepest ones.

The mountains in the distance held snow.

And everywhere the layers of exposed rock marked Earth’s time just as tree rings mark the much shorter duration of the lives of plants.

We were glad we got to the park early since, with the National Parks still closed that day, this state park was the destination of the day for many vacationers.

Enjoy the slide show of Dead Horse Point State Park sights!

Abajo Mountains and Newspaper Rock, Utah

Our trip to southeastern Utah coincided with the government shutdown - before the state managed to re-open the National Parks in the area with state funds. Consequently - my blog posts about the vacation will include sights from outside those parks. The drive west from Monticello UT through the Abajo mountains was quite scenic in the early days of October. There were swaths of aspen among the pine and scrubby oaks on the eastern side of the mountains….and colorful layers of rock in canyons seen from the western side. We turned around at the blockade at the Canyonlands National Park. Newspaper Rock - with images pecked into rock - was along our route back.

Sit back and enjoy the slide show of the mountain views - the large and small, the timeless and transient, the crystal clarity and hazy distances.