Monday, August 22, 2011

Day 68 - The Weather Jonahs!

We’ve decided that we are weather jinxes. It seems as if we are in that Peanuts cartoon where the cloud and rain follow that one poor little guy all over. And so it seems with us. I never thought about rain in the desert until the past three nights. Tomorrow, I’ll take the umbrella. But tonight, we went to Dead Horse State Park. The name is derived from a legend. In the 1800’s a group of cowboys drove wild horses out to the high mesa surrounded by a 2,000 foot drop to the Colorado River save this one 30 yard opening. After selecting the horses they want, they left the brushwood fence up abandoning the horses to a terrible death by thirst, being able to smell the river below. Now, if there is any truth to this legend, it must have been horrific. We were there during a brief rain storm. Puddles formed and then disappeared as if someone had sucked them up with a wet dry vacuum. And even the rocks were warm and dry only twenty minutes later. The view down was spectacular, especially when the sun hit the mesas and canyon far below. In this part of the Colorado’s 1450 mile journey, the water was jade green at Horseshoe Bend and moving quite slowly. We spent lots of time waiting for the sun to reappear but when it did, it made a world of difference making the colors of the rock layers just pop. This part of Canyonlands is mostly stepped mesas with a couple of dramatic spires. Carl has decided not to visit Canyonlands as there is more than enough to keep us busy at Arches. So, in the morning, we’re off to Landscape Arch, the thinnest and longest of the arches in the park. We just won’t be there quite so early.

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