Dead Horse State Park & Canyonlands

False Kiva, Canyonlands National Park, UT

Wednesday, June 6 - Dead Horse State Park, UT, - 96 Miles Today, 5422.8 For the Trip

As you can tell by the title of today's post, I made it into the campground at Dead Horse State Park. Beautiful views of the canyons from the campground. I'm in site 13. Like all the sites, it has 50/30/20 amp electric, but no water or sewer. Since they have to truck all the water for the park, I can understand why they don't provide it. No problem for me - I don't use all that much & I have plenty in the fresh water tank.

Lots of photos today. They start with a site photo, of course, then show part of the set up for a bicycle race taking place today. After that I drove to Canyonlands. The plan was to visit a number of locations, then head to False Kiva in the late afternoon. I wanted to photograph a particular granary at Aztec Butte, but the trail to it was closed. I did photograph one at a smaller butte along the trail, but it was not as impressive as the one that was closed. I'm including a photo of a trail carin just in case someone doesn't know what they are. Simply a pile of rocks thet are either left by others or ones you build yourself to remind you how to get back. I really got to False Kiva too early for great photos, but I have this exaggerated fear of having to walk back in the dark. If you saw the "trail" going up from the ledge below the site to the flat part above False Kiva you would understand! Actually, it was easier this year than last. A bit cooler, and, of course, I'd been there before. Still, it is quite a hike, the most difficult of the trip.  More photos at today's LakeshoreImages Page.

False Kiva is hard to describe. It is a beautiful place to photograph, but it is far more than that. The feeling you get sitting next to a structure likely built 1000's of years ago that has a magnificent view & incredible serenity is well worth the difficult hike. You spend a lot of time just thinking about the history of the place. Anyhow, I got back well before dark. I was hoping to shoot some night time star photos at Dead Horse Point, but the clouds have rolled in. They are thick enough that we may not even get a sunset. I'll check it out after dinner.


Tomorrow I hope to get up early enough to reshoot Mesa Arch. Last year I couldn't get the position I wanted because there was already (at 5:00AM) someone set up in my spot. Hope to do better this year. I have two days to try for it.

Until Tomorrow!