Dead Horse Point (August 20, 2018)

Dead Horse Point is some 2,000 feet above the Colorado River, which took 10-15 million years to carve the canyon.  See the road far below?  The river starts from snow melt 9,000 feet above sea level in Colorado's Rocky Mountains then flows 1,450 miles through Utah and Arizona before reaching the Sea of Cortez.

Papa Tom and I scrambled as close to the edge as we dared for this photo.  The sandstone ledges aren't always stable.

According to legend, wranglers often drove herds of wild horses across the narrow bottleneck leaving them corralled by the sheer cliffs.  On one haunting drive, for reasons unknown, the cowboys chose the best horses and left the others corralled on the point. With the gate across the neck closed, the remaining horses were trapped with non way out, no water, and no hope for survival. Those who found the remains of the unfortunate horses gave this place the name Dead Horse Point.