Dead Horse Point State Park

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Dead Horse Point State Park
View from Dead Horse Point Overlook of the Colorado River

View from Dead Horse Point Overlook of the Colorado River

location Grand County , San Juan County in Utah (USA)
surface 21.7 km²
Geographical location 38 ° 28 '  N , 109 ° 44'  W Coordinates: 38 ° 28 '15 "  N , 109 ° 44' 22"  W
Dead Horse Point State Park, Utah
Dead Horse Point State Park
Setup date 1959
administration Utah Dept. of Natural Resources, Division of State Parks and Recreation
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View of Dead Horse Point from the plane

The Dead Horse Point State Park is a 21.7 km² large State Park in Utah in close proximity to the northeast of Canyonlands National Park . From the southern tip you have a special view from a height of 1731  m on the Colorado River , which is 600 m below , which makes a 180 ° bend at this point. The state park is accessible from Moab via SR 313 . There is a visitor center and a campsite.

The name of the area can be traced back to its use in the 19th century, when cowboys and horse thieves used the protruding high plateau with the steeply sloping edges as a natural paddock. The high plateau is only connected to the rest of the plateau via a narrow ridge, which is 27 m wide at the narrowest point. This place was blocked off with branches and brush, so that the horses were locked in. Then the horses that were sorted out for breeding were taken away. For the horses that were left behind, the capture ended in part fatally because there was hardly any suitable food, no natural water sources or shady spots on the limited, barren area. They died of thirst while the Colorado flowed by about 120 m below them.

The water shortage (on average 25 cm of precipitation per year) has a serious impact on the fauna and flora of the state park. The plants have reduced the size of their leaves to reduce evaporation. Some plants have their leaves covered with a layer of wax, thereby reducing their water loss. The animals in this area are mostly nocturnal .

The area was u. a. Used in 1991 for the film Thelma & Louise as a backdrop and location for the Grand Canyon scenes and in 2000 for Tom Cruise's climbing scene in Mission: Impossible II .

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