Day 1: Dead Horse Point
Topic: Travel| No Comments »Dead Horse Point. From one of the helpful historical signs, “Dead Horse Point was a custom-made horse trap, like a box canyon only in reverse. With sheer cliffs straight down on all sides and only a narrow strip of land for access, it made a perfect place to keep horses. All the cowboys had to do was herd the horses across the neck and out onto the ‘point’. They would then build a fence of pinyon and juniper branches across the neck and they had a natural corral! Here the cowboys could sort through the horses, choose the ones they wanted, and let the culls or ‘broomtails’ go free.”
[Google Maps maybe?]
They aren’t kidding, Dead Horse Point is about 2,000 feet above the valley floor. There is nowhere to go if you were stuck there. In fact, I think it would make a good prison for just about anything.
Actually, the road to Dead Horse Point is one of the few places I have ever seen free-range cattle, and by that I mean that there are no fences on either side of the road. The cattle are free to wander all over the road if they like, and on our way back, we saw the herd being driven across the road by some cowboys. Needless to say, our guests were very excited.
