Dead Horse Point State Park

Dead Horse Point State Park derives its friendly name from an old cowboy legend. From Utah.com:

Before the turn of the century, mustang herds ran wild on the mesas near Dead Horse Point. The unique promontory provided a natural corral into which the horses were driven by cowboys. The only escape was through a narrow, 30-yard neck of land controlled by fencing. Mustangs were then roped and broken, with the better ones being kept for personal use or sold to eastern markets. Unwanted culls of "broomtails" were left behind to find their way off the Point.

According to one legend, a band of broomtails was left corralled on the Point. The gate was supposedly left open so the horses could return to the open range. For some unknown reason, the mustangs remained on the Point. There they died of thirst within sight of the Colorado River, 2,000 feet below.

Bummer!

These are potash evaporation ponds. I had originally thought they were tailings from uranium mines, leftover from the rush for nuclear material from the 1950s. Utah was full of military mystery. Unmarked flatbeds carrying uncovered tanks occasionally rolled down the highway. A missile testing ground used to fire rockets to White Sands, New Mexico. One misfired and landed in the nearby town of Green River where it now pokes phallically at the sky in the middle of town.

The impressively large Gemini Bridges. (Yes, there is a second one, just not in this picture.) You can barely see Tim trying to give me a heart attack by crawling toward the edge.