Dead Horse Point SP & Shafer Road

We woke up early to watch sunrise over Dead Horse Point state park, just outside of Canyonlands national park. It was beautiful to see the canyon walls light up and we chatted with a nice photographer from Texas. We could see the Shafer trail from the overlook (the road mentioned yesterday) and the photographer said he drove it the prior day and it was doable in a truck. He did give us the suggestion on just going out to a point and back since the entire length is 45 miles from Canyonlands to Moab. We took his advice and headed that way, finding a point on the map that said “Thelma and Louise point.” Even though in the movie the women supposedly drive off the cliff into the Grand Canyon, it was actually filmed in Canyonlands off this road.

We made our way to the steep, narrow switchbacks on this bumpy dirt road. The views were incredible and Dave and I love feeling immersed in a place rather than looking down on it. The photographer had warned us that the switchbacks were in good condition but the road worsened significantly once down along the river. He wasn’t kidding. They were fairly rough along the switchbacks but once at the bottom, the trail went in and out of dry stream beds with boulders and technical drops. Thank goodness for Dave’s driving skills. We enjoyed the Thelma and Louise spot and another where the river did a U-turn similar to horseshoe point in Arizona. The 16 mile round trip took us over an hour and a half with the road conditions but was well worth it. The rest of the day was spent relaxing with the pups and enjoying the sites of Moab.Read more