Canyonlands National Park is a U.S. National Park located in southeastern Utah near the town of Moab. It preserves a colorful landscape eroded
into countless canyons, mesas, and buttes by the Colorado River, the Green River, and their respective tributaries.
Legislation creating the park
was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on 12Sep1964.
The park is divided into four districts: the Island in the Sky, the Needles, the Maze, and the combined rivers-the Green and Colorado-which
carved two large canyons into the Colorado Plateau.
While these areas share a primitive desert atmosphere, each retains its own character.
As of 2016, the Island in the Sky district, with its proximity to the Moab, Utah area, attracts 76.7 percent of total park visitors.
Mammals that roam this park include black bears, coyotes, skunks, bats, elk, foxes, bobcats, badgers, two species of ring-tailed cats, pronghorns,
and cougars. Desert cottontails, kangaroo rats and mule deer are commonly seen by visitors.
en.wikipedia.org:_Canyonlands_National_Park
The Legend Of Dead Horse Point
Before the turn of the 19th 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 legend, a band of broomtails was left corralled on the Point. There they died of thirst within sight of the Colorado River, 2,000 feet below.
Photos © Ruud Leeuw
