Today wasn't quite as sunny as yesterday - but it was pleasant and we certainly made the most of it visiting two national and one state park.
Dead Horse State Park
We started out the day by visiting Dead Horse State Park. The big attraction here is the amazing - huge views at Dead Horse Point. Apparantly back in the day they used to corral horses into this canyon, which only has one small opening, and then leave the horses they couldn't use or sell - hence the Dead Horse name.
Canyonlands
Next, on to Canyonlands National Park. Here we say another amazing 360 vista which was impressive, although personally I prefered the Dead Horse Point. What was absolutely fantastic here was Mesa Arch.
Green River (don't do it!)
We decided to head on out to Green River - about 1/2 hour on the way to our next destination - for lunch rather than heading back into Moab - Big mistake! Green River is the most dilapidated, run-down, depressed town I've seen in a very long time. We were starving so ended up eating at the Burger King as it was, by far, the least scary choice. The BK was, by the way, inside a gas station which was attached to the Super 8 motel. Eek!
Capital Reef
Heading on to Capital Reef we had quite an interesting stop. There are these things called Petroglyphs which are meant to be drawings carved into the stone by ancient Indians - personally, I think, judging by the antennae that they look a lot like Martians. What Martians were doing in Utah 8 or 9oo years ago - I'm not sure - but I seriously doubt that it was that the Indians "obviously had good imaginations too" as commented by the woman standing next to me when I made reference to them appearing to be Martians. Incidentally, these drawings are all over the place down here and they all show people with Antenna - I think that's mighty weird!
Round about the same place we walked up a boardwalk which, as it turned out, lead to a sign about farming with no visible reason for being at the end of a boardwalk. What was interesting was the thousands upon thousands of blue caterpillars on the boardwalk railing (and on the ground I'm told - but I chose not to look down). At one point I looked up and realised that they were coming out of hundreds of white fluffy pod things in the trees - a disctinctly Hitchcockian moment.Traveling along through Capital Reef we drove through a bunch more amazing rock formations. They seem to go on forever here and are constantly changing. You would think after a while you would get sick of them - and I imagine given more time than we have you might - but we are still oohing and ahing at them all.
Anyhow - we checked into the first of our three consecutive nights in different Best Westerns. It was quite nice - but again - the view stole the show .
I had read about a great restaurant in the area called Cafe Diablo which we were very fortunate was opening for the summer season that very night. That there is this quality of restaurant out here in the middle of nowhere is surprising to say the least. We had to, of course, try the rattlesnake cakes - they were nice - although no discernible flavor of chicken was apparent. I had the ribs which came wrapped into a roll and stood up with a crispy hash brown plank, shaved radish, and a Parmesan pitchfork on top all sitting in a mashed sweet potato. You could literally pull the bones straight out of the ribs they were so tender - and they had lots of perfectly caramelized bits from the absolutly fantastic sauce they had been marinated in - fantastic! I also had a drink called a Mexican Bride which is Iced Tea and Lemonade (the American variety) mixed - it was surprisingly delicious. I have it on good authority that it's also called an Arnold Palmer. We decided to splurge and have desert - a butterfinger cheesecake served with chocolate ice cream - in a brandy snap bowl and a chocolate chip cookie in the top for good measure. Wow! We rolled ourselves back to the BW for a good nights sleep.
Onward!
Heather
