Dead Horse Point is a rock peninsula located on top of the steep sandstone cliffs. Only the 300-yard wide strip of land or “neck” connects the mesa with the peninsula. According to legend, cowboys who used to corral wild horses in these lands would trap them on the peninsula by closing the neck. For an unknown reason, they left the horses without water until they died of thirst while the waters of the Colorado River roared 2,000 feet below.

Dead Horse Point, located about nine mile from Moab, offers a spectacular vista of the surrounding rock formations, created by sediments left behind by ancient oceans, streams, lakes, and sand blown by sharp winds.

Magnificent surrounding mountains rise like otherworldly islands from the inhospitable sun-baked surrounding desert. There are 16.6 miles of fairly easy hiking trails over slickrock and through juniper and pinions. The vista from the top of the trail is worth all the sweat and muscle cramps.


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