Contest Entry: Chelsea Donoho

The magic of Dead Horse Point- my favorite place.

Dead Horse Point, a park near Moab, Utah, is enchantingly, breathtakingly beautiful. It is said that Cowboys would corral the wild ponies of the desert lands onto the jutting point & as the encircling river rushed below, they would choose their favorites as their own horses.

My boyfriend & I spent a few days exploring the area, falling more in love with this incredible earth. We hiked the paths, lined with fallen timber, to points of unbelievable grandeur. Every twist & turn & climb of the paths leads you to another, even more incredible, overlook. You’re standing in the bottom of an ocean of air. We sat on the red rocks facing Dead Horse Point. Golden light cascaded across the enormous boulders & breathtaking cliffsides. The shadows cast upon the rocks grew longer & more beautiful as the sunset painted the sky a prismatic palette from orange to pink, indigo to purple. We could almost hear the hooves, the spirit of the ponies & the wild open west echoes through the canyon.

We camped nearby, cooking our food over the fire. We drank wine & stared up at the clear, bright, starlit sky. The longer you stare, the more stars you see. We could see the Milky Way. Coyotes howled in the distance & we felt the comfort of the warm earth beneath us as we fell asleep under the bright moonlight.

The desert & canyons of Utah are a very special place. You can almost feel the earth breathing. Close your eyes & hear the history of the area. When you feel the breeze on your shoulders, & take in the wandering veins of dried up rivers of the past, & the vast, ancient canyons, you feel as though you’ve left the earth you’ve always known. My only regret was that I couldn’t stay forever.