Stunning Milky Way at Dead Horse Point State Park

We have started our Utah park gauntlet! Six parks in eleven days, here we go! Our first stop was the Dead Horse Point State Park in Moab, UT.

We camped inside the park at the Wingate Campground. We were looking forward to stargazing, and this park was another International Dark Sky Park. It was within a couple of days of the new moon, and we finally got to see the Milky Way and it was stunning!

Want to see the Milky Way? We recommend camping at the Wingate Campground. Check out our photos and videos so you can see the beauty of Dead Horse Point State Park. Don’t have time to read this now? Pin it for later!

Wingate Campground

After we settled into our spot we walked over to Visitor Center. I fell in love with a park t-shirt so we purchased that along with some beautiful postcards to mail to friends and family. We headed out the back of the Visitor Center towards the East Rim Trail where there was an overlook. WOW! We were both shocked at the beauty of this canyon. It is fun not knowing what to expect and then being rewarded with nature’s beauty.

Potash (salt) solar evaporation ponds in the background

Dead Horse Point

Gooseneck of the Colorado River

The wide canyon with its reddish dirt up against the blue skies filled with white fluffy clouds was beautiful. As we stare off into the canyon we noticed these bright blue lakes that were definitely not natural but didn’t detract that much from the view. We learned that they were potash (salt) solar evaporation ponds owned by Intrepid Potash.

Basin Overlook

We continued our walk along the East Rim Trail to Basin Overlook and took some time to soak in the beauty of this canyon. We read about the legend of Dead Horse Point which was sad, but the point overlooking the Colorado River was beautiful.

That evening we hiked from our campground along the West Rim Trail, but not quite to Dead Horse Point, and found a spot to watch the sunset. Penguin recorded a great time-lapse of the sunset.

Stunning Milky Way

After sunset, we hiked back to our campground and then waited as the sun went fully down and the sky filled with stars. Wow! It was stunning. I have never seen so many stars. We were in awe and the best part was that we finally got to see the Milky Way!!! You have to really let your eyes adjust to the dark but you’ll see it in a band across the sky, kind of like a faint cloud or haze even though the sky is obviously clear. You can even tell where the center of the galaxy is because the haze shows a bigger bulge there. What an experience!

This campground would be our base camp as we explored our first Utah National Park tomorrow, Canyonlands.

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