Winter In The Swell

Nick

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Joined
Aug 9, 2007
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January 2011

It had been about a month since I made it out camping so Summit and I threw together a quick trip to the Swell over the weekend. The low temps picked up from the usual single digits all the way up to the mid-to-high teens so it seemed like a good opportunity to get outside.

We started the trip by hitting Uneva Canyon up towards I-70. There was quite a bit of snow in the area and some great ice build up in the canyon.

Uneva Canyon and the San Rafael Reef
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One of the awesome surprises of winter in the desert, lots of ice!
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Bill and Nikita picking through Ice in Uneva Canyon
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Uneva Canyon Uranium Mine
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After Uneva Canyon we drove south to the Goblin Valley area where we were pleasantly surprised to find much less snow. It was still around but at least we would have some dirt to put tents up on. So we found a camp, dropped off some gear and made out way over to Little Wild Horse Canyon. This was my first hike into LWHC, I intended to hit it back in September but there were so many cars that I decided not to. This time it was virtually empty, I think there were 3 cars in the lot.

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Me and my oldest dog, Nikita
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Bill setting up for a selfie
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Looking up in a narrow section of Little Wild Horse
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After Little Wild Horse we drove over to Goblin Valley to catch sunset. The sunset didn't go off like we hoped but the golden hour was awesome with all of the hoodoos and shadows around.

Nikita posing on the hike up to the mesa above Goblin Valley
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Goblin Valley as seen from the mesa between the main valley and second valley
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Nikita and I
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Second Valley
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The sunset was setting up great but then the sky cleared up to the west making it less than ideal.
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On the way back to the car after sunset
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After sunset the temps plummeted. We went back to camp and got a nice big fire going. We actually stayed pretty warm because we were moving around a lot. Bill brought along a bunch of light painting tools. These were my favs.<br />
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Sunrise over Goblin Valley as seen from our campsite
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It was really cold in the morning. I made Nikita a jacket out of a hoody to keep her warm, it seemed to work pretty well.
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After sunrise we packed up camp and made our way up to the Temple Mountain area. It was amazing how much more snow was up that way. We drove out to the Crack Canyon trailhead, breaking trail through the snow for the last mile or so, but strangely there wasn't very much snow in the canyon itself.

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Crack Canyon subway section
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Selfie in Crack Canyon
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After Crack we dropped by some ruins over by Temple Mountain and then made the drive home. It was a short trip but it was fantastic. I was so grateful to be out there this time of year and hope to get back very soon. I think I still have a bit of perma-grin going on.
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I went to the swell for the first time last fall. We did Little Wild Horse and I just loved it!!! I want to go back and hit Crack and Chute, and Ding and Dang!!!
 
I love the Swell, so much fun stuff to do. I went several times to Little Wild Horse and the Wedge and also to Crack Canyon and Reds Canyon area. But there is still a lot to do and to discover, I definitely will come back.

I really love your light painting shots. It's just steel wool, right?
 
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