san rafael swell

After my week backpacking, car camping and hiking around Cedar Mesa and White Canyon in Bears Ears NM I headed up to the San Rafael Swell for 4 days. I backpacked into Chimney Canyon from Hidden Splendor Mine, drove the backroads exploring the Swell behind the Reef, found amazing car camping...

On 12 March 2019, President Trump signed the John Dingell Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act, creating 661,155 acres of BLM wilderness in Emery County, Utah. Most of the land that became wilderness was first set aside for study as wilderness-quality after research done under the FLPMA...

For March, I had penciled in a camping trip with all my kids "somewhere in Southern Utah". As the date for it grew closer, I settled on a spot on my list of places I had yet to see that was still kid friendly...a place in Emery County out on the northern flanks of the San Rafael Swell known as...

I'm still behind on trip reports from over the winter, but here's a quick one from this weekend. I dug out my old point and shoot camera so I didn't have to spend any time processing photos - what a concept! 2 months ago I secured a permit to float Westwater Canyon on the Colorado River on St...

February 17-18, 2018 As some may recall, last March, I did an overnighter backpacking in along the San Rafael River. We had hoped to see Virgin Spring Canyon and its pictographs, but a combination of misreading the map and my companion's fatigue kept us from getting there. I also went on a...

After a quick two-day turnaround between camping trips, on Tuesday I was on my way south for the semi-annual San Rafael geocaching event near Temple Mountain. It was my first chance to utilize the hitch carrier for my motorcycle on the back of the camp trailer, and it was unnerving driving...

10/23-25/15 After another fantastic summer in the Bighorn Mountains, I again find myself home in Utah. Craving sand between the toes, the touch of sandstone on the fingers, the joy of different spaces, and the company of friends, I grabbed my enthusiastic novice of a camper brother and headed...

On Saturday, my father and I went on hike to Old Woman Wash in the San Rafael Reef. To find some great rock art Udink posted when he hiked this area. We arrived at the trail head at 10:30 and began hiking. Instead of going up Old Woman Wash, we backtracked a ways to an old mining road that lead...

Ten years ago we found this route, but I think it is still an interesting one. (Pictures from scanned slides) Travelling from Green River to Hanksville is normally via I70 and UT24. Sometimes a bit boring. For shorter stretches there are alternatives, historic UT 24 for example: Historic UT...

Travelling along Utah State Road 24 between Hanksville and Interstate 70 shows some dark red outcrops of Entrada Sandstone similar to these seen in Goblin Valley. A first red stretch is the so called "Notch" some miles north of Hanksville, followed by the Gilson Buttes south of the entrance...

Last weekend a friend took his son and mine down lower Eardley Canyon in the Swell. It was quite wet, with the holes at capacity. The water was cold and the skinny teens fought to stay warm even with wetsuits. It looks like a good adventure, featuring only 5 short rappels. The loose gully...

I was looking for a leisurely trip for this weekend and settled on an old favorite, Nine Mile Canyon. I'd been scouting around using Google Earth and found four possible round structures that I wanted to investigate in person. It's difficult for me to drive through Nine Mile and not look for...

May 2013! Coming from the Goblin Valley area over Clay Hills Road we reached the point where this road intersects with Coal Mine Road on Factory Bench. (Utah, Emery and Wayne County). At this place (12S 0506411 4261697) a third road goes the the southwest skirting North Caineville Reef. This...

This road connects Goblin Valley with Factory Butte/North Caineville Reef on dirt. Sometimes it is called Wild Horse Road. As far as I know not that often traveled by people from outside the region. We heard about, have experienced some difficulties making it not always feasible to use it. This...

"Let's take the shortcut" I said. That should have been the groups first clue about how grueling the hike to the top of this canyon would be. Josh and I had done the hike just a week before with his little kids. It was a great route, but a bit exposed. Since we would be walking in full sun, I...

Canyoneering with kids is the best! I have been on lots of canyoneering trips, and the ones where I get to go with my friend and his little kids are some of my very favorite. It is so neat to see the kids accomplish difficult things like canyoneering. These are the memories that will last a...

One of the things I envisioned when I bought a dirt bike was being able to ride and camp along the route. Friday after work I left for just such a trip, close to home on Cedar Mountain. There's a geocache there whose owner is no longer involved in geocaching, but the container was in need of...

I haven't hiked much in the past two months. I had hoped to remedy that on Memorial Day weekend, but the continued rainy weather got the best of me. I was able to get out on Sunday (5/24) to hike for a few miles with the dogs to a place I've been wanting to go for a while. Several years ago a...

North Caineville Reef Road runs from Caineville Wash ( 12S 0497687 4246488) along North Caineville Reef to the Factory Butte area. As far as I know some people don't like it for its dull gray colors hostile at a first glance. More than 10 years ago we saw the area from the east side, but...

Don't call it a trip report! Here come some pictures from Caineville Reef along the UT 24 west of Caineville: Northern part of Caineville Reef Southern end near UT 24 Even if it looks different - there is life Interesting cliff with inevitable power lines more from Caineville Reef...