San Rafael Reef between Iron Wash and Mormon Tanks

[Udink]

My last few trips to the San Rafael Reef were done with a particular destination in mind, but this time I just picked a canyon at random and hiked up it. I drove down after work on Friday and made a quick stop in Iron Wash. There's an old pioneer signature there that I wanted to see, and I found some other undated initials carved in the sandstone that looked pretty old. I also found a shallow cave with grinding marks and sharpening grooves, plus plenty of soot and old charcoal inside, but unfortunately no rock that I could see in the area. After leaving Iron Wash I drove a short distance and found a place to camp near the canyon that I wanted to hike up. I built a fire pit and got a fire going so I could cook some dinner, then set up my tent and relaxed around the fire and read a book. Watching the waning full moon rise over the La Sals was a treat.


Parked at the barricade in Iron Wash

J.A. Watt signature

Small cave in Iron Wash

Grinding marks at the mouth of the cave

Sharpening grooves

View out of another cave in Iron Wash

Getting a fire going

Camp fire

Tent and truck

Moon rising over the La Sal Mountains

My shadow in the moonlight

I was up early on Saturday morning and started hiking at about 8:00AM. The lower part of the canyon was not terribly interesting, but I took it slow and kept an eye out for rock art, which I can't help but do in this area. Farther up the canyon there were some large pools of water, which my dog couldn't help but take a dip in. I came to a large pool that gets no direct sunlight this time of year and had some sand-covered ice in the bottom, and a large dryfall above it that looked impassible. I had to do a steep scramble around one side to get past it, and it took some effort to shove my dog up ahead of me. Just above the dryfall was a narrow side canyon full of water. If it had been dry, I would have loved exploring it. In the main canyon above the first big dryfall were several smaller ones that were impossible for me to climb, but again I found a way around them by scrambling out of the drainage. Not far after getting back into the main drainage was yet another dryfall that I simply couldn't get around--well, my dog couldn't get around it, so that was where I turned around and headed back down the canyon looking for another way up to the canyon rim.


Early morning at camp

An old spur I found near camp

Starting up the canyon

A shallow cave with a few signs of ancient habitation

Small arch in the canyon wall

View up the canyon

Torrey in a pool

A large row of Fremont's Mahonia

Just after scrambling around the first big dryfall

Water in a narrow side canyon

A series of small potholes that I went around

Crazy concretions on the canyon wall

Another dryfall that completely halted my progress

This was as far as Torrey would go when trying to bypass the dryfall

I backtracked more than half a mile before finding a spot to climb out of the canyon. On the way back down, though, I found an arrowhead that I'd walked right past without noticing earlier in the morning. After climbing out of the canyon, I dropped down into the next canyon to the north and started ascending it. Once I saw ahead that the canyon narrowed up and became choked with brush and trees, I started following the ramping sandstone wall on the north side that led to the canyon's rim. After scrambling up and down some sandstone fins and following some brush-choked cracks, I found myself overlooking the canyon I'd originally started hiking up, though I was about half a mile upstream from the dryfall that had stopped my progress earlier. I stopped there for lunch and scouted the canyon below me.


An arrowhead lying in the bottom of the canyon

An adjacent canyon that I dropped into

Lots of rockfall in this canyon

Looking back at the ramp I used to hike out of the canyon to the rim

View into the canyon where it narrowed up

Descending a fin

A crack that I hiked through

Aiming for the gap in the center

Bushwhacking ahead

View from my lunch spot, looking down the first canyon I'd ascended

View up the canyon

After seeing what kind of country was ahead of me if I wanted to continue up the San Rafael Reef, I decided to call it a day. The route up to that point had been pretty convoluted, and it was only going to get worse if I kept ascending. I didn't want to follow the same route back, so I continued a little farther up the Reef before rounding a corner and descending back into the section of fins. I exited the Reef through the second canyon I'd ascended, then walked along a dirt road just over half a mile back to camp, where I packed things up and headed home.


I followed this ledge between cliffs to the point on the left

Nice view into the upper canyon drainage

View down my exit route

Many more potholes on the descent

Cutting across some fins

Hiking up a fin

The dirt road back to camp

Full photo gallery:
https://picasaweb.google.com/Dennis.Udink/SanRafaelReefBetweenIronWashAndMormonTanks

Google map & KMZ:
http://g.co/maps/62s8b
http://udink.org/geo/SanRafaelReefBetweenIronWashAndMormonTanks.kmz

Featured image for slideshow:

 

[Tyler]

Very nice Dennis. You always find some of the coolest items (the spur, signatures, etc.) and you visit the coolest places out there that you won't necessarily find in a guidebook. Bravo.

So did this canyon even have a name? Where was it located along the reef? I'm guessing it's north of Temple wash near Farnsworth/Old Woman?

 

[Udink]

So did this canyon even have a name? Where was it located along the reef? I'm guessing it's north of Temple wash near Farnsworth/Old Woman?

Nope, it doesn't have a name that I'm aware of. Mostly just the canyons that cut fully through the Reef have names, but this one has its headwaters on top of the Reef instead of on the west side. This one's a bit north of Old Woman Wash, and just south of Iron Wash.

 

[Tyler]

Cool. I'll have to check it out soon.

 

[Nick]

Sweet trip. Amazing what you find when you go someplace no one else really goes. That spur is awesome and always amazing to spot an arrowhead. Great stuff!

 

[intuitive cat]

looks like the kind of place i'd love. awesome trip & post. i seriously need to get up to the San Rafael Reef & Swell.

 

[Deadeye008]

Awesome place and very cool finds(spur, arrowhead, signature)! Makes you wonder who's spur that was...

 

[Tyler]

Looks like Torrey was having a good time. How was that pack he/she carried? Did you have dry items in there when he/she took a dip in the water?

 

[Udink]

Looks like Torrey was having a good time. How was that pack he/she carried? Did you have dry items in there when he/she took a dip in the water?

So far I like the pack a lot, but this was our first back country trip using it. Before this weekend, she'd only worn it on a few 2-mile long walks along dirt roads near town. It's the Mountainsmith dog pack, size small, that ibenick recommended in this thread. Each side had a 1/2-liter water bottle and a package of moist dog food, and even after repeated dips in the water, no moisture got inside (but she never went for a full swim, either). I checked, and a 1-liter Nalgene will fit in each side with room to spare for food or whatever else, but I think Torrey will need to work up to carrying that much weight.

 

[Nick]

I thought that looked familiar! Sweet dog pack, IMO.

So you just made me think. For people who have dogs that are always going for a swim, just store the dogfood INSIDE a couple of nalgene bottles. You'd know exactly how much to feed them by the measuring marks. Hmmm...

 

[Don]

Very cool. Love the pics, especially that old spur.