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San Rafael Swell trip, Feb 9-12

sixstringsteve

sixstringsteve

Well-Known Member
Location
UT
Greg said:
Sounds good, do you have any specific places you want to go and see? Or specific parts of the Swell that you want to visit?
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I'm still learning all about the area and what it has to offer, but here's a list of things I'd like to eventually see:

- swasey's cabin
- eagle canyon
- ice cave double bridges (very cool looking)
- swinging bridge
- drive under the 1-70 bridges
- wedge overlook
- dinosaur footprint (buckhorn wash)
- devil's racetrack
- buckhorn pictograph panel


I'm familiar with the goblin valley area (little wildhorse, ding & dang, etc), but that's all I've seen down there.

I wouldn't mind a few 1-2 hour hikes to break up the driving some. I love the slot canyons down there, but I don't want to get wet or do anything crazy this time of year.
 
Greg

Greg

I run a tight ship... wreck
Admin
Location
Grand Junction, CO
sixstringsteve said:
I'm still learning all about the area and what it has to offer, but here's a list of things I'd like to eventually see:

- swasey's cabin
- eagle canyon
- ice cave double bridges (very cool looking)
- swinging bridge
- drive under the 1-70 bridges
- wedge overlook
- dinosaur footprint (buckhorn wash)
- devil's racetrack
- buckhorn pictograph panel


I'm familiar with the goblin valley area (little wildhorse, ding & dang, etc), but that's all I've seen down there.

I wouldn't mind a few 1-2 hour hikes to break up the driving some. I love the slot canyons down there, but I don't want to get wet or do anything crazy this time of year.
Click to expand...


Sounds good, I know quite a few of those places on your list. I like the idea of some hiking, it's good to stretch you legs between drives.

I love the area South-West of Goblin Valley, I'd love to get back there.

You've probably seen this, but the 2nd half of this trip is the area I would be interested in seeing again. - http://www.rme4x4.com/showthread.ph...-Capitol-Reef-NP-and-the-Swell-Late-Winter-09
 
DAA

DAA

Well-Known Member
Supporting Member
Location
West Bountiful, UT
Sounds great!

I've got two other trips in Feb. penciled in already, one to White Pine county in Nevada and one to Comb Ridge/Cedar Mesa. Have five or six days I'll be gone for those two trips. Not sure I can squeeze this SRS trip in. But, if it works out that I can, I'd sure like to. I might even just join in for part of it, if I'm not gone on one of the other trips.

Feb. is pretty unpredictable as far as conditions on the Swell. Snow/Ice/Mud can really change things in a hurry. But I have been to most of the places on your list below and will offer a brief assessment of difficulty based on no deep snow and not too much mud.

- swasey's cabin
Coming off I-170, it's an all weather any vehicle destination. Coming up from Eagle canyon would make it a much more weather dependent, 4wd required place to get to.

- eagle canyon
Very weather dependent. Any stock 4wd can easily get through when dry. Snow, mud, ice can make parts of it a rough go for stock vehicles.

- ice cave double bridges (very cool looking)
Not familiar with this one.

- swinging bridge
All weather county road.

- drive under the 1-70 bridges
This is Eagle canyon. See above.

- wedge overlook
All weather county road.

- dinosaur footprint (buckhorn wash)
All weather county road.

- devil's racetrack
Okay for stock 4x4's in dry weather. Careful driving needed in one or two spots to avoid damage, but, really, no problem for stock rigs if dry and driving it North to South. Snow, ice, and/or driving it South to North could make it a lot harder. I'd call this one very weather/conditions dependent and probably not a good place for low slung stock rigs in snowy, slick conditions and especially not going South to North (just one or two obstacle that are easier going the other way).

- buckhorn pictograph panel
All weather county road.

If I can squeeze this in, I will!

- DAA
 
Greg

Greg

I run a tight ship... wreck
Admin
Location
Grand Junction, CO
Oooo, if you're coming Dave can I bring my .243 and coyote call? :D When we were out at the Swell about a year ago we saw 3 coyotes over one day.
 
Stephen

Stephen

Who Dares Wins
Moderator
Location
Never Far From Nowhere
I'm in as long as I can swing the time off work. I'll check tomorrow and get back. (since I make the schedules, it shouldn't really be a problem :D). The only thing that I really want to see is the I-70 bridges. I know, lame, but I find the history behind the whole I-70 extension from Green River to Cove Fort interesting.
When are we planning on heading out on Thursday?
 
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cruiseroutfit

cruiseroutfit

Cruizah!
Moderator
Vendor
Location
Sandy, Ut
Fwiw as of this weekend the trail down into Eagle Canyon from both the Swasey side and the north side had ~6" of snow on it and was extremely icy (remember our icy trip there in '06 Greg, it's similar to that). While its totally passable its not something I would do with a large group or with full-size vehicles. It could get more snow or it could melt off and be bone dry, hard to say.

Buckhorn had some isolated snow/icepack on the main road but it's 100% passable, Wedge, Green River cutoff, etc are all the same. The Fuller Bottom crossing is borderline impassible at the traditional crossing, same place we were getting stuck a few months ago in the mud is now blocked up due to ice. The river was about 6" thick at the edges but open in the middle, with the top of the ice ~20" above the bottom of the river it was undercut for our group this past weekend. We had a few single digit nights so plan accordingly.
 
sixstringsteve

sixstringsteve

Well-Known Member
Location
UT
Stephen said:
When are we planning on heading out on Thursday?
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It'll be after work for me. I was thinking of meeting at Cabellas around 6 PM so we could be at Castle Dale around 9. Hopefully camping @ the wedge overlook around 10. Plans are still forumalting, but I'm starting to get a general idea of the region. Still need to do plenty more research though.


great feedback Kurt, thanks. Unless it's super dry, I think I'll save Eagle Canyon for a future date when there isn't any snow. I'll have to look up what the fuller bottom crossing is, but we'll be avoiding that section. Thanks for the report.
 
SAMI

SAMI

Formerly Beardy McGee
Location
SLC, UT
If you're referring to the MK tunnels, then yes they're still around; never could drive through them though.
 
DAA

DAA

Well-Known Member
Supporting Member
Location
West Bountiful, UT
sixstringsteve said:
Are the MK tunnels worth visiting?
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Not in my opinion. I took some friends through the area last spring and made it a point NOT to stop there. The place looks like every glue sniff and azzwipe for a hundred miles must hang out there on the weekends or something. Filthy grafiti spray painted on the rocks, beer cans and broken glass galore. Totally trashed. The history is interesting enough, but all that's left to see now is an eyesore.

- DAA
 
mesha

mesha

By endurance we conquer
Location
A.F.
my family and I may be able to meet up with you guys on the night of the 10th and stay through sunday. were are you planning on camping that night?
 
Rot Box

Rot Box

Diesel and Dust
Supporting Member
Location
Smithfield Utah
Sounds like a good time thanks for the invite :cool: I don't know if I'll be able to make it as we have a trip planned there in March but I'll see what I can do.

Speaking of the MK tunnels. The SRS is obviously a great place to view native petroglyphs, pictographs. I'm happy that our generation could carry on that trend by providing our modern form of "rock art" vibrantly displayed in the MK tunnel area. While the natives showed us their life style of being hunter gatherers hundred of years later we can show humans hundreds of years from now that we were all a bunch of perverts and lowlifes with little (or no) respect for anything :cool:......:eek:........:ugh:

The tunnels are in fact blown in now. I was one of the last people to view them and aside from the profanity painted on every square inch of them they were awesome.
 
sixstringsteve

sixstringsteve

Well-Known Member
Location
UT
mesha said:
my family and I may be able to meet up with you guys on the night of the 10th and stay through sunday. were are you planning on camping that night?
Click to expand...

Not sure yet, I'm kinda slow at planning this trip. I should have a better idea by tonight. Sorry i don't have it all together yet, this entire area is new to me, and I'm trying to bring info from about 20 sources together to plan this trip. I'm sure my second trip out there will be a lot better organized.
 
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