We went camping in the San Rafael Swell this weekend. Thanks to a tip from some friends, we found a great campsite off of Mexican Mountain Road tucked up into the red cliffs with a fantastic view of the river valley. It was a rainy weekend with temperatures cooler than normal for this time of year. That seems to be the weather report for this entire spring. We woke up one morning to snow on the ridges! Despite the weather, we managed to do some exploring and to get a few hikes in between the storms.
Our first hike was a quick out and back to the river overlook on the Lockhart Box trail. This was a pretty primative trail with required route finding skills near the top, but the overlook was great. Some people do this as a loop trail with a 10 mile float down the river and a two mile hike back to the road on the Upper Black Box trail.
Saturday we waited for the rain to clear and then drove out to the Buckhorn Wash art panel to check out some great pictographs from the Barrier Culture. These pictographs are thought to be about 2,000 years old. It is amazing that they are still in such good shape after thousands of years.
After the pictographs, we drove out in the mud to the Wedge Overlook. This view almost rivals the Grand Canyon. It really is spectacular. And definitely not as crowded on a chilly spring morning. As you can see from the pictures, we are pretty bundled up for a trip down south in the end of April. We have the gear though, so might was well use it.
After a quick lunch back at camp, we drove out to do the Calf, Cow and Pine Canyon hikes. These little out and back canyons are great. I would definitely do these hikes again. Calf Canyon seemed a little longer than the book said. Combined, these canyons are about a 6 mile hike. The afternoon weather cleared enough for a really nice hike.
When we were just finishing the Calf, Cow and Pine Canyons hike, we passed some people who said they just saw a bighorn sheep cross the path and climb up the other ridge. We rushed up the trail to see if we could get a glimpse of the bighorn, but he was gone. We did get to see a really nice rainbow though on on the drive back to camp.
Sunday it rained again. Harder than the day before. The roads were a complete muddy mess. We decided to leave the T@b and just head out in the truck. We'll have to come back next weekend to pick her up, but it was nice not to have to worry about getting stuck in the mud.
