• San Rafael Swell Utah Blm
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Little Wild Horse & Bell Canyon loop: This hike is one of the San Rafael’s most popular destinations. It offers hiking in slot canyons with only moderate challenge. While your at Little Wild Horse check out all of the canyons in the Crack Canyon Wilderness Study Area. Each one makes for an exciting hike: Crack, Chute, Little Wild Horse,. Apr 22, 2018  Off the Beaten Path Canyons in the San Rafael Swell. My favorite lesser-tracked trails on the south side of the Swell is Chute and Crack canyons. Both canyons lack any tough terrain or super slot-like features but don’t be fooled, there’s plenty to explore with the trained eye.

The San Rafael Swell is a large geologic feature located in south-central Utah about 16 miles (26 km) west of Green River, Utah. The San Rafael Swell, measuring approximately 75 by 40 miles (121 by 64 km), consists of a giant dome-shaped anticline of sandstone, shale, and limestone that was pushed up during the Paleocene Laramide Orogeny 60–40 million years ago. Since that time, infrequent but powerful flash floods have eroded the sedimentary rocks into numerous valleys, canyons, gorges, mesas, buttes and badlands

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The swell is part of the Colorado Plateauphysiographic region.

Geography[edit]

Interstate 70 divides the Swell into northern and southern sections, and provides the only interstate access to the region. The swell lies entirely within Emery County. The northern Swell is drained mainly by the San Rafael River, while the southern Swell is drained mainly by Muddy Creek, which eventually joins the Fremont River to become Dirty Devil River northeast of Hanksville, Utah. The Dirty Devil River flows southward into the Colorado River, while the San Rafael River joins the Green River before it also flows into the Colorado. Muddy Creek cuts into the western edge of the Swell, exits at Muddy Creek Gorge, and then flows across the Blue Hills Badlands near Caineville to its confluence with the Fremont River.

Geology[edit]

The San Rafael Swell was formed when deeply buried Precambriandike swarm rocks faulted, or broke, during the Laramide orogeny, about 60 million years ago. These 'basement' rocks below the present-day Swell moved upwards relative to the surrounding areas and caused the overlying sedimentary rocks to fold into a dome-like shape called an anticline. The resulting structure is analogous to a series of blankets draped over a box.

Since that time, the relentless force of running water has eroded the geologic layers, resulting in older rocks becoming exposed in the middle of the Swell, and younger rocks exposed around the edges. Many of the most impressive landforms are composed of more resistant rocks, including the JurassicNavajo Sandstone, JurassicWingate Sandstone, and PermianCoconino Sandstone. The folding is much steeper on the eastern edge of the Swell than in the west, and this eastern edge is referred to as the San Rafael Reef.

Both the San Rafael River and Muddy Creek drain out of the high Wasatch Plateau and the cut directly across the uplift of the Reef, which marks them as superimposed streams, pre-dating the time of the uplift. Part of the Swell has geographic features that resemble Mars. The Mars Society decided to set up the Mars Desert Research Station in the area as a Mars analog for such reasons.

Ecology[edit]

The San Rafael Swell is an area of high plant endemism, with many native plants occurring nowhere else in the world. An example is the endangered San Rafael cactus (Pediocactus despainii).^[1]

History[edit]

Evidence of Native American cultures, including the Fremont, Paiute, and Ute, is common throughout the San Rafael Swell in the form of pictograph and petroglyph panels. Examples are the Millsite Rock Art and the Buckhorn Draw Pictograph Panel, with rock art left by the Barrier Canyon Culture and the Fremont Culture. From about 1776 to the mid-1850s the Old Spanish Trail trade route passed through (or just north of) the Swell. In the past 150 years, areas of the Swell have been used for the grazing of sheep and cattle, as well as for uraniummining. Many of the gravel roads in the interior of the swell were originally used to service the uranium mining activities. Although surrounded by the communities of Price, Green River, Hanksville, Ferron, Castle Dale, and Huntington, the Swell itself does not support permanent residents.

The Swell has been used by Hollywood filmmakers as a location setting for alien planets, including the Planet Vulcan in the 2009 film Star Trek and the alien world in Galaxy Quest.

Administration[edit]

The area is managed by the U.S.Bureau of Land Management. On March 12, 2019, the Emery County Public Land Management Act was signed into law as the Dingell Natural Resources Act. As part of this designation, approximately 217,000 acres were protected as the San Rafael Swell Recreation Area.

Cattle grazing is only allowed in parts of the Swell that are not designated as such. The San Rafael Swell is also dotted with sections of land managed by the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, as is much of the state of Utah. Goblin Valley State Park is on the southeastern edge of the San Rafael Swell.

In 2002, then-governor Mike Leavitt of Utah proposed the creation of a San Rafael Swell National Monument.^[2]PresidentGeorge W. Bush, who had authority to create such a monument under the Antiquities Act, never acted on Leavitt's proposal.

The idea of federal designation of the San Rafael Swell as a National Monument resurfaced in 2010 in a Department of the Interiordocument.^[3]

In May 2018, US Representative John Curtis put forward a bill to make the area a National Monument, to be called 'Jurassic National Monument.'^[4]

Recreation[edit]

The San Rafael Swell attracts hikers, backpackers, horseback riders, and all-terrain vehicle (ATV) enthusiasts. Many steep, narrow slot canyons popular with technical canyoneers are found in the San Rafael Reef.^[5]

The Eastern Reef is a popular destination for rock climbers. It is home to some of the longest climbing routes in Utah, and is aptly nicknamed the Sandstone Alps.^[6]

Gallery[edit]

• Entrance to the Muddy Creek Gorge

• Eastern slope of the San Rafael Reef

References[edit]

1. ^Pediocactus despainii.Archived August 29, 2011, at the Wayback Machine Center for Plant Conservation.
2. ^Egan, Timothy (January 29, 2002), 'Governor of Utah, in Reversal, Seeks Scenic Area Designation', New York Times, retrieved February 25, 2010
3. ^'Utah Wary Over National Monument Candidate List', New York Times, February 23, 2010, retrieved February 25, 2010^{[dead link]}
4. ^Jurassic National Monument
5. ^'Canyoneering the San Rafael Swell - Route Guide'. Climb-Utah.com.
6. ^Achey, Jeff. 'The Sandstone Alps'. Climbing Magazine. Retrieved April 19, 2019.

• Allen, Steve, Canyoneering: The San Rafael Swell, 1992. ISBN0-87480-372-1
• Durrant, Jeffrey O. Struggle Over Utah's San Rafael Swell: Wilderness, National Conservation Areas, and National Monuments, 2007. ISBN978-0-8165-2669-7
• Kelsey, Michael R. Hiking and Exploring Utah's San Rafael Swell, 3rd edition, 1999. ISBN0-944510-17-5

External links[edit]

San Rafael Swell Utah Blm

San Rafael Swell Utah Camping

A slot canyon is a long, narrow, deep and tortuous channel or drainageway with sheer rock walls that are typically eroded into either sandstone or other sedimentary rock. A slot canyon has depth-to-width ratios that typically exceed 10:1 over most of its length and can approach 100:1. The term is especially used in the semiarid western United States, including the Colorado Plateau region. Slot canyons are subject to flash flooding and commonly contain unique ecological communities that are distinct from the adjacent, drier uplands.^[1] Some slot canyons can measure less than 1 metre (3 ft) across at the top but drop more than 30 metres (100 ft) to the floor of the canyon.

Many slot canyons are formed in sandstone and limestone rock, although slot canyons in other rock types such as granite and basalt are possible. Even in sandstone and limestone, only a very small number of streams will form slot canyons due to a combination of the particular characteristics of the rock and regional rainfall.

• 1Slot canyons around the world

Slot canyons around the world[edit]

San Rafael Swell Hikes

Slot canyons are found in many parts of the world, predominantly in areas with low rainfall. Some of the best-known slot canyons are to be found in the Southwestern United States. Other significant areas include the Sierra de Guara in northern Spain, the Pyrenees on the border of France and Spain, and the Blue Mountains in New South Wales, Australia.

Australia[edit]

The largest known area of slot canyons in Australia is in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. They occur in a narrow band of sandstone that runs roughly 30 kilometres (19 mi) from east to west, and about 100 kilometres (62 mi) from south to north. The majority of these canyons are in the Wollemi Wilderness, and are difficult to access. A small number are regularly visited by canyoners on weekends in summer. The Grand Canyon, near Blackheath, has a tourist track along its rim, but requires abseiling (rappelling) or swimming to visit fully.

Sandstone slot canyons can also be found in a few more remote parts of Australia, including Karijini National Park and the Bungle Bungles in Purnululu National Park, both in Western Australia, and Carnarvon Gorge in Queensland.

United States[edit]

Southern Utah has the densest population of slot canyons in the world with over one thousand slot canyons in the desert lands south of Interstate 70.^[2] Utah's slot canyons are found in Zion National Park at The Narrows, along Canyonlands National Park's Joint Trail, throughout Capitol Reef National Park, within the San Rafael Swell and the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, especially along the Escalante River drainage including Coyote Gulch. Many more slot canyons are located on public Bureau of Land Management and state-owned lands in southern Utah, in areas surrounding the aforementioned parks and monuments. Buckskin Gulch—one of the longest slot canyons in the world—begins in southern Utah and continues into northern Arizona within the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness. Northern Arizona also has a high concentration of slot canyons including Antelope Canyon and Secret Canyon, which are two of the most famous slot canyons located near Page on land owned by the Navajo Nation. Slot canyons are also located in the valley between U.S. Route 89 and the Vermilion Cliffs in Arizona, and can be seen as one descends into the valley on U.S. 89, but these are on the Navajo reservation and are closed to the public. The Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument's slot canyon trail in New Mexico is unique as it was carved into tuff (volcanic ash). In California, several slot canyons are located within Death Valley National Park.

Drowning danger[edit]

Local as well as distant storms can cause dangerous flash flooding in slot canyons, and hikers should not enter them if there is any sign of rain in the surrounding area.^[3] In many slot canyons, it can be miles before a safe exit or rescue is possible.

On August 12, 1997, eleven tourists, including seven from France, one from the United Kingdom, one from Sweden and two from the United States, were killed in Lower Antelope Canyon by a flash flood.^[4][5] Very little rain fell at the site that day, but an earlier thunderstorm had dumped a large amount of water into the canyon basin, seven miles upstream. The lone survivor of the flood was tour guide Francisco 'Poncho' Quintana, who had prior swift-water training. At the time, the ladder system consisted of amateur-built wood ladders that were swept away by the flash flood. Today, ladder systems have been bolted in place, and deployable cargo nets are installed at the top of the canyon. A NOAA Weather Radio from the National Weather Service and an alarm horn are stationed at the fee booth.^[6]

Gallery[edit]

• The Siq and Al-Khazneh (the Treasury), Petra, Jordan

• Taminaschlucht, Tamina River, Switzerland

• The Narrows, Zion National Park, Utah

• Kasha-Katuwe, New Mexico

• The Great Channels, Virginia

References[edit]

San Rafael Swell Utah Bill

1. ^ This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Department of Agriculture document: 'Soil Survey of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument Area, Parts of Kane and Garfield Counties, Utah'(PDF). U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service. p. 305. Retrieved September 30, 2019.
2. ^Zion slot canyons
3. ^'Safety Tips'. blm.gov. Bureau of Land Management. 2016-03-24. Archived from the original on 2016-09-30. Retrieved 1 November 2016.
4. ^'Flash Flood Antelope Canyon'. Retrieved 2006-03-20.
5. ^'Antelope Canyon'. Archived from the original on 17 March 2006. Retrieved 2006-03-20.
6. ^Kramer, Kelly (2008). 'Man vs. Wild'. Arizona Highways. 84 (11): 23.

External links[edit]

San Rafael Swell Utah Weather

Media related to Slot canyons at Wikimedia Commons

San Rafael Swell Utah Map