On April 29th I drove down to the southeast (outside) edge of the San Rafael Swell, just north of Goblin Valley State Park. Again. This time I wanted to hike a mile or so up the swell incline so I could fly my drone over the more interesting parts of Crack Canyon. This time the […]
A Crack in Farnsworth Canyon
While the rest of the world was struggling with the Coronavirus, I had a bad case of cabin fever. Antidote: Drive down to the San Rafael Swell for a day of hiking in the sandstone canyons. By packing sandwiches and snacks, I could drive down, hike and drive home again without interacting with any business […]
Pre-Spring In Wildhorse Canyon
It hadn’t been a particularly hard winter with slightly above snowfall in the mountains and little snow in the valleys… just the way we like it. However, as we mushed through January and February, the temperatures stayed below normal. It refused to get into the 40’s even on sunny days. By the first of March, […]
Return to Wildhorse Window
It was five days until Christmas so I knew I had plenty of time to begin my Christmas shopping and still go hiking. The weather promised to be clear though cold. I decided to drive down to the San Rafael Swell to check an item off of my bucket list. I had hiked to Wildhorse […]
Utah’s Little Grand Canyon
I was waiting for a day that would be clear and calm in the San Rafael Swell so that I could take my DJI Mavic Pro drone down to The Wedge and fly it over Little Grand Canyon. I picked a perfect day! I arrived at The Wedge overlooking the San Rafael River just after […]
Horse Heaven and Moroni Slopes
The weather was nice enough to warrant a day trip to the southwest end of the San Rafael Swell where I wanted to fly my DJI Mavic Pro drone over some canyons that drained south and then east into Salt Wash and then the Muddy River. This is an area southwest of Hidden Splendor with […]
Hiking Through Wildflowers to Rip Canyon
On Monday, May 13th I decided that I had had enough of the continual rain in northern Utah. I had been watching the storms mostly miss central Utah so I guessed that the back country wouldn’t be too muddy. I drove south to the east side of the San Rafael Swell and pulled off the […]
Above Black Dragon Canyon
It was April and it still felt like Winter in Utah Valley where I live. In desperation, I jumped in my truck and drove down to the San Rafael Swell west of Green River Utah in hopes of finding Spring. I didn’t find it. I parked my truck on the east end of Black Dragon […]
Flying Straight in the San Rafael Swell
October 24th found me heading for the east side of the San Rafael Swell. It was fall and finally cooling off enough to make hiking possible again in the Utah desert. Traveling south towards Hanksville, I exited the highway where it crosses Iron Wash and parked my truck. I then headed westward up the wash […]
Hidden Splendor
It was too hot in most of central and southern Utah for hiking but I needed to do something. I checked my list of places I wanted to visit again and choose the Hidden Splendor area of the San Rafael Swell. I was hoping that it would not be windy so I could fly my […]