San Rafael Swell -- Spring 2014

[Charlie Horse]

13-15 May 2014

Another trip to the desert!

This trip was to the northern part of the San Rafael Swell. As a 12 year old scout I visited the area and I'd wanted to retrace my steps. This time the goal was Calf Canyon, a large branch off of the larger Buckhorn Draw canyon which we played capture-the-flag in after a longer trek out around Assembly Hall Plateau (Which I plan on doing another time). This trip was just me, Sasha the dog, and the five young pack-goats-in-training, Victoria, Shelby GT, Amelia Goat-hart, Bacchus, and Woodstock.


We arrived after lunch and I set up my new Hennessy Hammock on this gigantic ancient tree. It seemed like a good spot at the time. Other than being in a wash, (no rain expected) can you tell me why this is a bad place?



Victoria's glamour shot.


We set out hiking around 2:30 and started toward Calf Canyon. This area is rather green compared to the canyons on the southern side of the Swell. Of course its spring and things are green, but did you know that the Swell only got 22% of normal rainfall this year?


Goats playing on rocks. There were some human rock climbers across the way in a camping area. You could see them climbing up cracks in the sandstone face, and you could hear them taunting death when they survived yet again.


The camera really doesn't do the cliffs justice. I'd need to take telephoto to give the sense of scale that you get when you're there.


An oasis. This place really is beautiful!


Its hard to tell but somehow I feel like someone once tried to make a reservoir here. There are reasons to think it is not a natural feature.

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Of course we had to go check out these formations.


The reason there are no Indian dwellings in here is that they're under 20 feet of rubble. Well. Who knows... I could be right! It was a good place for a break though.


I dub this "Sasha Arch"


They say this sandstone is 180 million years old.


For some reason I am reminded of a scene from the latest King Kong movie...


A little left over from the spring torrents for the goats to drink. Judging from the debris stuck in the branches the water was about 8 feet deep in some places.

So back at camp I made some dinner and let the goats run around grazing while I rested in my hammock. WHOMP! Woodstock climbed up the old tree trunk and jumped on to the top of my hammock's rainfly. It just busted a redundant plastic clip. From then on I folded that side of the rain fly back when the goats were off leash. I'll write a review of the hammock later, but in short I think I like it for goat trekking. I slept quite well compared to all other outings, which says a lot about it.

Thats it for now. I'll post again with pics from day 2, walking up Buckhorn Draw, later.