San Rafael Swell

San Rafael Swell & Reef

The NW corner of the Colorado Plateau is a seldom explored wilderness area containing many narrow canyons amidst great expanses of colorful slickrock with arches and natural bridges, cliffs, ridges and mesas. This is the San Rafael Swell, a huge oval-shaped uplift bisected by I -70 which rises abruptly above the Green River Desert. Erosion has carved the formations of the Swell into a ring of steep cliffs. These cliffs surround an inner depression which is called the Sinbad area. Around the edges of the Swell is a ring of upturned eroded strata known as the San Rafael Reef, where most of the slot canyons are located. Most is owned by the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) and could be a future national monument.

Vertical walled canyons cut through the Reef at a variety of intervals. These numerous canyons reach a depth of 1,500 feet. Temple Mountain, the most outstanding landmark of the Reef, is seen about 8 miles north of Goblin Valley and Wildhorse butte may be observed to the west. The main area is just NW of the town of Green River, and there are over 30 canyons to explore along this part of the reef. Apart from a few near Goblin Valley (Bell/Little Wild Horse, Crack/Chute), all are remote, hidden and rarely visited.

Because it is just 5 miles from the popular Goblin Valley State Park, is easily explored and has narrow passages as fine as any other Southwest slot, Little Wild Horse Canyon has become the most visited location in the San Rafael Swell. One hour is enough to see the best sections along its lower end.

Visit http://www.travelsinparadise.com/utah/canyon/ for some great pictures of Little Wild Horse.

Goblin Valley State Park

Goblin Valley was our first stop and we had lunch here as well as some time to walk around and explore some of the formations. Few people visit this park, which is a pity since the rock formations are every bit as dramatic as the more famous National Parks further south, although on a much smaller scale. The Valley, which is only about a mile across and two miles long, is full of thousands of mushroom-shaped pinnacles a few meters high that someone obviously thought resembled goblins--the formations have large orange-brown boulders of hard rock atop weaker sandy layers which have eroded more quickly. The Goblins are well hidden from the approach road and the flat, empty lands to the east by a long narrow ridge with eroded layers of gray and red-brown rocks.

The unique and mysterious sculptures known as "Goblins" have been carved from Entrada Sandstone . Because of the uneven hardness of this layer of sandstone, some patches resist erosion much better than others. The softer material is removed by wind and water, while firmer areas remain standing as odd shaped "goblins" or "hoodoos." Thus, these strange and unique formations were formed over millions of years as water erosion and the smoothing action of windblown dust worked together to shape and mold the stone.

I-70 running through the San Raphael Reef

Beth & Ann

hundreds of goblins

Goblins & the Henry mountains

Little Wild Horse Canyon

This is only one of several slot canyons in this area, but it has become the most visited location in the San Rafael Swell because it is only 5 miles from the popular Goblin Valley State Park, is easily explored. and has narrow passages as fine as any other Southwest slot canyon. The usual plan is to combine a tour with neighboring Bell Canyon - this is an 8 mile loop that in addition to the two narrow gorges also passes high, colorful cliffs and much interesting exposed, eroded rock. However, we just went into Little Wild Horse as far as we could in about 2 hours as we still needed to drive to Capitol Reef National Park. In

the first picture below we have come to the first difficult spot as we have to get up about a 4 foot section of slickrock that had no steps or good hand holds. One way or another we all made it up OK and on the return getting down was fairly easy--sit down, dangle your legs over the edge, and jump.