San Rafeal Swell (Saturday, November 5)

I spent the first week of my roadtrip exploring the San Rafeal Swell in central eastern Utah. When I first began planning my adventure, I thought I would first head all the way down to Zion, located in the most southwest corner. From there, I would work my way northeast, hitting Bryce, Escalante, Canyonlands, and Arches before heading down into New Mexico and Arizona. But a good friend of mine suggested against it, saying that if I wanted to experience an eye-opening introduction to the real Southern Utah, I had to hit the Swell first. So that’s what I did, and holy cow…was he ever right.

The San Rafeal Swell is an absolutely breathtaking, and marvelously undervisited, piece of landscape. Baziollions of years ago (more or less), an egg-shaped section of the earth’s crust was uplifted. This chunk of land, roughly 124km by 65 km, has slowly morphed over time as wind and water erode the dirt and rocks. The dense—albeit fragile—masses that remain display a variety of canyons, reefs, buttes, and mesas of all shapes, sizes, and colors. It is truly beautiful.

I wish I could put this in a more lyrical way, but it would lack zest. Southern Utah is simply bad ass. It is harsh and unforgiving. It is real and it does not mess around. If you’re not already humbled by nature by the time you visit the Swell, you will become humbled rather damn quickly. So come prepared with more than you think you need. Check the weather and plan ahead. Take a good map and pay attention to all details or you’ll get lost, swept up in a flash flood, or worse.

Gosh though what a wonderful experience. Every day I see something completely different. Every bend hides yet another surprise. Huge orange overbearing cliffs of Buckhorn Wash. Tight narrows of the wild horse canyon. Ancient pictographs of Black Dragon Canyon. Erie abandoned mines of Copper Globe Canyon. I really felt that I received the full desert experience and I look forward to whatever else may come. What a glorious adventure.