Road Trip: Utah and the San Rafael Swell
My Dad, Brother, and I took a trip to Utah to go hike the slot canyons of the San Rafael Swell. We started out in Green River and first went to Little Wild Horse Canyon which is just out side of Goblin Valley State Park. It is an easy hike and the canyon is beautiful. It definately gives you a great idea of what a slot canyon is. You could do the whole canyon part in about an hour, but since we took so many pictures, it took us about 3 hours!
After Little Wild Horse Canyon, we went around the back of the swell and headed to Crack Canyon. Crack Canyon is completely different than Little Wild Horse. It starts off with huge "Swiss Cheese Rock" and then goes into a few narrows. We ran into some water here as well which we had to wade through. But that is all part of the adventure!
The next day, we decided to head to Archs National Park. Before heading out of town, we headed to Crystal Geyser. Crystal Geyser is just outside of Green River, Utah. It is an active geyser, however, we didn't get to see it blow. The area is a awesome redish orange. It looks like it is slippery and soft, but it is rock hard. I loved the calcified trees.
We then headed to Arches National Park where we played tourist. We really just drove to all the takeouts, walked to the arches, took pictures and headed out. We didn't do any long walks here. We then headed to Moab for lunch. There was a Car Show in town as well, so we checked that out. After that, we headed back towards Colorado, but we decided to go over the LaSalle Mountains. The drive up there was beautiful and if I lived there, I would definately take a car club up that road! It was a fun drive. On the way back down, we headed back towards Colorado the back way and went past Dewey Bridge. This used to be a really old and scarry creeky bridge when I was a kid. Now it is all paved and pretty sturdy.
We stayed in Junction for the night and started making our way back home the next morning. We wouldn't be outdoors men if we didn't hit some more trails on our way. My Dad has always wanted to go to Rifle Falls, so that was our first detour.
Rifle Falls State Park is just outside of Rifle Colorado on the western slope. The park is only 11 miles from I70, and I'm guessing not many people have been here. You drive right up to the falls (park and walk 100 yards), but if you go for a short walk (about a mile), you will come to the fish hatchery. The cascading falls act as a natural digestive system for all that flows through there. It was so lush and pretty, it is deffinately worth the detour off I70.
Our last stop was NoName Creek which is at the West end of Glenwood Canyon. We only walked up here for about a half hour, but it was still a nice walk. We found some rare Avalance Lilies on the way back down too! So it was definately worth the stop.