A tour of the San Rafael Swell

We took a day trip around Emery County.  Our first stop was an I-70 view point.  It was just west of the cut through the San Rafael (Ra-fell) Reef. 



Black Dragon Canyon.

Then we got off the pavement and did about 100 miles of dirt, mud and a little gravel.

Saw lots of great scenery

It was the opening of the first permanent bridge for motor traffic across the San Rafael River at the bottom of Buckhorn Wash (Canyon). While other bridges had existed in the area before, they were of light construction, mostly wood, and in heavy water years they were always washed away. Before 1937, when the water was high in the river at that point in its flow, it was impossible to cross. When the water was low, the mud would suck down just about any wheeled self-propelled vehicle. In the summer of 1936, men from the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) began the work to put a good bridge across the river. At this point the Bureau of Land Management did not exist, but instead there were various divisions that managed lands under the United States Interior Department. The bridge the men began to build was part of a plan by the Division of Grazing to open up the area south of the river to more uses.

 

The opening ceremony for the bridge attracted 2000 people to this remote area.  The current bridge to the right of the old bridge was built in the early 1990's. 

We wanted to hike to the tunnel but there was a very wet and muddy wash that we didn't want to navigate.

We went to the Wedge Overlook to see Utah's Little Grand Canyon.

We hiked a 1-mile round trip trail to see some 2000 year old rock art. 

Nolan thought this rock looked like the top of a snake's head.

This was the view from by the rock art.

 

This was the canyon we walked up to get to the rock art.

This guy had a bright blue belly.