Northern Swell over Easter

[tmartenst]

The wife and I went down to the Northern Swell over Easter (as usual) and did some exploring. We initially were planning on a different canyon but someone was camping there so we went to a camp spot further down the Tidwell Draw road. We headed straight over from the camp spot looking for an entrance to Sheepcave Cyn and ended up getting lost three times. We were pretty lax about finding our way as we had done it 3 times before and were just looking for another entrance. We bagged the Sheepcave idea as I had scoped a spot on Google Earth that looked pretty sweet and wanted to explore. I have a GPS now so that helped too. We had to do some slickrock climbing but eventually came out exactly where I wanted to go. It was a pretty amazing view. The SR river bends all the way around and is visible the whole way (see pic - 4 pictures merged together square to give you scope).

The next day we got up early and drove up the northern road to the Green River cutoff road. We had never been to the Tidwell Draw road north of Smith Cabin before. Much better driving. We did a small canyon called Grotto Canyon. It looks to be the closest thing to a slot in the Tidwell area. There was quite a bit of snow in the canyon and there were four water areas which I chimneyed and my wife chimneyed/waded. The deepest was about waist high. It eventually deadends at a pretty cool grotto.

Once again, the swell does not disappoint.

Cliff dwelling cows:
http://www.purelightimages.com/pics/fs/cal_swell_overlook3.jpg

http://www.purelightimages.com/pics/fs/cal_swell_overlook.jpg

http://www.purelightimages.com/pics/fs/san_raf_river_overlook.jpg

http://www.purelightimages.com/pics/fs/grotto_swell.jpg

http://www.purelightimages.com/pics/fs/grotto_swell_chimney.jpg

[trackrunner]

http://www.purelightimages.com/pics/fs/san_raf_river_overlook.jpg


All good pics, I like this one :2thumbs:

[CarpeyBiggs]

Great find, nice stuff. :2thumbs:

[Jaxx]

very nice TR. I have been trying to get the wife to go to the north swell. She loves goblin valley too much.

[shaggy125]

Is this the same spot? Basically where the river cuts through the reef. Sweet spot (might be different but looks similar. Your pic is much better)

[tmartenst]

Shaggy, Yes it looks to be the same spot, just a bit SE of where you are standing (probably can see the spot where you took the photo in the right side of my pic). We went down to the river through the fence after the Tidwell Draw track ends a few years ago, but had never seen it in the middle like this. Pretty impressive considering the 'big' cliffs and river views are still 2 hours hike up the reef.

How is the area with snow? We drove by in Feb. on our way to Moab and there was about 6 inches coat on the whole area. I wanted to take a detour.

[shaggy125]

It was about 4 years ago that I took that pic, I remember there was only snow on North facing slopes and it was less than an inch deep, so it wasn't an issue. I was always able to find snow free sections to hike up. I remember the inversion in SLC was really bad that year and I did a quick one day trip to get out of the smog. Temps in the 50's and overcast, but much better than the crappy weather in the city!

[accadacca]

Very cool TR indeed. :cool2:

This must be one of those suicidal cows that got rockgremlin and kyrell. :haha:

http://www.purelightimages.com/pics/fs/cal_swell_overlook3.jpg

http://www.bogley.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11256

[tmartenst]

http://www.bogley.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11256

That is a serious crash. It's funny actually, my wife was reading about cows in the Canyoneering The San Rafael Swell book and how you shouldn't drive the area at night because of that. We only see cows in that area over by the Tidwell Draw area and by that time you can only go 4 mph because the road is so bad. We actually were driving in at 10pm and drove a couple inches from a big boy.

I have a few deer under my belt. 1 in Michigan and 1 on Hwy 6 between Price and Spanish Fork coming back from this same spot in the Swell 2 years ago. Hit the bastard at 80 mph in the dark with a semi on my ass.

Totalled the truck but I got a check and fixed it without fixing the some minor aesthetics or the AC and made $1000 on the deal. Still runs like a champ. That section of road is scary stuff. This recent trip we went through there at dusk and saw no less than 300 deer very close to the road.

http://www.purelightimages.com/pics/fs/truck_damage.jpg

http://www.purelightimages.com/pics/fs/deer.jpg

After totalling:
http://www.purelightimages.com/pics/fs/trucknew.jpg

[asdf]

SICK TR

Maybe if the weather holds out I am head down there this weekend.

[R]

The northern Swell is on my short list. I know my wife would be into it. -R