Trip Report Western Cedar Mountain

I spent yesterday tooling around the western plateau of Cedar Mountain in the northern San Rafael Swell. This is the same area where an episode of Mantracker was filmed for the Science Channel about a month ago. It's some really rugged country, and there's a maze of roads and trails throughout the area. There are also a lot of springs that have been developed to water cattle.

http://castlecountry.org/geo/WesternCedarMountain.kmz

I just wandered around the trails, hiked into a couple of small canyons, and explored some old mining tracks that switched back down the south slope of the mountain. It was cold and windy all day, but it beat staying indoors.

Top of a cattle trail above Bob Hill Spring
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_JpEWXOITrzw/TO...0/IMG_9590.JPG

Ice from Bob Hill Spring
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_JpEWXOITrzw/TO...0/IMG_9593.JPG

View into Bull Hollow
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_JpEWXOITrzw/TO...0/IMG_9601.JPG

Frozen cattle pond
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_JpEWXOITrzw/TO...0/IMG_9605.JPG

Parked above an unnamed canyon
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_JpEWXOITrzw/TO...0/IMG_9612.JPG

Huge cracks in the exposed bedrock near Mud Spring
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_JpEWXOITrzw/TO...0/IMG_9618.JPG

View across Buckhorn Flat toward Little Cedar Mountain
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_JpEWXOITrzw/TO...0/IMG_9624.JPG

A rounded knoll in the Morrison Formation
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_JpEWXOITrzw/TO...0/IMG_9625.JPG

A cave in the Morrison Formation clay
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_JpEWXOITrzw/TO...0/IMG_9630.JPG

Dead end mining track
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_JpEWXOITrzw/TO...0/IMG_9631.JPG

A washout on another mining track
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_JpEWXOITrzw/TO...0/IMG_9634.JPG

Climbing another track back up to the plateau
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_JpEWXOITrzw/TO...0/IMG_9635.JPG

Morrison Formation hill
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_JpEWXOITrzw/TO...0/IMG_9638.JPG

Rockfall on the trail
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_JpEWXOITrzw/TO...0/IMG_9653.JPG

End of another road
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_JpEWXOITrzw/TO...0/IMG_9656.JPG

Cedar Mountain Recreation Area
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_JpEWXOITrzw/TO...0/IMG_9657.JPG

Stairs leading to some picnic sites
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_JpEWXOITrzw/TO...0/IMG_9679.JPG

A nice, sheltered picnic site
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_JpEWXOITrzw/TO...0/IMG_9681.JPG

http://picasaweb.google.com/Dennis.U...CedarMountain#