San Rafael Reef between Iron Wash and Mormon Tanks
My last few trips to the San Rafael Reef were done with a particular destination in mind, but this time I just picked a canyon at random and hiked up it. I drove down after work on Friday and made a quick stop in Iron Wash. There's an old pioneer signature there that I wanted to see, and I found some other undated initials carved in the sandstone that looked pretty old. I also found a shallow cave with grinding marks and sharpening grooves, plus plenty of soot and old charcoal inside, but unfortunately no rock that I could see in the area. After leaving Iron Wash I drove a short distance and found a place to camp near the canyon that I wanted to hike up. I built a fire pit and got a fire going so I could cook some dinner, then set up my tent and relaxed around the fire and read a book. Watching the waning full moon rise over the La Sals was a treat.
Parked at the barricade in Iron Wash
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J.A. Watt signature
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Small cave in Iron Wash
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Grinding marks at the mouth of the cave
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Sharpening grooves
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View out of another cave in Iron Wash
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Getting a fire going
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Camp fire
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Tent and truck
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Moon rising over the La Sal Mountains
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My shadow in the moonlight
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I was up early on Saturday morning and started hiking at about 8:00AM. The lower part of the canyon was not terribly interesting, but I took it slow and kept an eye out for rock art, which I can't help but do in this area. :) Farther up the canyon there were some large pools of water, which my dog couldn't help but take a dip in. I came to a large pool that gets no direct sunlight this time of year and had some sand-covered ice in the bottom, and a large dryfall above it that looked impassible. I had to do a steep scramble around one side to get past it, and it took some effort to shove my dog up ahead of me. Just above the dryfall was a narrow side canyon full of water. If it had been dry, I would have loved exploring it. In the main canyon above the first big dryfall were several smaller ones that were impossible for me to climb, but again I found a way around them by scrambling out of the drainage. Not far after getting back into the main drainage was yet another dryfall that I simply couldn't get around--well, my dog couldn't get around it, so that was where I turned around and headed back down the canyon looking for another way up to the canyon rim.
Early morning at camp
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An old spur I found near camp
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Starting up the canyon
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A shallow cave with a few signs of ancient habitation
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Small arch in the canyon wall
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View up the canyon
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Torrey in a pool
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A large row of Fremont's Mahonia
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Just after scrambling around the first big dryfall
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Water in a narrow side canyon
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A series of small potholes that I went around
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Crazy concretions on the canyon wall
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Another dryfall that completely halted my progress
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This was as far as Torrey would go when trying to bypass the dryfall
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I backtracked more than half a mile before finding a spot to climb out of the canyon. On the way back down, though, I found an arrowhead that I'd walked right past without noticing earlier in the morning. After climbing out of the canyon, I dropped down into the next canyon to the north and started ascending it. Once I saw ahead that the canyon narrowed up and became choked with brush and trees, I started following the ramping sandstone wall on the north side that led to the canyon's rim. After scrambling up and down some sandstone fins and following some brush-choked cracks, I found myself overlooking the canyon I'd originally started hiking up, though I was about half a mile upstream from the dryfall that had stopped my progress earlier. I stopped there for lunch and scouted the canyon below me.
An arrowhead lying in the bottom of the canyon
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An adjacent canyon that I dropped into
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Lots of rockfall in this canyon
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Looking back at the ramp I used to hike out of the canyon to the rim
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View into the canyon where it narrowed up
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Descending a fin
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A crack that I hiked through
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Aiming for the gap in the center
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Bushwhacking ahead
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View from my lunch spot, looking down the first canyon I'd ascended
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View up the canyon
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After seeing what kind of country was ahead of me if I wanted to continue up the San Rafael Reef, I decided to call it a day. The route up to that point had been pretty convoluted, and it was only going to get worse if I kept ascending. I didn't want to follow the same route back, so I continued a little farther up the Reef before rounding a corner and descending back into the section of fins. I exited the Reef through the second canyon I'd ascended, then walked along a dirt road just over half a mile back to camp, where I packed things up and headed home.
I followed this ledge between cliffs to the point on the left
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Nice view into the upper canyon drainage
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View down my exit route
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Many more potholes on the descent
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Cutting across some fins
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Hiking up a fin
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The dirt road back to camp
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Full photo gallery:
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