Where should we camp in San Rafael?

[DiscGo]

We are going down to do some slot canyon hikes, and some geocaching. Does anyone have a favorite spot (or good recommendation) in the San Rafael area?

[asdf]

This time of year I like the Temple Mtn/ goblin area. Not many people and you have quite a few non-tech canyons (Ding, Dang, Little Wild Horse, Wild Horse Creek, Crack , Chute ect.) all at your finger tips.
We were down there two weeks ago and we only saw a few other people.
http://uutah.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3796
Be aware of road conditions, we camped in North Temple wash but had to put it in 4low to make it though all the sand. The behind the reef road was washed out. (Anyone know if they have graded it yet?)

[Reedus]

If you haven't checked out Shane's site @ climb-utah.com, it is worth a look. Depending on your skill level, my personal short easy favs in the swell are Baptist, Eardley, and Zero-G although Zero-G would be dang cold with all the water recently. Baptist is fairly dry until you get into Chute and Eardley falls inbetween those two IMHO. Check the weather before you go, the high elevation of the Swell is known for some serious freak snow storms starting about this time of year. If you want a killer campsite combined with a short easy canyon, Baptist fits the ticket. Just make sure you drive all the way to the Chute canyon overlook before setting up camp.

[mroy]

I've enjoyed camping at the top of the wedge overlook in the northern part of the swell, at the end of the drivable portion of the road north-east of Mexican Hat. The area around Mexican Hat is fun to explore. You can get to the river via a steep, almost cliff like descent down blocks of stone, though you gotta be careful. That's before you get to the end of the road in the Mexican Hat area.

If you follow the road past the gate (on foot) you can find some petroglyphs on large boulders on the east side of the mouth of the canyon to the north and if you head up in the canyon you can find some ruins.

It all depends what corner of the swell you're planning on going to.

[asdf]

Has anyone been into any of these areas in the past few weeks?
The roads is the swell took one hell of a beating from that 50 year storm 4 weeks ago.
When we were there 3 weeks ago you could not go past LWHC or very far on the behind the reef road at all. The canyons still had some running water.
With temps in the low 30's you can bet that any water in the swell is going to be pretty cold this weekend.

We are planning on doing Crawford/upper Eardley this weekend.

[Reedus]

I thought about heading that way this weekend to until I saw the weather forecast. Mid 40's with 50% chance of rain and snow kinda puts a damper on it.

[asdf]

I thought about heading that way this weekend to until I saw the weather forecast. Mid 40's with 50% chance of rain and snow kinda puts a damper on it.

Where are you seeing this?
Noaa says:
SPOTTY SHOWERS WILL LINGER ALONG THE COLD FRONT ACROSS SOUTHERN UTAH
EARLY THURSDAY. HIGH PRESSURE ALOFT WILL BRING DRY AND MILD
CONDITIONS TO THE AREA FRIDAY THROUGH EARLY SATURDAY. A SECOND
PACIFIC WEATHER DISTURBANCES WILL BRING SCATTERED SHOWERS BACK TO THE AREA LATE SATURDAY THROUGH EARLY SUNDAY.

http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/mesowest/get...e=1&banner=off
I know its a few days out and living in Utah you never know what the weather will bring.

[DiscGo]

My wife is nervous about the weather this weekend too. I figure that worse case scenario is we get wet, but I guess we'll see

[Reedus]

Your best shot at getting an accurate weather reading (not saying much) is to go with the local stations. NOAA isn't concerned about the Swell as much as Mark Eubank is.

[Scott P]

San Rafael Weather forecast looks great for the weekend. I will be down there.

[asdf]

San Rafael Weather forecast looks great for the weekend. I will be down there.

Same here, where are you headed?

[Scott P]

Window Blind Peak and maybe Assembly Hall. Someone had to cancel last week so we postponed it to this week.