A fun day in the San Rafael Swell of Utah

[ATVUtah]

Just got home from a fantastic ride in the San Rafael Swell in east central Utah. For me it was a 470 mile drive just to get to the starting point of our ride but well worth the drive. We had 16 people along, some from here on the UUtah Forum and some from the ATVUtah Forum. What a great group.

Yep it was a fun day Rain, sun, snow, dust, smiles, mud, and lots of miles it was all great Nothing extremely challenging but a few sections that made you sit up and pay attention :o

I should have taken more pictures but I was having too much fun. Especially when there was a bit of water to play in

OK for those not familiar with the area you can follow our route on the San Rafael Swell Map from the BLM (side B) or the #712 map from ATVUtah.com.

We turned off hwy 10 near Castle Dale Utah on County road 401 and went approximately 15 miles east and then turned south on County road 332 down Buckhorn Wash for about another 10 miles to the swinging bridge. (39.07913,-110.66739,5127,04/21/2007 WGS84)
Don't pass up the opportunity to check out the pictograph panels in Buckhorn Wash (ROCKART,39.12340,-110.69376,5373,04/23/2007,WGS84)
They are awesome and one of many such pictograph and petroglyph sites in this area.

Ok back to the ride :)
We then unloaded and rode on south on 332 until we turned off on trail 643 Near Fix-it pass we turned onto trail 638 and headed south to the 644 trail. We took a little side trip over to see Dutchman's Arch and take a few photos. One of several we saw along this ride Then 641 over to BM6852 We then took a short side trip to check out some more Indian Rock Art (ROCKART2,38.85319,-110.80340,7210,04/23/2007,WGS84)

We came across a boy scout troop putting up some fencing to help protect the historic site. Now that's what I call a scout trip camping and getting to help protect such an ancient and awesome area for future generations.

From there we continued a short distance ans turned west on the 820 trail going over to Swasey's Cabin, a historic homestead from the 1920's, where we stopped for lunch.

From Swasey's Cabin we rode the 820 past natural Arch and through Eagles Canyon. The I-70 Freeway bridges sure looks small from down in the canyon ;) Then we connected to the 648 trail over to the 639 trail and up Eva Conover and coal wash until we connected with the upper end of the 638 trail, which we rode until it brought us to the B6770 road. Using that we rode up to the San Rafael River where the quads took a little swim; then on through Fuller Bottoms and back to County Road 401, At this point we simply followed our early morning path out to the starting point with a stop at the before mentioned pictograph panels in Buckhorn wash.

84.6 miles of riding in all and a fantastic day. As I said we saw rain, snow sunshine, mud, dust and lots of water to play in down in the wash. Flipper even tried to drown Quadsquad from the ATVUtah forums with a huge splash but missed him by just an inch or so I swear I had no control, Flipper (the borrowed ATV I rode) did it Thats my story and I'm sticking to it! It was a long drive for all of us and not many got much sleep the night before but I bet if that big splash had connected QS would have forgotten his lack of sleep the night before

I want to thank my buddy Quadsquad though for loaning me one of his quads for the day. I'm still waiting on a few parts for old yeller and QS was nice enough to let me use his extra King Quad :) Thank you to the rest of the group for an awesome ride and a great time with some very good friends.


This is my the track log from the ride
National Georpahic Topo file: San_Rafael_4-21-2007.tpo
Garmin Mapsource file: San_Rafael_4-21-2007.gdb
GPS Exchange File: San_Rafael_4-21-2007.gpx
Magellan MapSend File: San_Rafael_4-21-2007

Here are a few pictures.

sleep.. need sleep....

[price1869]

Cool,

i hope you stayed on designated trails I have pictures of your vehicles and your party (although they all have a strange watermark on them)

[Sombeech]

Nice pics. Looks like you had a great time. Thanks for sharing.

[RugerShooter]

Thanks for sharing the picture looks like you had fun

[JP]

You guys are all bundled up, how cold was it?

[fourtycal]

Man that looks like a great trip! Thanks for the report.

[accadacca]

Looks like a full on ATV assault...nice werk!

And yup the watermark in the bottom right is ok, but the top left is a little much.

[ATVUtah]

i hope you stayed on designated trails

Since quite a few of the guys and women on this ride are Utah Trail Patrol members who regularly volunteer their time to help enforce the trail rules and work very closely with both State and Federal authorities I don't think that would ever be a problem with this bunch.

You guys are all bundled up, how cold was it?

It wasn't bad. We got a little snow for maybe 20 minutes and a little rain for about the same amount of time but for the majority of the ride the temp was just about right with a light jacket. I rode with just an average sweat shirt most of the day. I never even bothered to dig out the warm weather gloves it never got cold enough to need them.

[wojo342]

I was on that same trail a few weeks ago. Lots of fun. I envy you...wish I coulda been there!

[JP]

It wasn't bad. We got a little snow for maybe 20 minutes and a little rain for about the same amount of time

Man, I guess I was spoiled in Moab. It was in the high 70's everyday and some were in the low 80's. Never needed any jacket. Then we were getting all pissey as our days were counting down, it was still snowing in Connecticut Here I am a week back and it's in the 80's h yea, Spring has sprung