Guidebook to Utah's scenic San Rafael Swell

The San Rafael Swell is a seemingly endless expanse of slickrock, reefs, rivers, narrow canyons, mesas, towers, and pinnacles. It is the wilderness home of coyotes, eagles, mountain lions, and bighorn sheep. Steve Allen's Canyoneering: The San Rafael Swell has long been the standard for exploring this remarkable area. With the input of fellow guidebook author Joe Mitchell, Canyoneering the Northern San Rafael Swell replacesthe older volume with a completely rewritten and updated text containing more detail, greater accuracy, and a tighter focus on the northern half of the Swell. This is the most current and comprehensive guide to the region. Designed for wilderness enthusiasts of all ages and skill levels, this guide provides detailed information on 25 hikes, including trip length, difficulty, elevation gain, and water sources. Side trips, points of interest, and historical information are noted throughout the text. This guidebook includes for the first time a wealth of topographic maps for all routes and roads, elevation profiles, and GPS coordinates. A second volume covering the southern portion of the San Rafael Swell is in preparation.

Hiking Guide to San Rafael Swell in Utah The San Rafael Swell, 2,000 square miles of public land, is known for its scenic sandstone formations, deep canyons, desert streams, and expansive panoramas. The "Hiking Guide to San Rafael Swell in Utah" book is tailored for the first time visitor including lodging and camping options in the area. The custom detailed maps make finding and hiking these great slot canyons much easier and the maps have key GPS coordinates for finding the trailheads or the canyon entrances. This book includes trail information and custom topographical maps that eliminate the anxiety of trial and error hiking to find some of the best slot canyon adventures in the United States. Some of the featured canyons in this book are: Baptist Draw, Bell Canyon, Chute Canyon, Cistern Canyon, Crack Canyon, Crawford Draw, Devils Canyon, Dang Canyon, Ding Canyon, Eagle Canyon, Farnsworth Canyon, Little Wild Horse Canyon, Muddy Creek, Music Canyon and Wild Horse Creek Trail. The San Rafael Swell landscape reveals a geological history left bare through millennia of upheaval and erosion. The geologic history of the San Rafael Swell area began 40 to 60 million years ago when a massive uplift formed a geologic anticline. This bulge in the earth's crust eventually eroded to leave high mesas, deep canyons, domes, spectacular arches, and spires. The terrain varies from the sheer cliffs and dazzling canyons to more gently carved badlands broken by shallow washes. The fins and folds of the San Rafael Reef jut through the southeast side of the area with dramatic sheer-walled cliffs, pinnacles, the knobs of Goblin Valley, twisted canyons, and valleys of stunning colors. Few canyons can compare to the entrenched, narrow gorges of the Black Boxes of the San Rafael River which twists and turns through the San Rafael Swell. Aside from Interstate (I-70), only old uranium mines, dirt roads, livestock improvements, and simple ATV facilities are evident. Visitors should bring maps, as many roads are not signed. No permits are required for individuals and small groups for non-commercial, non-competitive use. Plan your trip to the San Rafael Swell with any of the following books: Hiking Guide to San Rafael Swell in Utah Slot Canyon Hikes & Adventures 4 San Rafael Swell 2015 Canyon Atlas

"Includes a history of the San Rafael Swell by Dee Anne Finken (expanded by Michael R. Kelsey) and geology of the San Rafael Swell by Lynn Jackson (updated by Michael R. Kelsey & Utah Geological Survey)"--Title page.

The San Rafael Swell is an anticline, or a geological uplift, that originally looked like an oval bowl turned upside down. Over time it has been carved into castle-like formations and deep canyons by erosive conditions. This landscape seemed so formidable to early cartographers that it was the last area in the continental United States to be mapped. The San Rafael Swell itself has no permanent human inhabitants, but small towns are scattered along its northern and eastern borders where first American Indians and later cowboys, ranchers, and miners made their homes. The hardy settlers of these towns familiarized themselves with what they called "the Desert" and gradually discovered its treasures and its secrets.

This handy 6x9 guidebook is a new, full color volume that navigates 1153 miles of backcountry trails in Northern Utah, near the towns of Vernal, Logan, Salt Lake City, Price, Wendover, Beaver, and Milford. See ghost towns, old mines and mill workings, old railroads and stage lines along the 35 off-road trails. Directions include GPS coordinates and all trails are rated for difficulty, mileage, driving time, remoteness and more. Descriptions highlight places to camp, hike, mountain bike, fish, and sightsee. Histories recount the days of the Wild West.

Find your own path through the beautiful state of Utah Visit the vast open lands and widely varied terrain of Utah. These routes are some of the most interesting, beautiful, visually diverse, and historically and culturally relevant sections of road and points of interest in this great state. Tall mountain peaks, broad valleys, high plains, many varieties of desert—Utah’s landscapes are as dynamic as its recreation options. Back in a new edition, with a gorgeous new design, Backroads & Byways of Utah has even more to offer. Whether you’re interested in the cosmopolitan views of Salt Lake City, the quiet and serene Deer Creek Reservoir, or the lush vistas of Little Cottonwood Canyon, this guide will help you see Utah in a whole new light. With itineraries appropriate for visits of differing durations and in different seasons, tips for comfortable accommodations, great food, and good shopping too, look to Backroads & Byways for the most interesting and diverse short trips available.

With an estimated 10,000 ancient rock art sites, Nine Mile Canyon has long captivated people the world over. The author takes the reader on a journey into Nine Mile Canyon through the eyes of the generations of archaeologists who have gone there only to leave bewildered by what it all means.