Guidebook to Utah's scenic San Rafael Swell

Travel directions, maps, and historical sidelights for scenic adventures to the natural and historical wonders of this spectacularly beautiful state.

"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 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.

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.

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.

The vast public lands of the American West are being transformed today, not geologically but conceptually. A century ago, visitors to western public lands were likely to be ranchers or miners. Today, the lands are popular destinations for campers, hikers, rock climbers, river runners, artists, and off-road-vehicle enthusiasts. These new visitors have proved to be a challenge for managers of public lands, in particular the federal Bureau of Land Management. Perhaps no area has been more affected by changing users and shifting policies than the San Rafael Swell, a million-acre expanse in southeastern Utah. In this insightful and useful book, Jeffrey Durrant follows the trail of decisions and events that have had—and continue to have—a transformative impact on this ancient land. In detailing political and environmental squabbles over the San Rafael Swell, Durrant illuminates issues that confront land managers, bureaucrats, and elected officials throughout the country. He describes struggles between county commissioners and environmental activists, conflicts over water rights, proposals that repeatedly fail to gain government approval, and political posturings. Caught in the crossfire, and often overwhelmed, the Bureau of Land Management has seen its long-time mission—once centered on grazing and mining rights—transmogrify into a new and, to some, unsettling responsibility for recreation and preservation. The sandstone crags and twisting valleys of the San Rafael Swell present a formidable landscape, but as this book clearly shows, the political landscape may be even more daunting, strewn with bureaucratic boulders and embedded with fixed positions on the functions and values of public land.

With natives as your guides, this series leads you down the road less traveled. 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. About the series: Whether you need to get away for a weekend or longer, want to explore your home state or make plans for free time in an area you don’t know well, take to the road with a Backroads & Byways book. You’ll discover the most interesting places to visit on and off the beaten path. Destinations will appeal to foodies, history buffs, families with kids, couples, adventurers, hikers, bikers—in short, everyone. 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.