Camping in the San Rafael Swell

The San Rafael Swell area wasn’t on our list of places to check out but luck and circumstances led us in that direction. I’m glad we ended up there.

We had originally intended on spending time in Moab. Moab is miserable. It’s like one big hiking/biking/4-wheeling/roadside attraction with all of the authenticity of antiques on sale at Wal-Mart. We got out of Moab fast and headed up to Green River, UT instead. Green River is a depressed or dying town searching for a new role in the area. Thankfully for us it’s a gateway city to the massive San Rafael Swell outdoor recreation area. Some of the locals gave us some excellent pointers on places of interest over breakfast and we ventured out on 100 miles of dirt roads.

We found a nice, somewhat secluded camping spot under some cottonwood trees along the San Rafael river off of Mexican Bend Rd. We were camped about 25 yards from the river. “River” being a fairly loose term. It wasn’t much bigger than Luce Brook or Lemon Stream back home. The water was cool and certainly helped deal with the heat of the day which made it into the low 90s. The sunlight heated the ground to the point that the dogs were burning their feet if they left the shade.

The area around the San Rafael river is all BLM land open to cattle grazing. The cows tend to hang around the river for water and feeding. They tend to shit a lot too. There’s cow patties everywhere along the river which does provide a certain odor when it’s hot and there’s no wind.

The area is very spectacular. There’s tons of stuff to see and do. We barely scratched the surface of activities. It was too hot for most of the day to do anything but sit in the shade. (Stark contrast to the weather we’ve had the past couple of days.)

Unfortunately this is also the spot where we didn’t stake down the tent and it ended up blowing away and filling with dust. That sucked and put a real damper on an otherwise pleasant stay in the Swell.

Here’s a photo gallery of the area and a video to show what it was like at our camp spot on the Swell.

[Show as slideshow]