The San Rafael Swell in Utah is unmistakable and quite fascinating when flying over it, and I had remembered reading about the San Rafael climb "1,000 feet of fun" in a Supertopo thread of great moderate climbs. I also knew there was some canyoneering there. Maybe a good place to spend a week, unplugged?

It is a bit of a drive from California so we stopped in Austin Nevada for some mountain biking on the way out. Wow, an absolutely beautiful mountain bike ride in complete solitude. This, when I know Moab is in full swing with crowds on every trail.



After the ride and some more driving we found ourselves on a four wheel drive track in our two wheel drive sprinter heading into Three Finger Canyon in the Swell. We got the van stuck, then unstuck and found a nice spot to camp, then hiked the rest of the way (a mile or so) into the canyon to the climb.


We were actually a tad disappointed in the climb. There is one 5.5 move and one 5.6 move and the rest is quite easy. But there are petrogplyhs at the mouth of the canyon and at least in the spring season a very nice pothole to cool your feet. I was about to jump in but Bets thought it would be uncool to subject the pothole critters to our sweaty bodies.


The next day we did Bon Voyage, a 5.8 in the next canyon over. A nice climb although we are still getting used to sandstone and not granite. At one point Betsy was leading and I heard a "pow" and little cloud of red dust arose next to her foot as she dropped a foot to a ledge. It would not have been a good leader fall. Granite doesn't do that.


The next day we switched to a static polypro rope and bathing suits and descended Bishop's Draw into Upper Chute Canyon, then back up Cross Canyon to our van in a true long backcountry canyoneering experience.


At this point we were low on water and food so we headed into the bustling city of Moab (really bustling) for supplies, plus margaritas and Mexican food. We asked our waiter what ride we should do while in town for one day and he directed us to Hymasa Back / Captain Ahab. Wow, nice ride - although we did walk out bikes down a lot of drops I'm sure some guys fly over.


After watering up and taking a longer shower than we take in the desert, we headed back to the Swell for more climbing.

Betsy had me concerned for a while because she likes rattlesnakes. She is a veterinarian and a week prior to the trip had hosted rattlesnake aversion training with live rattlesnakes. It may have worked for the dogs but not for her, because she found a rattlesnake and wanted to hear it rattle. What could go wrong?


She did not get bit. For climbing, we climbed Firebird, 5.7 near Spotted Wolf canyon and also Rumble Strips, 5.8, right next to it.


On the way home we went up (hiked Mt. Wheeler) and down (did the Lehman Caves tour). A great week!