San Rafael Swell

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8480998@N07/

I have just posted photos on Flickr for the first time, and I'd like a link with a photo panel, like Jessica has, but I can't seem to get Flickr to talk to Blogger. Jess, how did you do it?

Since I'm thinking about you, Jessica, I'll borrow a page from your book and make a list, entitled "Why the San Rafael Swell is so Awesome for Camping"

1. There is no one out there. If you look at my pictures and you see big, empty-looking landscapes, it really is that empty. We went into the Swell from Temple Mountain, not far from Hwy 24 and Goblin Valley. I was kind of worried. The population of Utah has grown quite a bit since our pre-children days when we used to camp regularly in the San Rafael. Maybe it would be hard to find a good camping place. What if all the good spots are taken?! Uh....no. There was no one out there. The dirt roads branch off into smaller dirt roads and the smaller dirt roads branch off into tracks. You can get lost out there. Perfect. For 24 hours we didn't see a person or a car, or hear anything but wind.

2. I love dirt (my friends can attest to this), and there is an abundance in the desert. I wore my "camping pants" with the big tear in the knee. My hair was full of sand and my fingernails were black. I wandered off and brought back deadfall for the fire, wrapped up in my big shirt. I kind of knocked the sand and bugs off it first. Kind of. When I go camping, I always take a little towel for washing, then never use it. This makes for a deeply fulfilling shower after I get home.

3. The flowers and grasses are incredible this year. There was grassland where there's usually just sagebrush.

4. The Geocaching is epic. We found one cache in Little Wildhorse Canyon, which is a well-known and much-visited slot canyon at the edge of the Swell. We went after another one in a spot that was hard to get to, necessitating prying open a makeshift gate in some cattle fencing. Very cool hidden slot canyon that you have to climb down into. And a hill covered in geodes, although most of them were pretty small. We didn't plan on spending hours there, but we did. John, are you out there Geology Man? How are geodes formed?

This was our first non-campground camping trip since Sara and Nathan were born. The kids didn't give a rat's ass about the lack of amenities, so I think we're officially "back to normal". Well, regarding camping, at any rate.