In The Shadow of Longs Peak
Saturday, 08 November 20250
It seems even colder this morning and windy. We made breakfast, do dishes, break camp, pack up and head home, arriving at my place by 7 PM. Though we do stop and photograph at the Smith Cabin before heading out.
Hate to say it, but this shoulder season / chilly, short day camping with no outhouse is getting to be beyond my limit.
San Rafael Swell
04 November 2025 to 08 November 2025
An outing to the east side of the San Rafael Swell, north of I-70. We have not been to this area since 2007 and our intention was to hike in the area of the Smith Cabin and hike up Horse Thief Canyon.
Tuesday, 04 November 2025
Gary arrived around noon on Tuesday. After loading my camping gear and the coolers, we were on our way by 12:30.
We had a reservation at the Ramada Inn at Grand Junction on Horizon Drive where we’ve stayed before. After a quick stop in Georgetown, we arrived at the Ramada at 6:30. The rooms are adequate though next time I would request a room on the north side (facing away from the highway) and pull the plug on the fridge which made lots of noise.
It's been chilly here the last few days, so initially the warm room was nice but it turned out to be a little too warm for sleeping. The soft bed was really nice at first but by morning my back hurt.
Friday, 07 November 2025
It seems a bit colder this morning. We made breakfast, do dishes, then prepare for a bike ride south on the Tidwell Draw Track. The steep rocky downhills are scary, so I get off and walk down. The steep rocky uphills are difficult, so I get off and walk up. I lose momentum crossing the sandy draws, so I get off and walk across. It is not long before I give up, turn around and head back to camp and work on sketches and photography.
Gary, however, continues. He is out for about 2 hours total and is pretty worn down by the time he gets back. Ends up taking a nap before supper.
Thursday, 06 November 2025
We were up around 8 AM. It was pleasantly warm once the sun came out. Gary made scrambled eggs and sausage for breakfast burritos. Next is dishes, then we'll hike.
Our hike turned out to be 50% marginal/50 % exquisite. We started by hiking west from our campsite, up a steep, rubble-filled drainage, that split a time or two. At the top, it split into three fingers. The south finger seemed cliffy at its terminus, so we did not go that way. Nor did we walk up the center finger, as it seemed like it would require a significant scramble. So, we turned up the right (north) finger which was rubbled-filled, similar to the drainages below. But, only one high step, then up and over two low cliff-bands, then we out of the drainage but continue uphill.
The climb up the drainage was a hump to get to this point, not only steep but filled with loose rocks of all sizes. Not pleasant at all!
As an aside, we did this exact hike the last time we were here in spring of 2007. I don’t remember it being this strenuous, but we were 15 years younger. When I went back and looked at my notes from that trip, they say at the three-fingered junction, we went left. But today, there did not seem to be a break in the wall we could have ascended.
We took way points, in case we end up returning this way. Gary is urging that we find a way to dip down into the canyon to the north and take that back to the Smith Cabin.
We hiked west, around a knob, to an edge with no apparent way down, so we back-track and continue west, to a narrow breach in the rock that seemed to go to the canyon’s bottom.
It’s slow going down, over rocks and around brush. But up ahead to our left is a very cool arch-in-process being carved into the rock. Now I regret not having my camera, but I’ve been focused on just doing the hike. Maybe we can come back here.
The good news is that we are walking on someone else’s tracks as we descend this cleft. They are going in the same direction as we are, and all are going down with none coming up, a good sign!
Once at the bottom, we turned down canyon, again following tracks. The hiking now is exquisite! The bottom of this drainage is sand-covered with occasional slabs of sandstone. We stopped for a break at around 1 PM. Then hiking again, ever downward, and still following tracks.
At one point, there was a cairn and the trail split, one going eastward and down a drainage, and the other continued northward.
We picked our way downward, with the angle steepening slightly, but it was easy walking over slabs of sandstone and down low-angled waterfalls with the layered ridges of water-carved sandstone and a few shallow pools of clear water.
After a bit, the angle of descent flattened a bit and we were in a small, sandy wash.
We hopped out of the wash for another break, and we both wondered if we could simply continue hiking eastward and downward, avoiding the various washes. We could not see our camp or truck though the GPS showed it less than ½ mile southeast from our current position.
There is a butte directly in front of us, and we angle around its left shoulder. Now, there is a bit of a rise in front of us and I head that way ad climb up, but still no sign of the truck. Gary heads around the left (north) of the rise and I follow him.
Further left are the blue water throughs we saw yesterday at Smith Cabin, so we are not far.
Ahead I can see a track and wonder if it's the Tidwell Draw Track, which it turns out to be. Gary is ahead and turns right (south). I question this but he is following our tracks from yesterday.
We walk for five minutes or so and and turn up the track to the bench where we are camped. We see our sunshade has flopped around in the wind but is undamaged.
I might add that I had a hard time using the GPS to orient our position to our camp. Need to practice that and have a magnifying glass to see the display better.
We crawled into our tent around 8:30 PM. I read for an hour or so as sleep seems to have eluded me. It was not too cold overnight.
Wednesday, 05 November 2025
We were up at about 8 AM, our usual time, showered, dressed, packed up and checked out.
Next is breakfast. There is a Wendy's just south of the motel, but as it turns out, it was not open, so we hop on I-70 to Fruita where we gas up and get breakfast at McDonalds.
The west again on I-70. First stop is Green River and the Powell Museum for a a wonderful photography show of Glen Canyon, before and after the completion of the Glen Canyon Dam. The photographers were Dawn Kish and Tad Nichols, who passed away in 2000.
Dawn was able to borrow Tad’s original camera and went back to photograph the areas where Tad had been. Most were in canyons closer to Wahweap but a few were closer to Bullfrog. Both had shots of Cathedral in the Desert which is located in Clear Creek Canyon, one of the fingers of the Escalante Arm. Sad to say, this was on the list of sites to see on our recent outing to the Powell and the Escalante, but once there I did not pursue it.
Tad published a book of photographs, Glen Canyon: Images of a Lost World, which I believe I checked out from the Boulder Library when I lived in there. That was before we ever paddled at Powell, though I had been to the Wahweap area in the mid’1980s.
As an aside, it would be nice to revisit the museum for their main exhibit about Powell and the Green River, even though I have seen it twice.
Then on to our destination, the camp on a level grade with a stand-pipe located just south of the Smith Cabin. The road in was in good shape and my Forester could have driven it, at least to the intersection of the Tidwell Flats track. From there to the campsite, about a mile, one definitely needs a vehicle with high clearance and 4-wheel drive, mostly for crossing the wash just beyond the main road. On the other side, the road has a steep section where is climbs out of the wash.
We arrive about 2 PM; got the tent and sunshade set up, trunk unloaded, cooking area setup, and sleeping bags with pads in the tent.
Then, we were off for a walk to Smith Cabin and stroll up one of the drainages then run behind it.
At one spot I thought I found a cool fossil but on closer look it seemed to be more like a rock that eroded in an interesting pattern. I regretted not bringing my camera on this outing.
Then back to camp, Supper was canned chili and cornbread (prepared at home). It was dark by 6 PM and it was cloudy, so no stargazing. I had intended to read but did not bring in my glasses into the tent. I was tired anyway and fell asleep quickly. I slept well, though had a bunch of weird dreams, par for the course lately but without a recurring theme.