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Canyons of the San Rafael Reef III

Iron Wash to Mormon Tanks Canyon | Friday – Sunday, November 14-16, 2025

I was originally hoping to spend this weekend searching for ruins and rock art on Cedar Mesa, but a wet and snowy weather forecast wasn’t looking good for that area, so instead I decided to stay a bit closer to home and head over to the San Rafael Reef Wilderness where I could explore a few new canyons. I left after work on Friday afternoon, topped off my gas tank in Green River and then made my way over to the foot of the San Rafael Reef where I found a campsite after dark, read for a little while and went to bed early. On Saturday morning I got up before sunrise and started hiking up Iron Wash at dawn. Although I have hiked up Iron Wash before, I don’t recall going very far, and besides it was so long ago that and I don’t remember much about it and was looking forward to checking out this canyon again and going further this time.

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Surrounding Sids Mountain in the San Rafael Swell

Sids Mountain Wilderness | Friday – Sunday, October 31 – November 2, 2025

Although I was originally hoping to be out hiking in the Canyons of the Escalante with Jared for a long weekend at this time, Diane’s recovery is progressing slowly and I didn’t want to leave her home for an extended period of time just yet, so I figured I would just save the PTO for another time and delay the trip until sometime next year. However, I still wanted to get out hiking a little deeper into the backcountry this weekend and Diane is doing well enough that we were comfortable with her staying home for the weekend- she would be having a few friends stop by to visit her throughout the weekend- so I thought it would be nice to head over to the San Rafael Swell to get in some hiking and exploring around Sids Mountain. It’s been just over a year since my last visit to the Swell and I was looking forward to the return!

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White Rocks: Gold Star Canyon & The Bench

Heart of the World | Sunday, October 26, 2025

After spending Saturday morning hiking a big loop in the Colorado National Monument that combined Ute Canyon and Monument Mesa, I returned again early on Sunday morning to hike a shorter loop near Gold Star Canyon from the White Rocks Trailhead. This time I would combine the Mushroom Rock Trail, Gold Star Canyon Trail, Bench Trail and Fenceline Trail to create a nice little 6-7 mile loop and end up back at the White Rocks. I started hiking up onto the Precambrian Bench at dawn and was able to make it to an overlook of Monument Canyon below Mushroom Rock just in time to watch the sunrise.

Ute Canyon & Monument Mesa Loop

Heart of the World | Saturday, October 25, 2025

Even though I had to skip my annual Southern Utah Wanderings with Jared for the first time in about fourteen years, I am hoping to get back to my regular schedule of weekend adventures in the near future, but before I do I need to make sure that Diane is back to 100%, so in the meantime I will try to get out on some local hikes when I can. This weekend I had some time on Saturday to go on a local hike and decided to continue working on my Heart of the World project within the Colorado National Monument by putting together a loop consisting of the Ute Canyon Trail and Liberty Cap Trail that I had never hiked together before. I was a little worried about hiking over 13 miles after not hiking at all for the past month, but figured I would just jump right back in and hope for the best!

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San Juan River: Sand Island to Mexican Hat

Thursday – Sunday, September 18-21, 2025 | High CFS: 622 – Low CFS: 524

Although I certainly enjoy the early season spring-runoff river trips of summer, I think my favorite time to get out onto a desert river is during low-water at the end of the season in September. I guess I just enjoy the cooler temperatures, relaxing pace, minimal bugs and sandy campsites that are common at this time of the year. So when I realized earlier in the year that I had not been back on the San Juan River since 2019, I knew I wanted to get back on it during September since all of our previous trips have been in May and June. Jackson was also interested in a late season trip and managed to get us a permit for three days on the stretch from Sand Island to Mexican Hat. We were all set to finally float the San Juan River in September and I was looking forward to my final river trip of 2025!

Tag: rock art

Canyons of the San Rafael Reef III

Surrounding Sids Mountain in the San Rafael Swell

White Rocks: Gold Star Canyon & The Bench

Ute Canyon & Monument Mesa Loop

San Juan River: Sand Island to Mexican Hat