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Tag: san rafael reef wilderness

Roaming The Reef: Ernie Point to Eardley Canyon

Canyons of the San Rafael Reef IV | Saturday & Sunday, January 24-25, 2026

While I was initially just planning on just returning to the landscape surrounding Moab again this weekend like I typically do at this time of the year, as I was watching the winter storm unfold on Friday afternoon I saw that Moab was getting some rain and snow while the weather seemed to be completely missing the area around the San Rafael Reef, so I changed gears and decided to head over that way early on Saturday morning instead. Since I was looking to get in some decent elevation gain this weekend, I thought I might try hiking up to the Ernie Benchmark which is one of the highest points along the top of the San Rafael Reef. The drive to Green River early on Saturday morning was a bit slow with plenty of fog, snow and ice- but shortly after passing through Crescent Junction the snow and fog disappeared and the roads were dry for the remainder of the way. After topping off my gas tank in Green River I continued on to the base of the San Rafael Reef near the mouth of Ernie Canyon and prepared to start the hike. I had planned to start hiking from near the old drilling derrick, but apparently that road has now been closed since I was here last January and I would now need to hike a little further than I was expecting.

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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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Canyons of the San Rafael Reef II

Rock Art of the San Rafael Swell XX | Saturday & Sunday, January 11-12, 2025

It’s been a few years since I spent any time exploring the canyons of the San Rafael Reef and I’ve been feeling the need to get back this winter, so I left home early on Saturday morning, drove west into Utah, and then spent the entire weekend on the Reef. Not only did I hike and explore a few unnamed canyons that have carved their way into the Reef within the San Rafael Reef Wilderness which were completely new to me, but I also revisited a few places that I hadn’t been back to in almost fifteen years, so it was nice mix of old and new. Of course, I also saw plenty of rock art throughout the weekend, too. These are some photos from my weekend on the San Rafael Reef.

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Canyons of the San Rafael Reef

Black Dragon Wash to Ernie Canyon
Friday – Sunday, January 29-31, 2021

Over the past couple of years I’ve spent a weekend in January exploring the canyons of the San Rafael Reef at the edge of the San Rafael Swell just west of Green River. I guess I’ve continued to do this each year because it’s an easy drive from home and it doesn’t really matter if there is snow on the ground or not. Plus, it’s just a great place to explore anytime! With this weekend being the last one in January and the weather looking good, I thought that it would be nice to keep up the tradition and headed back to the San Rafael Reef! As usual, I left right from work on Friday afternoon and drove west on I-70 until I reached the San Rafael Reef. Just before driving through Spotted Wolf Canyon on the interstate, I took a side road to the north and found a place to camp near the mouth of Black Dragon Canyon. For a brief time there was a little light snow that fell, but it didn’t stick and stopped just as quickly as it had started. As soon as the clouds dissipated the light from the Wolf Moon filled the canyon.

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Upper Eardley Canyon from Cliff Dweller Flat

Saturday, November 14, 2020

Since our planned trip to the Esplanade with Jerry this week had already been cancelled, Diane and I now had a free weekend to get out hiking together again. We decided to stay closer to home and check out some new canyons in the San Rafael Swell. Earlier in the year I had planned for us to hike into upper Eardley Canyon during our Leap Day weekend trip, but the roads were too wet and muddy in the area at the time, so we ended up skipping it and heading home early. I thought that would be a good place to start this weekend, so we left home Saturday morning and made our way through the San Rafael Reef to the end of Cliff Dweller Flat where we started our hike and planned to spend the night afterwards.

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