It was a pretty good Easter this year. I guess it’s becoming a tradition for us to spend Easter in the San Rafael Swell with my sister’s family, since we’ve now done it three years in a row (here are posts from 2007 and 2008). I really wanted to stay away from the hordes of people camping in the Swell–it’s always bad down there on Easter weekend–so we drove out to Box Flat. The last mile of road going to Box Flat is extremely rough and there’s no way anybody would bring a camp trailer out there, so we were at least guaranteed some privacy. We parked at a sheltered and sandy spot near the bottom of the horse trail leading to Jackass Flat. We sat around a campfire, ate lunch, and hiked around and explored the area. Mark and I set up a scavenger hunt for the kids by hiding some Easter goodies and marking waypoints with our GPS units, while Traci and Samantha kept the kids occupied. Then we handed over the GPS units to the kids and let them go find the stashes.
We did see some other people out there–a large group on ATVs–and unfortunately they parked right next to our camp so they could hike over to Jackass Flat. Other than that, I enjoyed that we had the place mostly to ourselves. I did several short hikes around the area, in between checking on the dutch oven peach cobbler. I found the remains of an old cowboy camp, including a stove and bed frame, and what looked like a sandstone cabin foundation, although there were no timbers remaining. I also placed a geocache atop an interesting knoll of Navajo Sandstone.
I can’t wait to go back to Box Flat. This was my third time there, and each time I’ve seen things that warrant a return trip for further exploration. There’s also a lot of country to the south and east that’s in a wilderness study area and would take considerable effort to explore on foot, and I hope to do just that in the future.