Instead of the usual San Rafael Swell geocaching event that I host each spring, this year my wife and I went camping with only her mom and my friend Chris. We all arrived at our camp spot on Sinkhole Flat on Thursday evening. Most of the hikes were a repeat for me, but I did see some new stuff around the Head of Sinbad on this trip. On Friday morning Chris and I drove toward Swasey’s Leap and hiked the remaining two miles to the river, while Traci and her mom stayed at camp. We saw wild burros at Rattlesnake Flat during the drive. Instead of hiking the full distance of the closed road, we headed cross-country and had to cross a few small drainages before picking up the road again. We found a geocache that I’d already found on my 32nd birthday weekend (boy, does that make me feel old!). We checked out Swasey’s Leap, then hiked back to the truck. Along the way I spotted an aluminum tag on a dead juniper tree that was part of some contests put on by some Canadian geocachers many years ago, in which Chris and I had participated. I used the 4WD in the truck for the first time in the three years that I’ve owned it getting back to camp.
Thursday’s sunset from camp
Rattlesnake Flat
Wild burros at Rattlesnake Flat
Cute furry little baby burro
Jackass Benches
Mexican Mountain and an old car
Old car along the old road
Shortcutting across some small canyons
Shortcutting across some small canyons
Bugs in a cactus flower
San Rafael River above the Lower Black Box
Smoke Stack Tower
Chris at Swasey’s Leap
Looking down at the San Rafael River at Swasey’s Leap
Lower Black Box
Aluminum tag on a dead juniper
4-wheeling the F-250
On Saturday Chris and I drove to Locomotive Point to see some inscriptions and pictographs that I’d also already been to a few years earlier.
1939 Warren Allred 4-7-1910
G. Swasey, Nov. 7, 1917
Two upside-down metates
Metate found on a steep, rocky slope
Upper Reid Neilson Draw
Locomotive Point pictographs
Locomotive Point pictographs
Locomotive Point incised grooves
Will Keel Hunt Fish
Claret cup cactus
Locomotive Point pictographs
Locomotive Point pictographs
Locomotive Point pictographs
Locomotive Point pictographs
Next we went to the Head of Sinbad area and explored some of the cliffs that I hadn’t already explored. At the head of one small canyon leading down into Eagle Canyon we found a short section of constructed stock trail. There were a lot of interesting inscriptions in the area. Some appeared to be by family members of old-timers who visited the area relatively recently, and others had two dates listed next to each name. At least one of the latter I’ve confirmed were the birth and death dates of the person, but some others made no sense. There were also some not-so-great petroglyphs and metate fragments.
Small canyon leading from Head of Sinbad into Eagle Canyon
Constructed trail
Hahaha
Royal Allred 1924
Warren Allred 3-3-31
Frank, Richard, and Terry Allred, 1988
Joe S. (likely Swasey), unknown date
Joan Sandra Sudweeks, Oct. 6, 1940 – Jan. 4, 2013
Head of Sinbad incised grooves
Metate fragments
Squiggly petroglyph
Corral made of dead pinyon and juniper
1895 Warren Allred 1928
We were lazy on Sunday and didn’t go for any hikes. After a slow morning everyone packed up and headed home. It was unfortunate that we couldn’t invite all the friends who would normally come to our spring camping trips, but it was still a fun outing despite already having seen much of that stuff in the years before.
Photo Gallery: Swasey’s Leap, Locomotive Point, and Head of Sinbad