I timed my twice-yearly San Rafael Swell camping/geocaching trip for when my friend Chris was back in the U.S. for a visit after having moved to Germany three years ago. He also invited some of his non-geocacher friends, and we spent most of the time just hanging out at camp or going on mellow hikes. Before Chris got there I went with my brother-in-law Mark for a short hike on the south face of Cedar Mountain above camp. It was a little hot outside and the terrain was rugged, and there were good views across all of Buckhorn Flat.
Petroglyphs near camp
Little Cedar Mountain beyond our campsite
Tuesday’s sunset
Hiking above camp
Happy birthday!
Rugged south face of Cedar Mountain
Ken and Jan arriving
Upper end of Buckhorn Flat
Buckhorn Flat
Steep and rough descent
On Saturday a group of us hiked Joe Hole Wash. Some of the group only planned to hike part of the canyon and they headed back after seeing the first set of narrows. The rest of continued into the canyon to another narrow section with a natural bridge at the end. Along the way there was an alcove that I climbed up into and was pleasantly surprised to find a circular pit structure and a broken metate.
Hiking into Joe Hole Wash
Pool with dryfall below
Flowers on a shrub
Cattle gate above Lew’s Hole stock trail
Descending Lew’s Hole stock trail
Lew’s Hole stock trail
Large boulder in the canyon
Claret cup cactus
Chris under a wedged boulder
Into a narrow section
Natural arch
Violet
Wider section of canyon with alcove on left
Alcove above the canyon floor
Circular pit structure inside the alcove
Smudge of pigment
Broken metate
Violet and the gals
Entering another slotty section
Slot section above a dryfall
View down on the natural bridge
Natural bridge
Globemallow
After hiking back up the canyon the group split up further with everyone else driving to the rock art in Buckhorn Wash while I checked out a mystery. Years ago I had spotted a small fenced-in area in the Summit Area near the southern tip of Cedar Mountain. I created a waypoint there in Google Earth for future reference but really had no plans to investigate until late 2023 when somebody asked me whether I knew anything about a Chinese cemetery in the same area near the abandoned railroad grade. They’d heard about it from an older woman from Orangeville whose now-deceased father had told her about it. My first though was that the fenced area could be around some graves and so the person who had asked me about the cemetery went to check it out and reported back that it was just a fence, with nothing inside. I decided since I was already so close I would check it out anyway. I was hoping something would indicate why the fence was there but the reason still eluded me after seeing it in person. I’d imagine it once had something to do with the nearby power lines, and perhaps some equipment has been removed since then, but why would they leave the fence up with the gate locked?
Mystery fence
On our final day there we went to Hambrick Bottom to see the grave and headstone of Lillian Virginia Hambrick, who was born and died on May 2, 1897, according to this oral history from Jim Kennick–there’s some discrepancy between the name/date in that history and the text on the headstone itself. I tried visiting the grave once before but some very fierce horseflies chased me away. I hopped across stones and crossed the river without getting my feet wet but everyone else who crossed just walked in the water, and a few didn’t cross and just waited on the other side. While heading back to camp we stopped at Hamburger Rocks to let the kids play for a bit.
Rock-hopping across the San Rafael River
Chris crossing the creek
Hambrick headstone
Hambrick, Baby M, 1889
Hamburger Rocks
That afternoon Chris rode home with me so we could spend a few more days doing some hikes while his wife Dollie and some of her friends went to the Torrey/Capitol Reef area.
Photo Gallery: Spring in the Swell: Joe Hole Wash