A long time ago I planned a hiking route through four canyons in the San Rafael Reef but didn’t find any of the usual things I often seek. Recently I did a similar hike in a nearby part of the Reef and this time it was much more successful. The first two canyons were short and shallow and I only went in far enough to check out the Carmel Formation cliffs, since the Navajo Sandstone further in doesn’t form steep canyon walls. In the first canyon I found some faint geometrical scratches on a cliff but I couldn’t make out any specific figures. There was also a sparse scattering of translucent chert flakes in one spot. The second canyon had a narrow entrance but there wasn’t anything of interest beyond there.
A wonderful sky
The first canyon
Faint scratches
Turnaround point in canyon #1
Translucent flakes
Second canyon
The third canyon started out relatively broad and flat and was covered in grass, with ice in the watercourse indicating that it often flows with a trickle of water. The canyon was probably used as a pasture to corral cattle in, as evidenced by old wooden fences near the mouth. There were some pictographs on a cliff at the mouth that appeared to be crude handprints. I went up as far as I could until reaching an impassable dryfall, which at first looked like it had a nice alcove below it but as I got a higher vantage point I could see there was no floor and nothing much to see at this dead end.
Cottonwoods
Third canyon
Handprint(?) pictographs
Cattle fence
Cattle fence
Tall cottonwood
Another fence
Riparian area
Leaning boulder
Dead end
The final canyon was the longest, and my plan was to ascend it all the way up the Reef for a view off the other side. I encountered many dryfalls that required me to climb out one side of the canyon and drop back in higher up. Eventually I decided to just walk along the rim the rest of the way.
Another cattle fence
Barren walk to the fourth canyon
Above the fourth canyon
Fourth canyon
Climbing out briefly to bypass a dryfall
Frozen pool with cattails
Bypassing another dryfall
Walking the rim
Then I spotted a nice-looking alcove in the canyon and wanted to climb back down into it. Even at the best spot to descend I had to kind of slide/jump down and probably couldn’t have climbed back out there, but I was pretty sure I could get out again farther up the canyon beyond the alcove. I reached the alcove and it was a bust, but there were some petroglyphs off to one side! There were what I assume to be some pecked footprints, and the main figure had five fingers splayed out on each hand.
Promising alcove below
Alcove with patina on the right
Frozen potholes
Boulders and alcove
Nothin’ here
Maybe a bighorn sheep?
Oh, hi there!
Footprints and a cool figure
Closeup detail
I had to go down-canyon just a bit to climb out one side and get above the alcove, and after a short while I came across a very cool little alcove. It wasn’t very tall or deep, but inside were the collapsed remains of several granaries. They had been constructed of sticks and adobe, and much of the adobe had impressions of sticks, grass, and even fingers in it. There had probably been at least three good-sized granaries, and one had clearly been built against the back wall of the alcove and left a partial outline of adobe on the sandstone. It was awesome to see this site since granaries like this aren’t very common in the San Rafael Swell. A couple hundred feet away was another small overhang but inside all I saw was a single mano.
Sticks and adobe
Sticks and adobe
Stick and grass impressions in adobe
Pile of adobe chunks
Holes
Collapsed granary alcove
Finger impressions in adobe
Outline of a granary on the back wall
Mano
Mano alcove
Granary alcove from below
I proceeded up the canyon and saw another alcove but I could tell from a distance that there was nothing inside. All the climbing in and out of the canyon had made my foot and ankle joints ache and I decided to skip going to the top of the Reef. I climbed out of the canyon one last time and headed down the Reef. I had to cross canyon #3 above where I’d reached the dryfall earlier, and I followed that canyon down a bit before exiting the other side and continuing to where the truck was parked. It was kind of a slog going back down and I didn’t take many more photos since it was fairly uninteresting terrain above the canyons. Any day hiking in the San Rafael Reef is a good one, but the couple of surprises I encountered made this a great day.
Large cairn
Bedrock canyon bottom
One last alcove
The climb out
Hiking down the Reef
Briefly back in canyon #3
Frozen pool covered in sand
Icy pothole
Almost back down
Bottom of the Reef
Photo Gallery: Four More Reef Canyons