I always have a camping/geocaching event each October, and I usually try to avoid fall break when the schools statewide are out Thursday and Friday and a lot of people go camping that weekend. This time, however, an annular solar eclipse was happening on the Saturday of fall break and I wanted to plan the event around that. The path of the eclipse took it over the southwestern half of the San Rafael Swell, and I drove down after work on Monday to secure a spot along the Moore Cutoff Road. I worked remotely Tuesday and Wednesday but didn’t do much else, besides walk the dogs along the dirt roads near camp. By Wednesday evening my wife, her mom, and five of my nieces and nephews had arrived.
Tuesday evening at camp
I had Thursday and Friday off work, and on Thursday morning I left the dogs with my wife and went for a hike. First I explored a couple of canyons that seemed interesting and I found some red and blue pictographs.
Overhang
Red and blue smudges
Red and blue pictographs
Dryfall
Ridge between two small canyons
Next I hiked through two more canyons where a friend had told me there was some rock art. In the first there was an overhang with some red squiggly line pictographs. While I was there my friend Jim texted me saying he’d just showed up at camp and learned that I was on a hike and wanted to join me. I sent him the coordinates for my truck and said I’d meet him there in a bit. I crossed over into the other canyon and found a lot more than I was expecting. The friend who told me about the rock art only mentioned a bear print petroglyph, but there there was a huge, unusual panel there as well!
Dryfall
Grinding stone near the wash
Overhang
Squiggly pictographs
Bear print petroglyph
Large abstract panel
The largest of the panels
Barbell with red pigment
I went back to the truck and found Jim there waiting for me, and he hopped in with me and we drove to the next spot I planned on visiting. This was a rock art panel I’d been to before, the “Fairy” pictograph and some others. We checked it out, then I took Jim back to his truck and we stopped at the Dry Wash snake petroglyph before going back to camp.
Fairy pictograph
More pictos near the fairy
More pictos near the fairy
U.S. Civilian Conservation Corps, April 26, 1939; B.M., W.E., May 23, 1939
H.E.W., May 23, 1939, CCC
Thursday evening at camp
More people arrived at camp on Thursday and Friday, and I stayed most of the day Friday just hanging out with everyone. I did take a short drive to visit the very first pit house I had ever seen, 15 years earlier. At the time I’m not even sure I knew what it was, but this time it was fun to return and look around for artifacts (of which I found none). I decided I should practice taking photos of the sun before the eclipse and they turned out okay, especially considering I’m just using a point-and-shoot camera with disposable eclipse glasses in front of the lens.
Pit house along Dry Wash
Practice shot for the eclipse
Saturday morning came and more people arrived to watch the eclipse, and we had 25 people total there. We all sat around and chatted while watching the eclipse progress, and the daylight became eerily darker and it grew colder. The cold surprised me the most. After annularity those who weren’t camping left, and the rest of us stayed at camp all day and played games, then had a potluck dinner that evening.
Beginning of the eclipse
Crescent sun
Annularity
The group at the peak of the eclipse
On Sunday I wanted to hike in upper North Salt Wash and I asked around for anyone else who wanted to go, and ended up with a group of five. We took two trucks and parked at the upper end of the canyon, then dropped in and started hiking downstream. I had already hiked the portion farther downstream near Sid and Charley, but I hoped this southern section where it cuts through the Curtis Formation would hold some more rock art. We hiked about two miles, which was about as far as I’d planned on going, but Brent talked the group into going a bit farther to see some rock art that I’d already been to. We got to the rock art and took a rest/snack break nearby. I decided we should walk the road back to the trucks since it was more direct and less shwhacky–in hindsight we should have just done a one-way hike with a vehicle shuttle.
Heading down North Salt Wash
Narrow watercourse
Even narrower watercourse
Yellow cottonwoods
Layers in the Curtis Formation
A large overhang
Natural arch
Balanced boulders
Porcupine track in the sand
A great panel
Funky guy
Wavy arms guy
Broken-hearted man
Neon foliage
Everyone left by Sunday evening but I stayed and worked on Monday, then took Tuesday off work and went home that morning. That was my last RV camping trip of the season and it way a good way to end it!
Photo Gallery: A Swell Eclipse 2023