San Rafael Swell Day 3: Swasey's Cabin

Our last day there had us trying to figure out what to do. I stupidly suggested going up to the Head of Sinbad area to see Dutchman arch and some of the pictograph panels. Stupidly I hadn't figured that the "swell" was significantly higher in elevation than we were down at the bottom of the reef. There was a TON of snow and the road getting to Dutchman Arch area is 5-6 miles of occasionally graded dirt (and at this point, covered in snow). We decided to give it a try and amazingly we were doing pretty good. James followed in Amber's saturn, which did have studded tires. We got all the way to the dutchman arch turn-off and found the snow about 3' deep, so we decided to push on to the Swasey Cabin (which we had never been to).

The reef looked awesome covered in clouds at Spotted Wolf



The snow covered road at Page Flat



This is what ended up stopping us about a mile (or less) short of Swasey's Cabin (which was to the right of those cliffs ahead)



We opted to hike into it







Getting close to the cabin





In the cabin





Looking at Sinbad country from the cabin





Caiden and I stopping for a picture break





The drive back was the scarriest moment I've ever had in a car. By the afternoon the sun had melted a lot of the snow and those dirt roads turned to mudd. Our car was ALL OVER THE PLACE, but we made it out.





All in all a great trip and I can't wait to come back to this place (hopefully at the end of this month). I can never get bored here.