BETA PHOTO: Looking south along the Eastern Reef slabs and can...
Description
The southern San Rafael Swell is a huge area with big slabs on the San Rafael reef, isolated towers and domes, and long large walls. Currently there are not very many routes in this huge area and there is a lot of potential for more. Free camping is available pretty much everywhere, though the only services are in Green River and Hanksville, both of which are a long way from the climbing. It is a good idea to have good maps of the area as you will likely see no one and there are a lot of old roads all over the desert out here.
Getting There
This huge spread out area is south of I70 west of Green River. Everything is very spread out so more specific directions will be included with the rock formations themselves.
The Classics
Mountain Project's determination of some of the classic, most popular, highest rated routes for San Rafael Swell (south):
A moderate climb on good rock, only the first pitch has one or two thin moves protected by bolts.An excellent introduction to the longer climbs on the Reef. Starts in the corner about 30' left of the Arrowhead route. P1). Up the corner passed 3 bolts to double anchors.170'5.8R P2).Straight up... nice climbing 150'5.4R P3)Continue up the corner to double anchors,avoid some loose blocks to the right. 200'5.5R.P4)Continue up the corner to double a...[more]Browse More Classics in UT
Andrew, Nathan or Perin... The routes Angle of Repose and Wandering Poet should now be moved to the Little Spotted Wolf Canyon area now that Paul has added that. It seems to me that there should be some reorganization here. The place is hard to figure out if you haven't done a lot of exploring. There should be a general area- Eastern Reef Slabs, and under that there should be sub-areas. Like Little Spotted Wolf Canyon and envirions, Three Finger Canyon & environs, Uneva Mine Canyon and environs, etc... At this stage, if you went there even with a whole mini guide of the area printed out (which is probably about 100 pages) it would still be hard to figure it out.
I know, you are right... They've been complaining so much though, that I thought I would try to help out a little. It's fine with me though if things are left the way they are. I don't have any problems with the area, it all seems pretty straight forward, especially with all the photos we have posted.
It is still a nice peaceful place that we have mainly to ourselves or at most the few climbers who love the tranquility of the desert. Thank God its not like Rifle, Shelf Road ,or Potash with folks screaming "Take".The future of climbing in the Swell will become more understandable and perhaps more popular soon enough..................We went on the Reef with no information ,if visiting climbers cannot figure out the massive amount of info that is already on this site its perhaps better they stay with the crowds.
Paul, I totally agree... That is the reason I haven't been to Indian Creek in almost ten years. The climbing is great there, but the crowds and the attitude don't suite what the desert is about for me. Buckhorn has also become way too crowded for my liking. So I guess you are right, leave it organized how it is... Things are explained pretty well here anyway.
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