Part 2 of a two post story about overlanding in the central Utah desert.

This is Part 2 of a two post story about overland camping in the central Utah desert in the late fall. Part 1. of this article can be found here: Overlanding in Utah’s Black Dragon Canyon.

Day 1: Getting Underway (both On and Off Road)

  • The gate to the San Rafael Swell off I-70
  • The San Rafael Swell at night
  • Black Dragon Canyon Pictograph 1
  • Black Dragon Canyon Pictograph 2

From Denver we traveled westbound along I-70 for ~5.5 hours before pulling off on the shoulder for trail access. There is a gated fence on the north side of I-70 that separates the highway from public land. Be sure to close the gate once you proceed through it. Once on public land, we drove to an isolated stretch of dirt road on the east side of the Swell. This area would serve as our first overnight camping spot. With 2 nights and 3 days to play around with, I spaced out our camping spots with one on the east side of the Swell and one on the west. The east side’s sandy bottomlands are full of sticker-bushes that made for a prickly start to the trip. Being November, our daylight hours began to slip fast and it was cold and dark before we knew it.

Day 2: Overlanding Utah’s San Rafael Swell: Exploring the Canyon

Once the sun rose over the hill (8AM), we rose out of bed, got breakfast going, and pulled up stakes. Within the first 10 minutes we arrived at the primary petroglyph site. The site features a parking section so be sure to pull to the side, get out and take a look at the well preserved rock-art. There are two primary pictograph panels – one with the canyon’s namesake artwork and a second with what like a collection of tally marks.

Moving on from there, we ran out the rest of the inner canyon. The trail winds through light technical sections with several flat, sandy washes. The inner canyon was longer than I estimated and my original 2nd camping site turned out to be a misfire. Once on the west face of the Swell’s massive red canyon walls we found a good camping spot with views to suite. We passed by the first pullout even though it included a cool overlook of the Mexican Mountain Wilderness and settled on another one about .5 miles further down trail. The second spot was flatter, more spacious, and had a proper fire ring already in place. We relaxed, hiked for a bit, and settled in for a few hours.

Around 3 PM the afternoon sun began to throw some long shadows and I knew then that it was time to start getting the camp kitchen put together and dinner started. Our meal this time consisted of marinated steak and vegetable fajitas paired with a habanero cider from SnowCapped.

Day 3: Overlanding Utah’s San Rafael Swell: Exploring Buckhorn Draw

The next morning we rose to bluebird skies and cool temps. Now on the west side of the Swell we noticed that the terrain changed dramatically. You are no longer in a canyon and now travel through the high desert rangelands – zig zagging in and out of super typical Utah terrain types: rocky arroyos, sandy washes, and ledgey sandstone benches. A few more hours traversing the yellowed sandstone landscape and we reached the hilly grasslands studded with juniper trees. It’s also here where, if you’re lucky, you may run into the local wild burro herd. We got lucky and found a collection of them to the north of the trail munching in the bunchgrasses. The experience was really cool and felt like we were on safari in Africa. We stuck around for a while, turned off the truck, and took pictures while they stared back at the big blue FJ.

Continuing west, we began to run into a few more trucks on the trail. Jeeps, LandCruisers and mountain bikers passed by with ease as we approached the main OHV route in the area: Buckhorn Draw. Once on Buckhorn, we turned south towards I-70 and within minutes we were out of 4 Low, then 4 High, and back into 2WD cruising along dirt roads on our final approach back to I-70. We reached a gated fence that provided direct freeway access and before we knew it, we were once again eastbound for Denver.

Gearing up for Overlanding Utah’s San Rafael Swell

Overland camping trips in the desert of Black Dragon Canyon and the Buckhorn Draw means lots of options for getting socially distant in the backcountry. Being such a big and remote area it is a good idea to plan ahead and pack some additional self recovery items. Here’s what we brought:

  • Read up on the area:
  • Traction Boards: The Canyon’s sandy washes are easy to navigate when there are dry and have no other complicating variables. Wet weather, especially heavy rain, can dramatically change your traction and before you know it, you could be up to your axels is sand. Traction boards are an easy insurnace plan to counter slippery sandy terrain. Find yourself digging down into the sand? Simply stop, pull the boards out, shovel out some room for them, slide them into space, and you’re back on your way.
  • A shovel: While the Traction Boards are handy, you can’t effectively use them without a shovel. A shovel is also important for a number of other reasons like digging out a fire pit, digging out a latrine (if appropriate), putting out your campfire at the end of the night, and more.
  • Tow points: Despite your best intentions, you might find yourself and your vehicle in need of a tow. Vehicle recovery is much, much harder if your rig doesn’t have enough tow points affixed to it. This step can be easily mitigated with clevis or bow style shackles. These are temporary and can be placed in any sturdy location on your vehicle.
  • GPS, paper maps and other navigation aids: Preplanning your trip out on both paper and digital media is a must. Utah’s backcountry is remote, austere, and unforgiving. Plotting your planned route of travel ahead of time goes a LONG way towards minimizing confusion, reducing stress, limiting mistakes, and ultimately maximizing your fun. Take extra time to map, study 3D profiles online, compare experiences, and choose your trails before you leave.
  • Extra fuel & water: We brought 2.5 additional gallons extra carrying capacity for both our fuel and water needs. These can be handy if you end up staying longer than anticipated or intend to allow for some additional exploration. The extra water is there to frees yourself from Utah’s extra dry climate. Even if you’re going in the winter, Utah is dry dry dry and you can end up dehydrated faster than you may be accustomed too.
  • Extra power: We brought a backup power supply that allowed us to power our accessories outside of the vehicle. The lithium ion battery pack tied to a solar power charger ensured that we could stay charged up regardless of how long our stay could end up being.