Nathan Gilbert

San Rafael Swell May 2026

2 min read 361 words

May was a busy month with the White Rim trail, but before we did that we also visited the San Rafael Swell for the first time. This was a quick day trip, we didn't stay over night. We wanted to get a small taste of this place we've heard about for song long but for one reason or another had never been to. Truly, this could be its own National Park if it was located any place other than Utah.

We did the standard Buckhorn Draw loop from top to bottom. It is an easy drive that a passenger car can do, at least the sections we were on. There's lots to stop and see including Cold War projects and panels of petroglyphs. There are a few pit toilets scattered about, but little water. This photo set is honestly a small fraction of the Swell, but highlights a good starting point for exploration.

A deep red-rock canyon seen from its rim, layered cliffs stepping down to a green ribbon of river far below, under a cloudless blue sky.
The Little Grand Canyon of the San Rafael River from the Wedge Overlook.
A dark green Jeep Wrangler with a tan soft top parked on a bare dirt overlook, a weathered juniper and two other vehicles behind it.
The TJ had a great view.
A slab-rock rim in the foreground dropping away into a wide canyon, with mesas and buttes strung along the far horizon.
Along the rim at the Wedge.
A flat pavement of cracked sandstone slabs running out to the edge of the rim, canyon and distant buttes beyond.
A broad view across the canyon from the rim, its banded walls and side drainages spreading out below a hazy skyline.
Two large fractured boulders perched on the rim, with the canyon and its terraced red walls falling away behind them.
Looking down into the canyon from a rocky ledge, sagebrush flats and eroded benches below and mesa tops on the horizon.
A split sandstone block on the rim, and past it a wide bend of the canyon with a green riverbank at its bottom.
The San Rafael River, far below the Wedge.
The canyon from above, dirt tracks visible on the benches below, a slab of pale rock jutting in from the right edge.
A cross-bedded white sandstone wall on the near side of the canyon, with red cliffs and a distant flat-topped mesa beyond.
Two people in sunglasses and ball caps smiling for a selfie at the canyon rim, the layered canyon spread out behind them.
Me & Sonya
A ham and lettuce sandwich on white bread sitting on an unzipped plastic bag on a metal picnic table, with mustard and a soda bottle behind it.
Lunch!
A cooler on a picnic table at a rim-side campsite, a juniper branch overhead and the canyon stretching away past a fire ring.
Lunch near one of the rim campsites at the Wedge Overlook.
The canyon from a picnic site on the rim, a juniper bough hanging into the frame from the upper right.
Another great view for lunch.
A picnic table set with a plaid cloth, a bag of chips and a soda can, a cooler behind it and the canyon rim beyond.
An outdoor map panel on a brick wall titled "The Swell," the San Rafael Swell outlined in red across a map of the surrounding highways and towns.
The Swell, from the Buckhorn Well interpretive site at the top of Buckhorn Draw.
A large brown interpretive sign headed "Morrison Knudsen Tunnels," with historical photographs and panels on the tunnel project, local geology, and a nearby well.
The Morrison Knudsen Tunnels, a 1948 Department of Defense project blasted into the Navajo Sandstone here.
A three-toed dinosaur track pressed into pale rock, the print filled with muddy water.
A dinosaur track near Buckhorn Well. We were lucky to come a day after some rains.
A dark fallen boulder at the base of a ledgy sandstone cliff, its face carved with light-colored petroglyph figures.
Petroglyphs on a fallen boulder along Buckhorn Draw.
The same petroglyph boulder from farther back, its pecked figures small against the tilted slab and the broken cliff above.
A tall, smooth sandstone wall streaked with desert varnish, faint markings across its lower face and a rubble ledge at its base.
A closer view along the same varnished wall, faint pecked figures showing near the ledge line.
A broad slab of rock crowded with pecked petroglyphs, including animal and human-like figures, wedged among sandstone blocks.
Petroglyph panel along Buckhorn Draw.
A dirt road curving through a narrow canyon between cliff walls, a green wash running alongside it.
Buckhorn Draw road.
A long banded cliff above a talus slope, with the dirt road and a vehicle small along its base.
A wide panorama of the canyon, the dirt road switching back along the wash floor between the enclosing walls.
Looking back up Buckhorn Draw.
A small framed trailside sign titled "Two Art Forms and Cultures Were Here!" explaining the difference between pecked petroglyphs and painted pictographs.
The Buckhorn Wash Pictograph Panel.
A close view of pecked petroglyphs on a varnished rock face, including a figure with a curved headdress and a horned animal.
The Jeep parked on a gravel flat below a tall banded cliff, cottonwoods and a vault toilet in the background.
Parked at the Buckhorn Wash Pictograph Panel.
A tan sandstone wall with a faint dark red painted figure near its center, above a horizontal band of desert varnish.
Slender dark red painted human-like figures on a smooth sandstone wall, one with raised arms.
A sunlit stretch of sandstone wall with several red painted figures spaced along it, one pair with arms raised.
A small lizard sunning itself on the underside edge of a red sandstone boulder.
A pictograph panel of tall, broad-shouldered human-like figures painted in red and brown, some with horned headdresses and patterned bodies.
Barrier Canyon Style figures on the Buckhorn Wash Pictograph Panel.
The pictograph panel seen from farther back, its row of standing figures small against the pale sandstone alcove wall.
A wide section of the painted wall, with clusters of tall figures on the left and right and a jointed ledge of rock below.
Four tall painted figures in a row on the cliff face, weathered and faded, above a bench of broken sandstone.
The pictograph panel viewed across a rubble slope, the painted figures a faint red cluster high on the sandstone.
Faded red pigment on a swirling, cross-bedded sandstone wall, the paintings nearly lost in the rock's banding.
Weathered painted figures on a cross-bedded wall in raking light, partly obscured by the sandstone's curving layers.
A large interpretive sign titled "The San Rafael Bridge — The Swinging Bridge," with archival photographs and a map, the bridge itself visible behind it.
The San Rafael Swinging Bridge, at the bottom of Buckhorn Draw.
A bronze plaque on a concrete pillar reading that the San Rafael Bridge is a 160 ft suspension bridge built by the Civilian Conservation Corps and dedicated April 24, 1937.
Hey, another Gilbert was here.
A wooden-decked suspension footbridge between two concrete towers, a person standing partway across, red cliffs on the far bank.
One of only 13 suspension bridges left in Utah.
A hand gripping one of the bridge's thick steel suspension cables, the river and canyon walls out of focus behind.
The cable is pretty big.
A muddy green river running low between cut banks, cottonwoods on one side and a sandstone cliff rising on the other.
The San Rafael River below the Swinging Bridge.
Looking down the plank deck of the swinging bridge between its timber railings, a dark-capped butte beyond the far end.
The suspension bridge seen from the bank, its two concrete towers and cables framed against the red canyon wall, with the modern road bridge behind it.
The Swinging Bridge with the modern road bridge behind it.
A tall red and white banded cliff above a stand of cottonwoods, with the end of the bridge and its cable anchor at the right.

Addendum

The San Rafael Bridge is one of 13 suspension bridges in Utah.