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Nielsen Dugway
Green River,
Utah
(Emery County)
Last Updated:
06/25/2023
Trail Information
Highlights
Whether beginning or ending your adventure into the San Rafael Swell with the Nielsen Dugway trail, the yellow and orange sherbet cliffs are always a wonderful backdrop. The few challenges do little to distract from the views of towering rock buttes that poke out behind the Ponderosa Pines and Rocky Mountain Juniper trees that line the trail. The contrasting layers of the sandstone cliffs are incredibly vibrant along this specific trail within The Swell. Set up basecamp near the southern trailhead to explore all the historic stops this region offers.
Trail Difficulty and Assessment
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Bobby Nelson
Official Crew
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Trail Reviews
Open
Rated
4/5
Visited: 06/24/2023
Difficulty Accuracy:
Spot On
We had to run this one twice since we got rained out our last time exploring the area. The trail was super scenic and colorful in the "sunshine." The hill climb was easy in low range 2nd gear (first gear is steep). I noticed all the area's old spur trails, wooden signage, and info boards are gone. A few have been replaced at the main intersections only.
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Open
Rated
4/5
Visited: 06/03/2023
Difficulty Accuracy:
Spot On
Really pretty trail that is doable in most stock 4x4’s. We did this trail in connection with Cane Wash and Locomotive Point, coming from the North. Only took us a couple hours. There is a lot to see and a lot of connecting trails nearby to explore.
Open
Rated
5/5
Visited: 05/21/2022
Difficulty Accuracy:
Spot On
Fun exploration today. Today was all about chasing petroglyphs and pictographs. A couple of them were bucket list items for me, most specifically the pictograph of head of Sinbad.
Big thanks goes out to Mike North for initially introducing me to the San Rafael swell. What an amazing place.
Let me see if I can remember all of the dirt roads and trails we were on today. Buckhorn draw, unnamed road to connect to Kane Wash, Oil Flat road, Dugway, Local motive point, Eagle Canyon.
In addition to the incredible pictographs, we also explored the 1921 cabin, the Swayze cabin. Including the cave behind the cabin that he used as his refrigerator/icebox.
Open
Rated
5/5
Visited: 05/15/2022
Difficulty Accuracy:
Spot On
Ran this trial after coming down Buckhorn Draw with a group of friends, not really a wheeling centric trip, but I wanted to get a little more remote. We had a stock 5th gen 4Runner, Lifted WK2 Grand Cherokee and the kicker - a stock 2015 Forester. Each had proper AT tires and the Subie climbed out with a little skinny pedal persuasion (and getting flipped off by some ATVs). The bigger SUVs were point and shoot.
Open
Rated
5/5
Visited: 09/30/2019
Reid Nelson Dugway: This is an easy trail, if driven from south to the north as it is all downhill to the wash. At the start of the dugway there are a couple of sections of loose rock but it is only rocky for a couple of hundred yards. The only other obstacles are a few small ledges but they didn’t present any problems for our stock JLUR’s. We enjoyed this trail immensely; the scenery is beautiful. About half-way down the ledge road, look left and on the cliff, across the canyon, there is a rock formation that looks like three stone figures of a Buddha. After lunch at the Cane Wash Junction (638/643) we continued north, following Cane Wash, to the Calf Mesa uranium mine. and then 2-miles back to the Buckhorn Draw road.
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