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Buckhorn Draw Road
Trail Information
Highlights
Buckhorn Draw is a stunningly scenic and well-graded gravel road, located in the northern section of the San Rafael Swell. This trail is highly recommended for breathtaking views. The San Rafael River is responsible for carving through several layers of sandstone and limestone over the course of millions of years. What remains now is known as “The Little Grand Canyon". The colorful, winding gorges can be seen nearby from a spectacular birds-eye view at The Wedge Overlook.
Buckhorn Draw Road starts by weaving through steep towering canyons of mesas and buttes. Further ahead, the landscape opens to vast, barren plains and offers a more broad perspective of the massive, thousand-foot gorges spanned across in the background. Just off the trail are many ancient spectacles, such as rock art panels depicted by early Native Americans, as well as a prehistoric dinosaur footprint. The Swell is a place for solitude, while also inviting exploration for all types of adventurists.
Trail Difficulty and Assessment
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Trail Reviews
4.8/5 (7 reviews)
Status: Open
Rated 5/5
Visited: 05/21/2022
Difficulty Accuracy: Easier
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.
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Status: Open
Rated 5/5
Visited: 01/22/2022
We drove in via the Green River Bypass from the East to visit an old railroad site and Chimeny Rock before driving South through this beautiful canyon. We stopped at a couple of things we hadn't stopped at in the past. The trail was very well-groomed. We saw many passenger cars along this route. There is a ton of free camping all along this trail. There is a cool dinosaur footprint at 39.160508, -110.729265 It's an easy walk up to a ledge above the road. I show it and a really nice campsite in the video. Camping 39.125129, -110.695352
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Status: Open
Rated 5/5
Visited: 10/10/2021
Difficulty Accuracy: Spot On
What an amazing drive! Easily traveled by just about any vehicle. We hit this a day after hard rains and had no problems at all. Some muddy spots, but easily managed. This trail is a must if you are in the area. The views are non stop from start to finish. Plenty of dispersed camping along the way. Unfortunately we were there on a Saturday and it was tough to find a spot. We did find probably one of the best sites along the way because it had a gate keeper that required 4WD and high clearance and was worth it. We actually had two bars of cell service as well.
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Status: Open
Visited: 04/18/2021
Difficulty Accuracy: Spot On
Very scenic and not overly busy when we were there. We camped with our truck and saw the sites on our ATVs. Easy access for all types of vehicles. Spur trails will need higher clearance vehicles. Lots of good campsites both primitive and in campgrounds around the San Rafael Bridge. Cool rock art nearby.
Status: Open
Rated 5/5
Visited: 10/02/2019
What an incredible route this one turned out to be. The canyons were so huge, we felt so small in our Jeep. We stopped at everything along the very easy trail. The wall art sites were very cool to see. Next time we'll plan it so we get there later in the day when they're in the shade. The trail was just a gravel road but vital if you're into epic cruises through historic landscapes. The video is of our one day loop through this beautiful region. We connected this trail with a few others for a mildly challenging day on the trail. We camped in our big rig rv about a mile and half from I-70. It was easily accessible and free.
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