Customer Reviews

Canyoneering: The San Rafael Swell

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A great guide to a vast number of adventures in the San Rafael Swell, what really makes this a quinta-stellar masterpiece is Steve Allen's enormous enthusiasm for the wild places. A variety of hikes are covered and Steve has an amazing attention to detail. Anyone who's looking for information on hiking in the Swell will find this the best book. While most of the hikes are of the hard core variety, there are enough easy hikes to keep the less vigorous busy for a few years.

Don't pay a ridiculous collectors price. A corrected, new and better edition is in the works, and the profit will go the the author/publisher.

Steve's book gives plenty of information to find these hikes with lots of detail about the highlights and routes. Being an experienced mountaineer but a novice canyoneer, I did find selecting hikes a little difficult without a rating system. I would recommend using the Falcon Guide to the same area in conjunction and as a cross reference to avoid getting in over your head. If you can only buy one, get this one, as the 2nd half of the book contains a rich overview of the history and geology of the area which will highly enhance your visit.

Certainly not perfect, but this guide to the San Rafael Swell in central Utah is invaluable! This is my go-to book for exploring some amazing terrain in the Swell. You definitely need a GPS and TOPO for wherever you go, plus common sense for being miles from nowhere in the middle of the desert. Allen has enthusiasm for such excursions and great respect for preserving wilderness for others to experience. He lived out of his van with his dog for two years while exploring the territory and writing this book which conjures some serious Edward Abbeyness. I still love to ponder the next adventure that I haven't yet been on in the Swell because of this book--Thanks Steve!

Keep in mind that this book describes the San Rafael Swell. This is a remote, undeveloped part of the world. If you use a guidebook, such as Steve's, that doesn't include all the GPS points and topo maps, then maybe you'll realize that you are going to need more than a guide book to do this stuff safely. And that, my friends, is the genioius of Steve's book. It will get you started, but you need to invest some time with maps etc before the trip to do it safely.

Route descriptions for this part of the world should be in units of time rather than units of length. Not all 5 mile roads in the San Rafael are created equal.

We've hiked 5 or 6 routes in Steve's book. With proper pre-trip planning, we've always been safe and never seriously lost (we've just experienced temporary navigational inconveniences, so far!)

Mike.

The San Rafael Swell is a huge geological blister located in east central Utah. It is crossed by several creeks and has numerous beautiful canyons, cliffs, mesas, slot canyons, and grottoes. It is also marked by spectacular cliffs of white Navajo sandstone, particularly on the east and southeast borders. There are a few big arches in the Swell and a host of gargoyle rocks. It's a place that, were it anywhere else, would be a National Park or Monument. However, in the scenic wonderland that is southeast Utah, it's just another unexplored place for the most part. Up to this book, the bulk of the Swell's publicity has come from occasional uranium strikes.

Author Allen has turned out a masterpiece. The book extensively covers all the things previously discussed, and a lot more, too. Especially interesting is the history of the region. The maps and hikes/tours are clearly described, although I would have preferred measuring in terms of distance rather than time. Quite obvious is Allen's enthusiasm for the place, an enthusiasm brought out in the text. The pictures are good, but I would have preferred some of them in color, given the fantastic breadth of colorful formations in this region.

I used the book last May in a brief Jeep tour of the Swell, and found it to be very accurate. I recommend the book highly to anyone who wants to see/explore this magnificent region.

This book offers some good ideas for some different adventures in the San Rafael Swell but is somewhat confusing and deceiving. In some of his hike descriptions, Steve uses time instead of distance to detail his routes e.g. hike 19 minutes southeast to the wash, then turn east. This can be misleading because everybody hikes at different paces. If you hike especially fast or slow you may make a turn at the wrong landmark. He also described a route as turning at the E.T. looking rock. - Huh? We missed our landmark and had to phone home. His maps (though meant to be supplements for topo maps) look deceivingly one-dimensional, which give a false sense of easy, flat walking. If you're experienced in the backcountry, it's a good list of routes. I would, however, recommend Kelsey's San Rafael book for better maps, landmark descriptions, and distances though you do have to adjust his hike times as he hikes much faster than most. Add time and a half as a general rule.

More maps would be nice. I would have to agree about the using the minutes (ie 70 minutes) for beta. On the other hand one should always take the maps anyway.

Opposite of Kelsey, difficulties seem to be over exagerated, rather than underexagerated. It would be nic if all authors used the same terminology for diffiuclt and easy, but this will likely never happen.

Steve seems to skip over some fantastic stuff, in favor of some more mundane stuff on some hikes, but all you have to do is do some side trips. To get the most out of this (or any) book, leave the paint by numbers route description on occasion and do some exploring on you own.

I would still highly recommend the book. It's a great source of info.

We used Allen's books many times. The information is wrong way too often regarding exit and entrance points in canyons. It seems that nobody reviews guidebooks before publishing. The worst trio we discovered so far are: Steve Allen, Michael Kelsey and Vivian Lougheed. Hiker beware!

ET huh? Yeah I know exactly what you mean! Just did that hike suggested in the guide book this weekend. This book serves as a list of hikes to do, but you better have a topo map and some good orienteering skills to match. He listed maps used for the hike but omitted the map which showed the latter third of the end of the canyon. We are lucky we realised this or we would have been trying to exit in the wrong spot. Not only does he use times to find confusing, he gets mileage wrong when he does give it! He said it was about 16 miles for the total trip. We used a topo program to count the mileage afterwards. It was at least 24 miles! Be careful when using this book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!