The Wickiup
It was our fourth day on the San Rafael Swell (we played around a little on Black Dragon when we first arrived on the 21st) and we'd seen The Wickiup off and on the entire time. It's a weird little dome of rock sticking up all by itself, striped from the top to the bottom. We knew there were trails that made a loop around it, and it would be our last bit of exploration before heading for home the next day.
We'd actually started The Wickiup trail by accident two days before. We were looking for Buckhorn Draw Road and turned instead of keeping straight on the pavement. It seemed like a cool trail during our brief time on it, so we were looking to exploring the rest of it. We opened and closed the gate, and we headed up the trail.
It was a pretty afternoon with blue skies and puffy, white clouds. The trail just kept getting closer to The Wickiup, and we were happy to see we would pass right by it. It seemed bigger from the highway, but it was still pretty cool. We would save more exploration for a future trip.
The trail itself wasn't maintained, but it was never difficult. There were a few eroded spots, but the trail through them was always clear and well used. It ended up being a nice drive north.
When we popped out onto Oil Well Flat, we didn't see any oil wells but we did see some really, really big views. We stopped and got out to take tons of pictures of the ridge next to us. It went on for miles. We'd cut into the north end of it on Buckhorn Wash Road, and it was gorgeous there, too.
We turned left at the intersection with Road Hollow so we could see the trail all the way to the end. It wasn't too far. Once we were there, we got out a map to decide what we'd do with the rest of our day. We wanted to see Road Hollow, of course, but there were other trails in the area along Oil Well Flat and along Cane Wash that was at the base of that impressive ridge of rock. It was a long trail, though, and the light was fading. It had been a long trip, so we decided to head south again and finish with Road Hollow. We'd have to save still more trails for our next trip there.
