San Rafael Swell

After much cabin fever, my brother in law Kevin and I decided that instead of hiking Grizzly Gulch (across from Alta Ski Resort) and spending the night up there, we would go South into the Swell. It is only a few short hours from our places, so we thought this might be a better, [I]and less crowded[/I] area to spend some time outside.
Places we visited are:

• The 'Wedge' aka Little Grand Canyon
• Buckhorn Wash Pictograph Panel
• The dirt road that leads from Castle Dale to I- 70

Why the Pathfinder, rather than the Landcruiser?

Eh, just because...I haven't ever really used it off road, and we figured out what we were doing at the last minute and my rig was low on gas, so I decided that I would give it a try. It worked out well. It has gobs of power, uses half the gas my cruiser does, and we both just pretty much brought out backpacking equipment, so we didn't need the room.We made friends with who we dubbed "Sheriff Bill" upon getting out there. We stopped at one of the info. kiosks and he was there, pulled his police jeep up, and said, "Where are you looking to go?" We told him we were off to the Wedge and then to camp somewhere out there.

He gave us a look of you are going to do what and said, "I have a lot of people coming out here and they are getting stuck. I have a Tacoma down the road that is stuck, and I was stuck out there and I have this thing (his Jeep) with the lockers front and rear." He went on to tell us (after repeatedly sizing up the Nissan) that he didn't want to have to come pull us out. We parted ways after he gave us some ideas as to where it might not be too muddy to camp, and we were on our way.

The next morning, we went back up to the overlook, and just as we jumped in the rig, we heard a car coming. I commented to Kevin, "It is probably Sherriff Bill!" Sure enough, I had fired up the engine, and there he was. We chatted for a minute, and he told us, "Don'ttell anyone about us down here."I think his initial impression of us was that we were going to be 'the guys' that makes his weekend long, pulling an ill equipped car out of a snowbank. I then believe after we had spoken, he realized we weren't going to go do anything to get ourselves into trouble.Really, the roads out there weren't bad at all. some snow covered, and some icy, but the majority was nice and clear, some places a bit of dust was even kicking up behind us...I drove out in 2wd.