​​In The Shadow of Longs Peak

​Smith Cabin Canyon

25 November 2003

Smith Cabin Canyon, East Side San Rafael Swell

Today was a short day.  We did an exploratory hike up the canyons behind the Smith Canyon.  First we hiked up into a sandy room with no exit.  We backtracked up and over a hillside, then up a another canyon until we came to an area overlooking a pool, then traversed unto a terrace beyond the pool.  Now the hiking was on easy rock till we came to another wall, which we climbed up and over on the right then down the other side.  Gary had been here before.  Next we scramble up 10 feet of 5.0 climbing to a pool which is dark and looks deep with air bubbles escaping.  We contemplate the origin of the pool which has no apparent source.  I contend it’s been around since the original uplift and is replenished by seeps and there are marine creatures unknown anywhere else.  Gary contends things dried out first, with nothing surviving and the pool refilling later from seeps.

We turn around, scramble back up to the rim, above where I had just come down and hiked down into another canyon, without exploring yet wondering where it goes, and then up the other side and an easy traverse to its mouth, then out and down into the start of the original canyon.  Then cross-country upward and to the right of a rectangular pinnacle.  Just before ascending to a saddle behind the pinnacle, I see there is another wash with red sandstone lining its side.  Someone has carve his initials with ‘1886’.  There is another spot that looks like it may be part of a pictograph in the shape of a man.  After walking up to the saddle I can see something white, high up, on another bit of sandstone but cannot tell what it is and I did not walk back to look.  Cross another wash and back up again.  And then down to the truck,