San Rafael Swell

San Rafael Swell
San Rafael Swell
	The San Rafael Swell from 16,000 feet
Highest point
Coordinates	38°48′47″N 110°51′18″W / 38.813°N 110.855°W
Dimensions
Length	75 mi (121 km)
Width	40 mi (64 km)
Geography
	San Rafael Swell Location within Utah
Location	US

The San Rafael Swell is a large

gorges, mesas, buttes, and badlands

.

The

physiographic region

.

Geography

Fremont River

.

Geology

The San Rafael Swell was formed when deeply buried

faulted, or broke, during the Laramide orogeny, about 60 million years ago. These "basement" rocks below the present-day Swell moved upwards relative to the surrounding areas and caused the overlying sedimentary rocks to fold into a dome-like shape called an anticline

. The resulting structure is analogous to a series of blankets draped over a box.

Since that time, the relentless force of running water has eroded the geologic layers, resulting in older rocks becoming exposed in the middle of the Swell, and younger rocks exposed around the edges. Many of the most impressive landforms are composed of more resistant rocks, including the Jurassic Navajo Sandstone, Jurassic Wingate Sandstone, and Permian Coconino Sandstone. The folding is much steeper on the eastern edge of the Swell than in the west, and this eastern edge is referred to as the San Rafael Reef.

Both the San Rafael River and Muddy Creek drain out of the high Wasatch Plateau and the cut directly across the uplift of the Reef, which marks them as superimposed streams, pre-dating the time of the uplift. Part of the Swell has geographic features that resemble Mars. The Mars Society decided to set up the Mars Desert Research Station in the area as a Mars analog for such reasons.

Ecology

The San Rafael Swell is an area of high plant

San Rafael cactus (Pediocactus despainii).^[1]

History

Evidence of

sheep and cattle, as well as for uranium mining. Many of the gravel roads in the interior of the swell were originally used to service the uranium mining activities. Although surrounded by the communities of Price, Green River, Hanksville, Ferron, Castle Dale, and Huntington

, the Swell itself does not support permanent residents.

The Swell has been used by Hollywood filmmakers as a location setting for alien planets, including the Planet Vulcan in the 2009 film Star Trek and the alien world in Galaxy Quest.

In 2002, Governor

National Monument.^[2] President George W. Bush, who had authority to create such a monument under the Antiquities Act

, never acted on Leavitt's proposal.

The idea of

US Department of the Interior document.^[3]

In May 2018, US Representative John Curtis put forward a bill to make the area a national monument, to be called "Jurassic National Monument."^[4]

San Rafael Recreation Area

Goblin Valley is at lower extreme right, with Wild Horse Butte to the left. The shadow of a contrail marks the San Rafael Reef

, with the Swell behind it.

The area is managed by the

US Bureau of Land Management. On March 12, 2019, the Emery County Public Land Management Act was signed into law as the Dingell Natural Resources Act

. As part of this designation, approximately 217,000 acres were protected as the San Rafael Swell Recreation Area.

The following

wilderness areas were congressionally designated around the San Rafael Swell Recreation Area as part of the John D. Dingell. Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act: Big Wild Horse Mesa (18,192 acres), Cold Wash (11,001 acres), Devil's Canyon (8,675 acres), Eagle Canyon (13,832 acres), Horse Valley (12,201 acres), Little Ocean Draw (20,660 acres), Little Wild Horse Canyon (5,479 acres), Lower Last Chance (19,339 acres), Mexican Mountain (76,413 acres), Middle Wild Horse Mesa (16,343 acres), Muddy Creek (98,023 acres), Red's Canyon (17,325 acres), San Rafael Reef (60,442 acres), and Sid's Mountain (49,130 acres).^[5]

Cattle grazing is only allowed in parts of the Swell that are not designated as such. The San Rafael Swell is also dotted with sections of land managed by the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, as is much of the state of Utah. Goblin Valley State Park is on the southeastern edge of the San Rafael Swell.