Who would have thought you could find such delight in the barren wasteland of the San Rafael Swell. As a matter of fact, the San Rafael Swell is anything but a wasteland. It is full of vegetation and wildlife, you just have to know where to find it.

The San Rafael Swell is a large geologic feature located in south-central Utah, USA about 30 miles (50 km) west of Green River, Utah. The San Rafael Swell, approximately 75 miles by 40 miles (120 x 65 km), consists of a giant dome-shaped anticline of sandstone, shale, and limestone that was pushed up millions of years ago. Since that time, infrequent but powerful flash floods have eroded the sedimentary rocks into numerous valleys, canyons, gorges, mesas and buttes. The Swell is part of the Colorado Plateau physiographic region.

Interstate 70 divides the Swell into northern and southern sections, and provides the only paved road access to the region. The swell lies almost entirely within Emery County.

The northern Swell is drained by the San Rafael River, while the southern Swell is drained by a number of small creeks which eventually join the Dirty Devil River in Hanksville, Utah. The Dirty Devil River is a tributary of the Colorado River, while the San Rafael River joins the Green River before it also flows into the Colorado. Muddy Creek cuts into the western edge of the Swell, exits at Muddy Creek Gorge, and then flows into the Fremont River.

The San Rafael Swell was formed when deeply buried Precambrian rocks 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, Triassic 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.

Evidence of Native American cultures, including the Fremont, Paiute, and Ute, is common throughout the San Rafael Swell in the form of pictograph and petroglyph panels. From about 1776 to the mid-1850's the Old Spanish Trail trade route passed through (or just north of) the Swell. In the past 150 years, areas of the Swell have been used for the grazing of sheep and cattle, as well as for uranium mining. Although surrounded by the communities of Price, Green River, Hanksville, Ferron, Castle Dale, and Huntington, the Swell itself does not support permanent residents.

The Robbers Roost was an outlaw hideout in southeastern Utah used mostly by Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch gang in the closing years of the Old West.

The hideout was considered ideal because of the rough terrain. It was easily defended, difficult to navigate into without detection, and excellent when the gang needed a month or longer to rest and lay low following a robbery. It was while hiding out at "Robbers Roost" that Elzy Lay and Butch Cassidy first formed the Wild Bunch gang. The Wild Bunch gang, early on led by Cassidy and his closest friend Elzy Lay, developed contacts inside Utah that gave them easy access to supplies of fresh horses and beef, most notably the ranch owned by outlaw sisters Ann Bassett and Josie Bassett. The gang constructed cabins inside Robbers Roost to help shield them from the harsh winters. There, they stored weapons, horses, chickens, and cattle.

Pursuing lawmen of the day never discovered the site of the hideout. The outlaws held each other to strict confidentiality regarding its location.

There were only five women known to have ever been allowed inside Robbers Roost; Ann and Josie Bassett, the Sundance Kid's girlfriend Etta Place, one of Elzy Lay's girlfriends Maude Davis, and gang member Laura Bullion.

The Box-Death Hollow Wilderness is located in south-central Utah, USA, on the Dixie National Forest. Vertical gray-orange walls of Navajo sandstone stand above two canyon tributaries of the Escalante River in Box-Death Hollow. The name Death Hollow gives reference to a number of livestock that plunged to their death trying to cross the steep canyon.

Running north-south through a steeply dipping monocline, Pine Creek forms the box canyon (a canyon accessible only at the lower end) known appropriately as "The Box." Death Hollow Creek, east of The Box, has carved its way through a gently dipping monocline. Raging waters often flood these canyon narrows after a rain. Pinyon and juniper cover many of the plateaus above the canyons. Brown and rainbow trout are plentiful in Pine Creek and in portions of Sand Creek. Along the creek banks, you may see mule deer, an occasional cougar, or even elk in winter. Nine miles of trail run the distance of "the Box", while hiking in the remainder of this wilderness requires following drainages or undesignated routes.

The larger Phipps-Death Hollow Outstanding Natural Area, a Bureau of Land Management wilderness study area, is adjacent to the wilderness on the south. Phipps-Death Hollow is part of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

The Box-Death Hollow Wilderness briefly became the center of controversy during debate over the Utah Wilderness Act of 1984 due to a company that was interested in drilling exploration wells for carbon dioxide. The ridge-top well sites and routes leading to them were cherry-stemmed out of the north side of the legislated boundary, but the project never went into production.

Cedar Mesa is a plateau in San Juan County in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Utah. It extends from Elk Ridge in the north, Comb Wash to the east, the gorge of the San Juan River to the south, and Grand Gulch to the west, an area of over 400 square miles (1036 km²). The center of the mesa is located at approximately 37°26'N and 109°55'W, at an elevation of 6500 feet (1980 m). The surrounding terrain has a typical elevation of just 4200 feet (1280 m).

This large difference in elevation has led to the formation of numerous canyons, cliffs, and other erosional features on the edges of the mesa. To the east are several canyons draining into Comb Wash, including Arch, Texas, Mule, Owl, Fish, McCloyd, and Road Canyons. Scattered throughout these canyons are cliff dwellings of the Ancient Puebloans.

To the southeast is an eroded area called the Valley of the Gods, and to the southwest is a deep gorge of the San Juan River, called the Goosenecks. High above, on the southern edge of Cedar Mesa, are Muley and Cedar Points.

The west side of Cedar Mesa also includes large canyons, including John's and Slickhorn Canyons, and the combination of Grand Gulch and Bullet Canyon known as the Grand Gulch Primitive Area. To the northwest is the Natural Bridges National Monument.

Highway 95 crosses the northern part of Cedar Mesa, while Highway 163 passes to the south. Running up the center of the mesa is Highway 261. Gravel and dirt roads provide access in dry weather to the individual canyons, through the Valley of the Gods, and to Comb Wash.

NOTE: The majority of this information is taken from Wikipedia (the free encyclopedia). For more information, via Wikipedia, click on the San Rafael Swell, Robbers Roost, Box-Death Hollow Wilderness or Cedar Mesa links.