I spent today in the far western portion of the San Rafael Swell. The short days during this time of year make it difficult to do much outdoors. I ran out of daylight and found only five of the eleven caches I'd planned on visiting (Edit: I forgot to mention that I hit 250 cache finds today as well!). It was still a worthwhile way to spend a vacation day, and I've still got an excuse to return to the same area again later.

Another reason I didn't have time to find more caches is that the BLM has closed off the road going up Short Canyon through Molen Reef. That changed it from a drive-by cache to a 2.9 mile hike. Apparently the state of Utah and Emery County have a R.S. 2477 claim against the BLM to try to reopen the route, and I hope they succeed. I can't imagine why the road was closed. I was tempted to drive around the sign, but I just didn't have the balls, even though it's extremely unlikely that I'd have been caught--I don't think any BLM personnel would be out patrolling on a Monday in the middle of December. Judging from the fresh tire tracks on the road, at least somebody's been using it regularly.