The Swasey Cabin and Lone Warrior Pictograph are located in the San Rafael Swell west of Green River, UT. The area is rich with history that includes Butch Cassidy and “The Wild Bunch”, as well as Native American rock art. The Swasey Cabin was built in 1921 with Douglas Fir logs, and belonged to Joseph Swasey and his family who farmed and ran livestock in the “heart of Sinbad Country”, according to the BLM.

About

The Lone Warrior Pictograph is right off the same road you use to access the Swasey Cabin, and worth a short stop to check out. If you had a Razor/ATV you could drive to it, but most people walk the 1 mile RT dirt road. The road was completely washed out in two sections and had really soft sand so there was no way our car could make it. The panel consists of a single image, hence Lone Warrior, holding a shield. There are other pictographs in the same area but they are quite faded and washed out to make out the full image.

 

Directions

From I-70 take exit 131, drive under the highway, then head East on Temple Mountain Road for 5 miles, then turn right at the sign for “Head of Sinbad”. Drive another mile, pass a pond on your right, and you’ll reach a “T” – turn right again. You’ll come across a “Y” in the road – stay left for Lone Warrior and the Swasey Cabin. The road will curve south, and you’ll see the brown sign for Lone Warrior on your right. Park here and begin hiking for the pictograph. To get to the cabin, keep driving south and turn right at the sign for the cabin. Drive about 1 mile, and the cabin parking area will be on your left with a port-a-potty.

Here’s a screen shot of the map, since Google Maps doesn’t understand how to drive off road. I highly recommend that you get this Utah Benchmark Map – it’s super detailed and accurate. Make sure you have plenty of water, food, and gas – there are no services for miles.

Trail Info

(For Lone Warrior)

Distance: 1 mile RT

Elevation gain: flat

Time: 1 hour

Dog friendly? Yes, off leash

Kid friendly? Yes

Fees/Permits? None

 

Lone Warrior Pictograph

The hike to see Lone Warrior starts off the road on the right side by this tall brown BLM sign. The words are very faded, but this is the right spot. Park here, and begin walking along the road.

It’s really soft sand, but after recent storms could be extremely muddy.

Even though we had blue skies and slightly warmer temps than in SLC, it was still chilly enough to wear a puffy. What a gorgeous day!

Continue following the road to this temple-like rock.

At the end of the dirt road, it makes a loop and the first very faded image is on the right side, beyond this fence.

Can you see it? The light red looks like two small half circles, with a head above each.

Make your way to the next fence area, just to the West, and you’ll see the Lone Warrior. I had to do some slight editing on this photo to make the image stand out more.

Swasey Cabin

The parking area for the cabin is quite large, and has info signs on the area. If we had more time, we would have liked to hike to Eagle Canyon Arch, but we had other places to visit.

There is a TH register and large sign at the parking lot.

Do you think dogs had previous lives? I could totally imagine Charlie being a ranch dog.

The inside of the cabin is empty, but be careful of old nails.

The cabin is the typical 12 X 12 feet size that was required by the Homestead Act. Whether any work has been done to keep it in good condition or not is unknown, but it seems to be doing well for being more than 100 years old. The roof is made from Utah Juniper trees that appear to be more recently placed. The BLM has done a great job of keeping this site clean and accessible to everyone, strollers included.

The Swasey Cabin is really cool to explore!

 

Trail Map

Definitely do both of these sites if you are in the area – it’s much easier to combine these two rather than take separate trips. 

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