The San Rafael Reef is the eastern edge of a 2000 square mile area called the San Rafael Swell, an anticline, or dome, formed when the surface of the earth was pushed up some 50 million years ago.
The reef is formed of sandstone and stretches for roughly 75 miles. For years, it was an effective barrier to the wild and unclaimed lands of the swell to its west, because only deep, narrow, and winding slot canyons penetrated it.
In 1970, two lanes of highway were opened through the reef as part of the Interstate highway system. It took until the mid-1980s for the road to be expanded to four lanes.
The canyon chosen as the basis for the route was so narrow a person could touch both sides at once. To mark the route, surveyors wore body harnesses and hung suspended 400 feet above the canyon floor.
To give you an idea of the scale, those aren’t dirt specks on the highway in the photo above, they’re cars and trucks.
The photo below shows Route 50 climbing through the reef.
At the top.
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San Rafael Reef, Utah
January 12, 2017
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