Upper Colorado River Scenic Byway

The River Road out of Moab follows the Colorado through a narrow red sandstone gorge for 30 miles, past riverside campgrounds, the film country of Professor Valley and the Fisher Towers, to the remains of the Dewey suspension bridge.

SR 128 leaves US 191 at Lions Park on the north edge of Moab and follows the south bank of the Colorado River into a narrow, steep gorge of red sandstone cliffs, known locally as the River Road. Grandstaff Canyon comes in at about 3 miles and the Big Bend campground, picnic area and sandy beach at about 8 miles, with the road squeezed between cliff and river and blind corners without shoulders. The gorge widens at Castle Valley and Professor Valley, where many westerns were filmed and Red Cliffs Lodge, at about 14 miles, houses a film museum, and the Fisher Towers rise at the east end of the valley. The road then winds back up the gorge to cross the river at Dewey, 30 miles from Moab, beside the remains of the 1916 suspension bridge that burned in 2008. In 2026 work on a new riverside path near Grandstaff Canyon has the road down to one lane under traffic control until the end of October.