Grand Tour
Canyon Country
Five days through Utah’s red-rock canyon country, from Zion to the Colorado.
Southern Utah’s canyon country is a few hundred miles of slickrock, red walls and buttes, crossed by some of the most remarkable roads in the American West. This loop strings five of them together: the tunnel road out of Zion, the Hogback on Highway 12, the Burr Trail’s switchbacks, the unpaved Moki Dugway and the run past the buttes of Monument Valley, finishing beside the Colorado below the Fisher Towers. Towns are far apart and so is fuel, so fill up whenever you pass a pump.
Through the tunnel
Overnight: EscalanteStart in Springdale and climb UT 9’s switchbacks out of Zion Canyon to the mile-long tunnel and the slickrock domes beyond, then head north and east past Bryce Canyon to Escalante.
The Hogback and the Burr Trail
Overnight: BoulderHighway 12 runs the knife-edge Hogback from Escalante to Boulder. In the afternoon take the Burr Trail east through the red walls of Long Canyon to the switchbacks on the Waterpocket Fold, and come back the same way.
Down the Moki Dugway
Overnight: Mexican HatA long day by Capitol Reef, Hanksville and Natural Bridges to the top of Cedar Mesa, then down the Moki Dugway’s unpaved switchbacks to the Valley of the Gods and Mexican Hat.
Monument Valley
Overnight: Monument ValleyUS 163 south from the San Juan River across open desert to the buttes of Monument Valley, past the Forrest Gump Point straight.
The River Road
Overnight: MoabNorth to Moab, then out along UT 128 beside the Colorado through its red sandstone gorge to the Fisher Towers and what is left of the Dewey suspension bridge.
