We began our exploration of Utah’s backcountry with low-hanging fruit—the Cottonwood Canyon Highway. This unpaved highway connects US 89 on the south finish with Utah’s Scene Byway 12 on the north finish. The highway runs previous Kodachrome State Park the place we camped, which is why it made sense to start out our journey with Cottonwood Canyon Highway.
The Grand Staircase-Escalante Nationwide Monument is an enormous, mountainous space in Southern Utah with US 89 working alongside the border of the nationwide monument and US 12 working alongside the northern border. If you could get from Lake Powel to the Escalante space, for instance, you need to take a large 300-mile detour and drive across the whole Grand Staircase-Escalante Nationwide Monument. Cottonwood Canyon Highway is a 46-mile shortcut that runs by the mountains.
The highway is in comparatively good situation and I don’t consider {that a} 4×4 automobile is completely needed. In some areas, although, the highway is fairly steep and tough. And, like with most filth roads in Utah, it turns into impassable in rain.
It’s a good apply to at all times cease by any Bureau of Land Administration Workplace to search out out if the highway is open and inquire about its circumstances. The workplace can present important data like if a flash flood brought on a landslide within the space.
We drove Cottonwood Canyon Highway twice—as soon as from north to south after which from south to north. I didn’t see any benefit of driving a method over one other.
Associated: Gude to Bryce Canion Nationwide Park
The northern a part of the highway is extra mountainous and scenic. If you strategy the final leg of the drive when driving from south to north, there’s a spot on prime of the mountain crossing the place you may cease and luxuriate in an unobstructed view of Bryce Canyon on the left facet and the Kodachrome Basin on the appropriate. It’s merely breathtaking.
The southern a part of the drive is flatter with virtually no vegetation. All you see are badlands and desert. It is rather totally different, however it’s nonetheless spectacular in its personal means.
Associated: Valley of the Gods Filth Highway Drive
It was the second half of September, which continues to be a busy vacationer season in Utah. However I used to be shocked by how few automobiles we encountered alongside our drive—5 to 6 at most for each drives mixed.
Grosvenor Arch
In case you don’t have time to discover totally different areas alongside Cottonwood Canyon Highway, the one cease you should make is on the Grosvenor Arch. It’s positioned just one km from the primary highway and is accessible by automobile.
Associated: Exploring Monument Valley Scenic Drive
The Grosvenor Arch is essentially the most spectacular rock formation alongside the drive with two pure arches crowning the highest of the tall ridge.
Cottonwood Wash Narrows
In case you have a few hours to spare, take a straightforward three-mile hike alongside the underside of the slim canyon. Like I mentioned, it’s a straightforward, uncomplicated hike with its solely problem being the doorway on the south finish. The doorway is roofed in large rocks from a landslide, however the climbing is straightforward.
Closing Phrases
All in all, Cottonwood Canyon Highway is the best solution to begin exploring Utah’s backcountry. It’s the good drive for sightseeing and images, however it additionally serves as a shortcut to Bryce Canyon Nationwide Park and Home Rock Highway in Escalante.
2019 Replace – Misadventure on Cottonwood Highway
In August 2019, we went on one other driving journey to Utah. We spent two weeks driving a Jeep Wrangler alongside Utah’s backcountry roads to achieve essentially the most distant and secluded areas of the southwest.
Exploring Cottonwood Canyon Highway was not in our plans, however we used it typically as a shortcut to get from the Vermilion Cliffs and Lake Powell to the Escalante space.
Sooner or later, after spending three days driving the final word off-road vacation spot to the White Rim Path in Canyonlands Nationwide Park, we had been lastly on our solution to Kodachrome. On the finish of the 500km drive, we had been desperate to get to the campground earlier than dusk, so we took the Cottonwood Canyon highway shortcut.
August in Utah is monsoon season. You get sudden, quick, and extreme rainfall virtually day by day. Simply earlier than finishing the Cottonwood filth highway part of the drive, we bumped into rain. The clay highway instantly turned impassible and we virtually crashed the Jeep as we drove down the steep hill.
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I utterly misplaced management of the SUV and anticipated an unavoidable crash. However on the final second, the Jeep straightened itself. I assume the traction management kicked in since we slid slowly to the underside of the hill.
Right here is how the Jeep appeared. A layer of moist clay lined all of the tires, which left the tires with zero traction. I understood firsthand why clay roads in Utah change into impassable when moist. It doesn’t matter what automobile you drive or if in case you have chains or spikes.
We couldn’t drive in any respect. The one choice we had was to arrange camp on the facet of the highway and wait till the highway dried up.
Fortunately, we had all our tenting gear, meals, and water with us.
The next morning, the highway was nonetheless moist and sticky. Driving was not an choice, so we spent the whole day mountaineering and accomplished the Cottonwood Wash Narrows hike once more. It wasn’t till the early night when the day’s warmth dried up the clay that we might full the final 10km of filth highway.
Now I do know that clay and water don’t go nicely collectively in relation to driving.