Jumpy's Blog

Karen and I are having a love affair - with a road!!! Highway 261 in Southern Utah.

Definitely not for the faint of heart.  6425 feet above sea level dropping 1100 feet in under 3 miles on hairpin curves at a 10% grade.  Did I mention gravel road, barely 2 lanes wide and NO guardrails.  5mph? How about 3mph just to be on the safe side?  Stay on the designated roads? OK sure. No problem.  Where else would I want to go?  Where the "designated road" ends a 1100 foot cliff starts - straight down!!  Did I mention - NO guardrails? Oh yes, I did.
Your worst nightmare is that a motorhome is coming at you from the other direction.

Highway 261 (on Cedar Mesa) is located in southern Utah. It runs 34 miles connecting Hwy 163 just north of Mexican Hat, with Hwy 95, just east of Natural Bridges National Monument. The highway is part of the Utah section of the Trail of the Ancients, a National Scenic Byway. It includes steep switchbacks as it traverses the Moki Dugway.

2002

We discovered hwy 261 in 2002 quite by accident. 

We left the Moab area, traveled south on hwy 191 and stopped to pick up subs at Blanding.  About 5 miles past the hwy 95 junction, just south of Blanding, Karen noticed that hwy 95 connected to hwy 261 which looked like a good road and it would connect us to hwy 163 right at Valley of the Gods where we were going.  We turned around, backtracked, stopped for our picnic, and headed west on hwy 95. Then south on hwy 261. 

This portion of the hwy is a long flat plateau and we imagined we were driving at the top of the world - we were.  We kept seeing signs about curves, switchbacks, no vehicles towing, no trucks, and no busses and we knew we were heading into something very unusual. When we arrived at the top of the Moki Dugway we couldn't believe the view overlooking the valley - and the road we had to take to get the bottom of it.  We we laughing so hard going down the road the tears were blocking my vision.  Not to mention we nearly wet our pants.  I actually had to stop and collect myself.  Karen's exclamations while she overlooked the "straight down 1100 foot cliff" (on her side of the car or course) were enough to make a hardened trucker blush.

I wish there was a way to put a feeling into a photograph!!  Highway 261 is definitely a "feeling". Take a supply of nitro and depends just in case. It never ceases to thrill us to be on this highway; the Valley of the Gods (at the bottom of it) and Monument Valley (a few miles west) just draw us. Ever since that first time we found this highway, we plan our trip route around it.  Sometimes we drive up and down a couple of times before heading off.  It's always a sad feeling to say goodbye to hwy 261 for another year. 

2003

In 2003 we had to make sure our route included hwy 261 so we could drive "up" it.  It was just as much a thrill as the drive down - except the "straight down 1100 foot cliff" was now on my side of the car.  Thanks goodness we were driving hugged up to the mountain side this time.  If I had been hanging near the edge I don't think I could have driven it without having a heart attack - or at least wetting my pants!! 

We met a group of five traveling bikers at the top who were equally as thrilled as us.  We took some pictures of them. Unfortunately the pictures were on their cameras and we neglected to get emails so they could send us some.

State Route 261 is located entirely within south-central San Juan County, Utah. It runs 34 miles north, from the junction of U.S. Route 163 three-miles north of Mexican Hat, to the junction with State Route 95, just east of Natural Bridges National Monument.

The highway is part of the Utah section of the Trail of the Ancients, a National Scenic Byway. It includes steep switchbacks as it traverses the Moki Dugway.

"Moki" is a local term for the ancient Puebloan people who inhabited the Colorado Plateau hundreds of years ago. "Dugway" is a term used to describe a roadway carved from a hillside. The Moki Dugway is literally carved from the cliff face and talus slope on the edge of Cedar Mesa. The route connects Utah Highway 95 with US Highway 163 by crossing Cedar Mesa and plunging down the dugway at an 11% grade, revealing sweeping views of Valley of the Gods, stripes of color in the rocks of the San Juan River Canyon known as the Navajo Tapestry, and distant Monument Valley.

2006

It wasn't quite dark, so we decided play around on Hwy 261 before stopping in Bluff;  but, true to form, we found somewhere else to explore.  After driving up and down Hwy 261, we went up again because Karen wanted to investigate a road we'd been ignoring for several years.  The road is called Muley Point Road and I'm sure it is aptly named.  Definitely fit for mules.  Oh My Gawd.

The next morning we climbed Hwy 261 one more time then north to Hwy 95.

2007

It's amazing that we can travel all the way to New Orleans and then by careful planning find ourselves back on highway 261 on the way home, but that's exactly what we did.  It just didn't seem right that we could go away and not visit one of our favorite places. So, although it was a "destination New Orleans" trip - we ended up in Valley of the Gods and highway 261 again.  It just felt like we were home.

This year Karen drove it for the first time (she was getting pretty relaxed on it until that point - then she freaked). It was early evening - not much traffic so we were able to stop several times to take pictures. We drove up and down three times before we called it a day.