Moki Dugway switchbacks

On a road trip to Bears Ears and Natural Bridges National Monuments (a post about them tomorrow), we drove our truck up Utah State Route 261, which includes the Moki Dugway dirt switchback road carved into the cliff face of Cedar Mesa in Utah.

Here’s a map:

Moki Dugway map

The mesa from the bottom:

Mesa

A warning sign:

Sign

Heading up the road:

Road

Twisty GPS route:

Twisty GPS

Road

Road

Monuments:

Monuments

Don’t look down:

Switchbacks

Switchbacks

Switchbacks

Switchbacks

Switchbacks

Switchbacks

A road at the top and bottom:

Switchbacks

Monuments again:

Monuments

View from near the top:

Switchbacks

Stay tuned for a timelapse video of this drive.

Travel from Green River to Monument Valley, UT

We drove our coach 195 miles, about 4 hours, from Green River, Utah to Monument Valley, Utah.

If you’ve ever seen a Western movie, you’ve seen Monument Valley.

Here’s the map, heading south:

Map route

Green River is proud of their melons:

Green River melons

Green River melons

An interesting church:

Interesting church

We stopped at Love’s to top up the diesel, since fuel stops are few and far between for the next few legs of our journey:

Love's fuel stop

Only about 40 gallons (our tank is 150 gallons), though still rather expensive with current fuel prices:

Love's fuel stop

Back under the lowish rail bridge:

Rail bridge

Mesa:

Mesa

Rocks:

Rocks

Rocks

Rocks

Moab:

Moab

Moab

Rocks

Rocks

We stopped for lunch at the rest area by Hole N the Rock:

Hole N the Rock

Rest stop

Lunch

Onward:

Rocks

An arch:

Arch

Rocks

Rocks

Trading post:

Trading post

Water

Rocks

Rocks and buildings

Rocks

Rocks

First sight of some iconic Monument Valley rocks:

Rocks

Rocks

Rocks

Bridge:

Bridge

The bridge was a little narrow for our coach, so we treated it as a one-way bridge:

Narrow bridge

Rocks

Several people stopped at Forrest Gump point; an iconic location from the movie:

Forrest Gump point

Rocks

Rocks

Rocks

Our destination:

Rocks

Travel from Torrey to Green River, UT

We drove our coach 107 miles, about 2.5 hours, from Torrey, Utah to Green River, Utah.

Here’s the map, heading northeast:

Map route

Leaving the RV park:

Leaving the park

Driving through Torrey:

Torrey

Some road works on the road to Capitol Reef National Park:

Road works

Road works

Road

Entering Capitol Reef National Park in our coach, as our route takes us through the park:

Capitol Reef National Park

More road works:

Road works

Heading through the park:

Capitol Reef National Park

Capitol Reef National Park

Capitol Reef National Park

Capitol Reef National Park

Road and river

A somewhat desolate area beyond the park:

Highway

Lots of interesting rocks, though:

Highway and rocks

Highway and rocks

Highway and rocks

Highway and rocks

Highway and rocks

Working on my laptop:

Laptop

Highway and rocks

Paladin sat on the back of Jenn’s chair for a bit:

Paladin and Jenn

Highway and river

Highway and rocks

Some dust storms in the distance:

View

Dusty

Exit towards Green River:

Exit to Green River

Paladin:

Paladin

Dusty:

Dusty

Dusty

Exit:

Exit

A somewhat low bridge; our coach is 12’ 7” high, so enough clearance:

Low bridge

Low bridge

Welcome to Green River:

Welcome to Green River

An interesting building façade:

Building

Green River would be more accurately called brown river:

Green River

Our destination, the Green River KOA Journey:

KOA Journey

Route maps

Here’s an animated GIF showing our RV travel routes: the Yellowstone rental trailer trip last year, adding travel in our coach last year, travel so far this year, and finally the planned route for much of the remainder of the year.

Route maps

Travel from Hatch to Torrey, UT

We drove our coach 124 miles, about 3 hours, from Hatch, Utah to Torrey, Utah.

Here’s the map, heading northeast:

Map route

Heading down the highway:

Road

Paladin spent much of the time in his safe space next to my chair, as usual:

Paladin in his safe space

Paladin in his safe space

Some nice old buildings in Panguitch (I’m going to try to take more pictures of interesting towns we pass through):

Panguitch

Nice houses:

Nice houses

I worked on my laptop while Jenn drove:

Laptop

Butch Cassidy’s childhood home:

Butch Cassidy's childhood home

An old building:

Old building

Junction, our turn:

Junction

Mountains:

Mountains

Interesting rocks:

Rocks

The Otter Creek Reservoir:

Water

Lots of straight portions of the highway:

Road

Which are a convenient and fairly safe time for me to get up and grab a snack from the fridge:

RV

RV

Mountains:

Road and mountains

Never Rip Overalls:

Never Rip Overalls

Some horses crossing the highway:

Horses

Horses

More road and mountains:

Road and mountains

Road and mountains

Curve

Up and down:

Up and down

Road and mountains

Interesting rocks:

Interesting rocks

Arriving at our destination for a few nights:

Arriving

Paladin on the dash while Jenn is checking in:

Paladin

Travel from Caliente, NV to Hatch, UT

We drove our coach 177 miles, 4.5 hours, from Caliente, Nevada to Hatch, Utah. Yay, another state!

Here’s the map, heading east:

Map route

An interesting point about this route is it isn’t the most direct route — that would be highway 14. However, as the map indicates, there is a portion with a too low clearance for our coach, plus that route is very twisty and across a mountaintop. We did drive that route in our truck later, and were very glad we didn’t try to take our coach that way. This is an important part of route planning; making sure it is feasible for our RV. The RV Life Trip Wizard really helps with this.

Anyway, on with the travel pics. Caliente is a fairly cute small town; here’s Company Row:

Caliente Company Row

Turning onto 319 East:

Turning onto 319 East

An interesting house in Panaca, and fellow RV traveler:

An interesting house in Panaca

A curvy highway:

Curvy highway

More curves

More curves

The GPS mirrored on the TV, approaching the Utah border, represented by the horizontal dotted line:

GPS approaching Utah border

Entering Utah:

Entering Utah

Interesting rocks:

Interesting rocks

Train:

Train

The clouds looked fake:

The clouds look fake

Utah highway:

Utah highway

Hey there Paladin:

Paladin

Snowy mountains:

Snowy mountains

Getting on to I-15:

Getting on to I-15

Where the speed limit was 80 MPH, not that we go that fast in our coach:

Speed limit 80 MPH

Paladin sleeping in his safe spot next to my chair:

Paladin

We didn’t really need fuel, but were concerned that truck stops would be less common out in the wilds of Utah, so stopped at T/A to top up:

Fuel stop at T/A

At the pump

We topped up the DEF, too:

DEF

A first for us, we parked with the trucks:

Parked with the trucks

And headed in to Subway for lunch:

Subway for lunch

A couple more Paladin pics:

Paladin

Paladin

I noticed a bunch of these interesting ramps along the freeway; presumably to let animals escape the road:

Ramp

Our exit:

Our exit

Cattle guard:

Cattle guard

Curvy road:

Curvy road

Highway leading to snowy hills:

Highway

Snow by the side of the road:

Snow

7,920 feet summit, with more curves and steep downhill ahead:

7920 feet summit

Sharp curve and mountain vista:

Sharp curve and mountain

Interesting rocks:

Interesting rocks

“River”:

River

Arriving at our next destination:

Arriving

Paladin watching birds while Jenn checks in:

Paladin