We began our exploration of Utah’s backcountry with low-hanging fruit—the Cottonwood Canyon Street. This unpaved street connects US 89 on the south finish with Utah’s Scene Byway 12 on the north finish. The street runs previous Kodachrome State Park the place we camped, which is why it made sense to begin our journey with Cottonwood Canyon Street.
The Grand Staircase-Escalante Nationwide Monument is an unlimited, 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’ll want to get from Lake Powel to the Escalante space, for instance, you must take a large 300-mile detour and drive across the total Grand Staircase-Escalante Nationwide Monument. Cottonwood Canyon Street is a 46-mile shortcut that runs by the mountains.
The street is in comparatively good situation and I don’t consider {that a} 4×4 automobile is completely needed. In some areas, although, the street is fairly steep and tough. And, like with most dust 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 street is open and inquire about its circumstances. The workplace can present very important data like if a flash flood precipitated a landslide within the space.
We drove Cottonwood Canyon Street twice—as soon as from north to south after which from south to north. I didn’t see any benefit of driving a technique over one other.
Associated: Gude to Bryce Canion Nationwide Park
The northern a part of the street is extra mountainous and scenic. Once you method 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 suitable. 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 completely different, however it’s nonetheless spectacular in its personal manner.
Associated: Valley of the Gods Grime Street Drive
It was the second half of September, which remains to be a busy vacationer season in Utah. However I used to be stunned by how few vehicles we encountered alongside our drive—5 to 6 at most for each drives mixed.
Grosvenor Arch
In case you would not have time to discover completely different areas alongside Cottonwood Canyon Street, the one cease it’s essential to make is on the Grosvenor Arch. It’s situated just one km from the principle street and is accessible by automobile.
Associated: Exploring Monument Valley Scenic Drive
The Grosvenor Arch is probably the most spectacular rock formation alongside the drive with two pure arches crowning the highest of the tall ridge.
Cottonwood Wash Narrows
You probably have a few hours to spare, take a simple three-mile hike alongside the underside of the slim canyon. Like I mentioned, it’s a simple, 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 simple.
Last Phrases
All in all, Cottonwood Canyon Street is the best strategy 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 Street in Escalante.
2019 Replace – Misadventure on Cottonwood Street
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 probably the most distant and secluded areas of the southwest.
Exploring Cottonwood Canyon Street was not in our plans, however we used it usually as a shortcut to get from the Vermilion Cliffs and Lake Powell to the Escalante space.
Someday, after spending three days driving the last word off-road vacation spot to the White Rim Path in Canyonlands Nationwide Park, we have been lastly on our strategy to Kodachrome. On the finish of the 500km drive, we have been desperate to get to the campground earlier than dusk, so we took the Cottonwood Canyon street shortcut.
August in Utah is monsoon season. You get sudden, brief, and extreme rainfall virtually daily. Simply earlier than finishing the Cottonwood dust street part of the drive, we bumped into rain. The clay street instantly turned impassible and we virtually crashed the Jeep as we drove down the steep hill.
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I fully 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 regarded. A layer of moist clay coated all of the tires, which left the tires with zero traction. I understood firsthand why clay roads in Utah develop into impassable when moist. It doesn’t matter what automobile you drive or in case you have chains or spikes.
We couldn’t drive in any respect. The one possibility we had was to arrange camp on the facet of the street and wait till the street dried up.
Fortunately, we had all our tenting gear, meals, and water with us.
The next morning, the street was nonetheless moist and sticky. Driving was not an possibility, so we spent the complete 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 may full the final 10km of dust street.
Now I do know that clay and water don’t go properly collectively on the subject of driving.
