Ad
Dig It: Moki Dugway is worth the drive for views, adventure
Published
Modified
Moki Dugway is an adventure route that lets you experience all the monumental majesty of the Southwest along a state road.
The panorama from the top reinforces flat earth views of a world that drops off with a sharp edge. It descends more than 1,000 feet in less than three miles on gravel switchbacks. Utah 261 takes adventurers from Bears Ears National Monument in the north toward Monument Valley or back.
I took my parents to Moki Dugway in my first four-wheel drive vehicle some 40 years ago — but my memory of the trip was hazy.
I promised our friends traveling with us, whose van was down to a quarter tank, that the road to it was a shortcut to gas and provisions. I thought Mexican Hat, Utah, was at the top, but the scenic hatlike rock and town lurk at the bottom.
The dugway, built in the 1950s to transport ore and vehicles from uranium mines, starts and ends in Utah; the border awaits as you move south past Mexican Hat: the only place for gas and supplies for many miles.
On the official Utah map, it is easy to overlook the small green rectangle and lightning bolt that mark the dugway on what is scenic Utah 261: “CAUTION Moki Dugway is gravel with 10% grades and switchbacks 2.2 miles.”
From the road, visitors can peer into the Valley of the Gods and Monument Valley more than 1,000 feet below and miles away, though drivers are advised to drive in low gear and to look at the road, which has a speed limit from 15 mph down to 5 mph.
“This stretch of road in southeastern Utah is named for the Ancestral Pueblo that early Spanish explorers encountered in this area,” the San Juan County, Utah, visitors bureau website says.
The Spanish word for the people is “Moki” or “Moqui,” and “dugway,” is a term that refers to a roadway carved into a hillside or mountain, it says.
Abby Booth of Abom Adventures says in a YouTube video the road is wider than she expected.
Ad
“This is definitely easier as the driver than as the passenger,” she says.
The dugway drive should not be rushed going up or down and should not be missed.
Moki Dugway
The Moki Dugway in south eastern Utah, a stretch of unpaved switch backs that connects the top of Cedar Mesa to the valley floor 1100 feet below in just over 3 miles.
