Scenic Byway Utah 128

Sunday afternoon, July 13

It was our last day in Moab.  As we ate lunch we tried to decide how best to spend the afternoon.  One thing we remembered listed in the guidebooks that we had not done was the drive northeast of Moab on Route 128.  This was one of several designated State of Utah scenic routes in the Moab area.

The initial thought of yet more driving did not seem appealing to me since we had already taken so many scenic drives.  Boy was I wrong about my hesitation to take this drive.  This was definitely a highlight of the trip.

The description in Fodor's covers the basics:

The start of one of the most scenic drives in the country is found 2 mi north of Moab off U.S. 191. The byway runs along the Colorado River northeast to I–70. First passing through a high-walled corridor, the drive eventually breaks out into Professor Valley, home of the monoliths of Fisher Towers and Castle Rock, which you may recognize from various car commercials and old cowboy movies. The byway also passes the charred remnants of the single-lane Dewey Bridge, which was in use from 1916 to 1986 and was the second longest suspension bridge west of the Mississippi River when built. Unfortunately, most of it burned in 2008 during an accidental blaze. Near the end of the 44-mi drive is the tiny town of Cisco.

Unfortunately we had not done research ahead of time and did not have that description.  Therefore we missed some of the things we could have done..multiple things for our next trip. 

Fortunately we did have a brochure,"Canyon Country, A Geologic Guide to the Canyonlands Travel Region" by the State of Utah Department of Natural Resources, which we had picked up earlier at the Arches National Park bookstore.  One foldout page had a map and some highlights.  With that as our guide, off we went.

Top of foldout for Scenic Byway 128 page in brochure

Center portion of the foldout from brochure that shows the map of Scenic Route 128 from Moab to Cisco

The beginning of the trip is in the narrow canyon of the Colorado River with high red cliffs.  The road appeared to be newly upgraded and for about the first two miles there was a very nice biking trail that paralleled the road but was cantilevered out over the river due to lack of space.  Unfortunately, like most of this trip, we did not take many pictures.

Most of the land along Route 128 is BLM land, with lots of locations for river access and multiple camping sites.

After about 13 miles the gorge widens as the highway proceeds past Castle and Professor Valleys.  Dividing these two valleys are large rock formations (Priest and Nuns and Castle Rock) that are very reminiscent of Monument Valley.  We later learned that both of these valleys have been the site of numerous movies and TV commercials. These include such early classics as "Wagon Master" (1949) and "Rio Grande" (1950), as well as slightly more recent movies such as "City Slickers" (1993).  One website indicated that 80% of movies in the Moab area contain scenes shot in Professor Valley.

At approximately mile 14 is the very large Red Cliffs Lodge complex along the Colorado River.  We later learned they are home to the Moab to Monument Valley Film Commission Museum which is free.  Having enjoyed the film museum at Goulding's more than I would have expected, we probably would have enjoyed this, too.  Maybe next time.

One of the most spectacular features is at the eastern end of the valley, Fisher Towers.  I was totally unaware of them, at least by that name.  They are on BLM land and are a popular hiking, camping, and rock climbing site.  Only much later did I realize that we had seen them multiple times before on TV, with this video shot on Ancient Art Rock in Fisher Towers being one of the best examples.  (Update: I thought this story of the video shoot was interesting.)  Interestingly one of the iconic rocks in Fisher Towers, Cobra Rock,  toppled during heavy thunderstorms several weeks after our visit.

At approximately 24.7 miles is a viewpoint looking back towards Fisher Towers with the La Sal Mountains in the distance.  Being July, the mountains were not snow-covered but the picture from that spot was otherwise the iconic picture for the region.

Fisher Towers and La Sal Mountains from viewpoint along Colorado River on our way back to Moab.

We did not go all the way to Interstate 70 or the town of Cisco noted on the brochure map.  We did not know until later that Cisco was an interesting ghost town...yet one more thing for next time.

However, we did go as far as Dewey Bridge and stopped to look around.  We could not make sense of what we were looking at until later.  Dewey Bridge was a 502 foot long suspension bridge built in 1916.  On the day of its completion, Dewey Bridge was the second-longest suspension bridge west of the Mississippi River. It remained the longest suspension bridge in Utah until it was destroyed by fire in 2008. Only the suspension towers, cables and metal hangers are left, awaiting fund raising to rebuild the bridge.  (As an aside:  Last year we visited the suspension bridge in Waco, TX, at 475 feet the longest suspension bridge in the world when it was completed in 1870.)

The single lane Dewey Bridge originally carried Route 128 over the Colorado River, but was replaced for highway traffic by the adjacent bridge which was completed in 1988.  By connecting this part of Utah to Grand Junction, CO, Dewey Bridge had a major impact on the development of the region.  The Colorado River was a major impediment to settlement in southeastern Utah.  I found it interesting that even today there are only three bridges that cross the Colorado River along its 400 mile length through the State of Utah, this bridge at the Dewey Bridge site for State Route 128, US 191 just north of Moab, and the Hite Crossing Bridge which carries State Route 95 across the Colorado River northwest of Blanding at the informal upstream limit of Lake Powell.  We crossed two of the three bridges both coming and going on this trip this afternoon.

We found a place to turn around and made our way back to Moab.  Since we did not shoot hardly any pictures, here is a video from the handlebars of someone's motorcycle that shows some of the route.