Moki Dugway

[Patrick M.]

I ran across a topo segment of this switchback in southeastern Utah and thought I would post a map here should anyone get near that area and want a thrill. First, it is a well-maintained dirt/gravel road segment, and I haven't done it in a trailer, but it shouldn't be a problem for the fiberglass crowd.

When coming at it from the south it looks like a sheer rock wall, and if I find the pre-digital pictures I'll drop them in here. In the meantime, mark this one on your maps.

I found a couple of photos (shown below) here: http://www.midwestroads.com/

[Anne H]

I love Utah!! Spend at least a week there every year.
Boy, that road looks a little scary though!!!

[John Mc]

That looks just like the road to Echo Park in Dinosaur Monument, the one we didn't take the Scamp down. There they actually post a "no trailers" rule. The tight switchbacks slow you to a crawl, and you need mucho traction to keep going. The surface of the steepest part is a red powder a couple inches deep. After rain, it turns into impassable, impossible slippery muck for a while. But it leads to a great drive, as this one surely does.

[Pete Dumbleton]

That's about the scariest road I have ever driven, with a very high Pucker Factor -- The first time was when I pulled my overweight Jayco 16' with my old D1150 -- First gear all the way and I had to go on the outside of the right-hand turns, because the insides were too steep, praying that no one was coming down -- I passed a rental car full of tourists overheated on (luckily for me) one of the left-hand turns -- Several times I had to get in the left lane because the right lane's washboarding was making my truck/trailer start to dance towards the edge.

Uphill gravel/dirt road driving tip -- The uphill road usually becomes washboarded or dug out on the normal (right) side first, so the other lane is often more useable.

According to the local guy who assured me I could make it (I was seriously doubting it about halfway up), the road was originally built for uranium ore trucks and he was one of the drivers.

I've been up/down steeper roads in other places (Lincoln Gap VT 14%; Telegraph Creek B.C. 22%), but Moki Dugway is worse because of the switchbacks.

BTW, a really memorable place to camp can be found by taking the gravel road to the left at the top of the hill (about where the pavement resumes) and following it out to the tip of the plateau at Muley Point, which is just inside the Natl Rec Area -- Dry camping with tremendous views over the Goosenecks of the San Juan River and Monument Valley -- I was lucky enuf to have it to myself and the only lights I could see in all that space were the airplanes waaay up there.

[BOBSMITH]

ARGH!!!

No way, dude!

[Byron Kinnaman]

ARGH!!!

No way, dude!

Flatlander..

Sorry the devil made me do it.

[Patrick M.]

Topozone is a good place for USGS topo maps. http://www.topozone.com

[Bill MacDermod]

This spring Karen and I decided to plan to go to the Oregon Gathering and use that for an excuse to see the Northwest where neither one of us had ever been. We planned routes to take and we wanted to hit as many states as we could and that we did. We bought a GPS so we wouldn't have to do as many U turns and named her "Greta" It didn't take long to realize that even Greta could be a bit off, when going through Mississippi on Rt 78 she wasn't following the road but along side of it cutting corners, running down a railroad tracks, cruising on rivers and lakes etc while telling us "off route, recalculating". Well one of the areas we hit was Montana then Cody, Wy. We talked with some folks and they mentioned Red Lodge Montana and it sounded like an interesting place to go so we headed north out of Cody to Red Lodge meaning to take Rt 308 west off Rt 72 to Red Lodge. Well Greta decided she was going to be in charge and told us to make a left before Rt 308 so I did and Karen told me I was crazy for following that thing, we got about a mile down the road and it turned to dirt and a sign saying "Meeteetse Trail" and Karen saying do a "U" y, and me saying I want to find out if this thing knows where its going. Wellll after a spell I noticed there was no such thing as a U turn as the trail had been scraped so many times it had like snow banks (only sand) on both sides. The only thing to do was to keep going and hope Greta knew where she was going.There were what looked like bunkhouses out there and barns and a couple of signs identifying state lands. This was all open range where cattle were grazing everywhere, We saw the mountains in the distance and had no clue where this would end. Just as we started down a slope there were these warning signs that said grades in excess of 12%. and I thought wow, how much worse is it going to get, a 2 wheel drive towing 3200 lbs going up a 12% or 13% gravel grade. Well the Tundra did a great job and so did Greta, we got onto Rt 212, (The Beartooth Hwy 3/4 of a mile south of red Lodge. I wanted to post some pictures but the size has to be reduced some more, Funny the other sites take them. Oh yeah its about a 35 mile journey as a good guess and now that I know where it is on both ends I would like to go back there and dry camp for a few days.
I googled up the Meeteetse Trail and here it is this goes from west to east where as we went from east to west, most interesting ride

MEETEETSE TRAIL

The Meeteetse Trail is a country road that winds its way around the mountains into Meeteetse, Wyoming. This scenic 4WD road began as an army supply trail in 1881 that started at Meeteetse, Wyoming, went through Red Lodge, and continued on to Coulson (now Billings). The trail brought the first mail, supplies, and settlers the 100-mile distance from Meeteetse to Red Lodge, and was originally called the "100 Mile Route." Several years after its opening, stage coaches began to travel the Meeteetse regularly.

To retrace the steps of the past, take Highway 212 three quarter miles south of Red Lodge and then the gravel road angling southeast and across Rock Creek. You will emerge on Highway 72 near the Montana/Wyoming border.

[Byron Kinnaman]

GPS systems are pretty good. Maps on GPS systems could still use some help. Autorouters, look out, you could get much more of a scenic route than you want.