Utah Highway 128, extending from Cisco, Colorado to Moab, is yet another of those can’t miss roads of the old southwest. The miles between Moab and Dewey in particular are especially scenic, closely following the Colorado River the entire way.
This is my third experience on this highway, and Rachael’s second. I rode it westbound thirty years ago, and Rachael and I rode it heading east together four years back. Today’s ride is an out and back, starting about ten miles east of Moab and turning back just shy of Dewey.
Riding 128 is an outstanding ride, but it presents its challenges. One issue is the nearly complete lack of services: once you leave Moab there’s almost nothing until you reach Fruita, almost 100 miles to the east. As far as I’m aware, the only accommodation other than campsites is at Red Cliffs Lodge, a beautifully situated and spendy destination resort that’s inconveniently placed only about 20 miles east of Moab. You can stay there for a price, but it’s still a long haul the next day.
The other challenge is safety. This isn’t a road that will appeal to everyone because there’s no shoulder, it has contorted stretches full of blind curves where it threads alongside the river between parallel towering, sheer red sandstone cliffs; and because it carries a fair amount of the type of traffic that you’d expect to see in such a place: campers, pickups, vehicles towing trailers loaded with ATV’s; and if you’re lucky, horse trains.
So be forewarned; but if this sounds like your kind of thing, go. It was just as thrilling a ride this time as before. And even on a Sunday in high season the traffic wasn’t so bad as to spoil the experience.
Starting off. We’ll see a lot of scenes like this, with soaring cliffs that make you feel small.
We got an early start, hoping to beat the afternoon winds and the worst of the weekend traffic. Along with this though we got several miles of very chilly riding in the shadows of the cliffs. I stopped here for this photo partly to warm up in the first patch of sun I’d seen for awhile.
For about five miles the valley widens considerably and there’s a bit of arable land. This is the stretch near Castle Valley, and where the Red Cliff Lodge is situated.
The formations ahead mark the eastern rim of Castle Valley. The La Sal Loop Road runs beneath them and up into the mountains before doubling back to Moab. A gorgeous loop, but quite long and very challenging as a day ride.
Nearing the end of a nearly eight mile straight is stretch, we approach the bend. The river takes a 90 degree bend a mile ahead, and then hairpins through a gap in the cliffs before emerging at Dewey on the other side.
Fisher Towers and the La Sals again. I’ve seen the Fisher Towers three times now, and they’re always in the shadows. If we have time before leaving town I’d like to go in there for a hike and see them from the sunlit side.
Ride stats today: 44 miles, 2,800’; for the tour: 3,618 miles, 156,000’; for the year: 55 riding days, 2,343 miles, 99,000’, and 3 flat tires
Today's ride: 44 miles (71 km) Total: 3,618 miles (5,823 km)
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Jen RahnToday's video was beautiful and meditative .. thank you! Soothing music, stunning scenery, relative absence of motor vehicles, and the little clouds! Reply to this comment 3 years ago
