Picture of a Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep

Updated 02/11/23 7:04 PM

Canyonlands - Shafer Trail

Canyonlands National Park's Shafer Trail is one of the most scenic back country drives you can take in any national park. It truly is a 10 for scenic beauty

Utah

2003

A Spectacular Back-Country Drive

In the Islands in the Sky district, the 18-mile long Shafer Trail is one of the more spectacular back country roads anywhere. It's a 10 on a scale of 10 in terms of scenery. It is a dirt road and fairly well maintained. Most of the drive is beautiful and easy and can be done in a stock SUV but four-wheel-drive is recommended for the last part of the drive which is a trip up a steep, narrow switchback and not for the faint of heart.

The switchback caused the trail to be rated a 5 out of 10 in one of my books on back country drives. Without them the trail, in good, dry conditions, would be rated about a 2 and could be driven in any type of car.

You approach the trail by taking highway 279 (Potash Road) out of Moab. About 16 miles out you will hit the dirt and you now will be on the Shafer Trail (or Shafer Canyon Road). Alternatively you could drive into Canyonlands and start with the switchbacks and take the Shafer Trail down the mountain and back to Moab.

At the end of Potash Road is the Potash plant and the start of the dirt road. We found the road to be in good shape - some other accounts complained that it was in poor condition - which made it all the more challenging and the switchbacks definitely dangerous. The shape of the road is dependant on recent weather conditions and how recently the park service was out there with a grader - which in the current economic climate isn’t as often as they or we would like them to be.

Continuing down the road keep your eyes peeled for the desert bighorn sheep that make the cliffs home. The photo gallery has some pictures of the ones that we saw.

The scenery is just so marvelous that it is hard not to keep stopping to take photos of the red rock formations and gorgeous views of the Colorado River meandering alongside of the road. At one point you’re driving along taking in the sights and as you come around the side of the mountain you realize that you are on the edge of a sheer cliff with about a 100 foot or more drop off above the river. That little ‘awakener’ tells you to stay focused at all times.

That passed quickly and the road traveled thru fairly flat and wide expanses of terrain that made stopping easy. You’ll want to walk around, climb on the red rock formations and walk over to the edge of the cliff to look down on the Colorado.

A famous stop along the way is the Thelma and Louise Point. This is where they filmed the famous final scene in "Thelma & Louise" when they launched their car off the edge and into the canyon (and presumably into eternity). There’s a picture I took in the photo gallery that the link to ‘Thelma and Lousie Point’ below shows as the point. I believe the point is actually around the bend to the right. There it opens up to a large flat expanse next to the river. Given that there were dozens of police cars lined up, and the ladies took off with a running start, the picture I have, and on the Thelma & Louise linked website, doesn’t have the room for that so I am pretty sure it is around the bend. There is no ‘historic’ marker so I have to go with common sense.

When you reach the base of the switchbacks you can opt to turn around and retrace your route in and enjoy the beauty of the road all over again. Or you can drive up. As you look up you really can’t tell exactly where the road is. There is kind of a long lead in to where it starts to climb and switches back. It really is a marvel cut into the side of the sandstone cliff.

While I was driving up the switchbacks I could see a car in the distance approaching the switchbacks. The next time I looked that way I noticed that he had turned around and was going back the way he came. I guess he noticed our two car caravan driving up the side of a cliff and decided that it wasn’t for him.

The switchback, as is the case with these kinds of roads (of which there are many out west) is narrow, dirt and the drop offs are fatal. We did this drive in good weather in all-wheel drive SUVs. This is not a drive to be attempted if it is not dry. This is true for all back country (dirt road) drives. These kinds of roads can be impassable when wet. It is always recommended to speak to the park rangers before driving into the back country or on dirt roads in and around national parks. The weather may be beautiful and sunny today but it may have rained before you arrived and the road may be in poor shape - which can make the trip very unpleasant or expensive should you get stuck and need to be towed out. I recall reading that a tow could cost $1,500 (depending on where you are stuck). Basically you will be at the mercy of the tow truck operator and will have to pay whatever it takes to get your (probably rental) car out of there.

If you take the drive up the switchbacks remember uphill traffic has the right of way. The reason is because it is easier to back up a steep trail, as far as seeing the road is concerned, then down one. This is good to know because the switchbacks are narrow with room for passing only at some of the hairpin turns. Backing up switchbacks will not be fun. In fact it can be extremely dangerous. When I was driving up I had this fear that someone would be coming down and the thought of that was rather unsettling. Fortunately driving up the road required all of my concentration and I didn’t have time to dwell on the prospect of encountering another vehicle coming down. More fortunately no vehicle did come down!

For this reason I would recommend starting the trip from Potash Road and finishing with the switchbacks. Once we got to the top we stopped, breathed a sigh of relief, and took lots of beautiful pictures looking down at the trail, the switchbacks we just came up, and back up the canyon.

In the photo gallery are pictures taken by my friend, Peter, who took his Buick down the trail. He made it about halfway before deciding that the road was too narrow and rutted to the point that he couldn’t straddle the deep ruts. With 2-ply tires and only a doughnut for a spare it became apparent that he couldn’t safely go any further. He then had to back up the trail which he could barely see over the trunk. He had to stop and get out to look for where the ruts were and remember that when he got back in to continue backing up. All the while doing this possibly with the thought in your mind that if a wheel goes off the road the car could fall hundreds of feet. Eventually he got to a wide enough switchback turn where he could do a 10-point turn and drive back up the road a bit the wiser for it.

Once you are at the top of the switchbacks it’s a short drive back to the paved road in the park and you’ll be right at the visitor center. Across from it is the Shafer Canyon Overlook. There you can take some more pictures of the stunning scenery and the top of the Shafer Trail road as it follows along a shelf over to the start of the switchbacks down. The photo of that shelf road, and the sheer cliff beneath it, is one of my favorites.

The link to the dangerous roads website below has a video taken with a dash-cam driving down the trail. It gives you an excellent view of the road, the narrowness of it for most of it, the steep, hairpin turn switchbacks and the breathtakingly beautiful scenery. Luckily for the driver all he encountered traveling up were bicyclists. When you are driving it is difficult to enjoy the scenery because you are too busy concentrating on not making any mistake the consequences of which you don’t want to think about. Nevertheless, whether or not you have any thoughts about driving the Shafer Trail and the switchbacks, and especially if you do, I would highly recommend watching the video because there are few more interesting, exciting and spectacularly scenic roads to be driven anywhere.

Shafer Trail Photo Gallery

Other Resources

Shafer Trail

Shafer Trail - Dangerous Roads+

Thelma and Louise Point

Picture showing a view of the Shafer Trail in Canyonlands National Park

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