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John Cletheroe's
USA and Canada Holiday Hints |
This scenic backway, winding through the Dixie National Forest off of Utah Highway 12 between Boulder and Escalante, is undoubtedly the most terrifying road I've personally driven. We've yet to drive the central Colorado roads, but over the past 4 years have driven just about every possible road from the Sierras to the western Rockies, and nothing has come close to this backway for sheer exhilaration.
Although Hell's Backbone is a gravel road and suggested for 4WD/high clearance, it's technically rated for passenger cars and appears to be well maintained, as of 2004 when we last drove it (in a 4WD Ford Explorer rental - I was taking no chances). It switchbacks up one mountain and down another, with a twelve mile stretch in the middle that runs across a mountain ridge with steep dropoffs on both sides. The road is generally wide enough for one car comfortably - two cars approaching each other have to take extreme care. There are no shoulders or guardrails at any point on the 30 mile-plus drive, and it takes about two and a half hours to complete safely and enjoyably. At one point it crosses a tiny, single-lane bridge (the Hell's Backbone Bridge) that spans an incredibly deep gorge through Box and Death Hollow Canyons. A very worthwhile drive!
I've attached a link that may help: Utah Canyons - Hell's Backbone Road (verified Feb-06)
This road is definitely off the beaten path so it's easy to understand how it could be missed. I stumbled across a personal blog that included a detailed description of Hell's Backbone while doing some internet research prior to a Grand Circle vacation back in '04. The impetus to add it to our vacation plans came from this personal trip diary. It seemed a natural side-trip as we drove Utah Highway 12 between Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef national parks. In fact, it was the sole reason we rented a 4WD SUV rather than a passenger vehicle, although in retrospect we would have probably done just fine in a Ford Taurus. The 4WD certainly gave me some confidence, though, as we switchbacked miles and miles of narrow gravel road with heart-stopping, 2000-foot drop-offs just a few unprotected feet away!
For location on a map, the proper name for Hell's Backbone is Utah FH (Forest Highway) 153. It's not identified in any atlas that I've run across, but can be found on a common fold-out detail map of Utah purchased locally. My impression is that very few people know of this fantastic road - I've yet to run across anyone in the two years since our trip that has ever heard of it. The day we drove the Backbone, in May of '04, we saw four other vehicles the entire trip, and two of these were Forest Service trucks.
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Most recently modified 6-Feb-06