4 Wheeling in Canyonlands National Park
Driving the White Rim Road in Canyonlands National Park has been on my bucket list since I first saw the road from high atop the plateau back in 2015. We had plans to spend time in Northern California and Oregon in September 2024 but there were wildfires so we ended up in Utah where there were no fires. When we were trying to figure out alternative options for our trip, I was able to snag a White Rim permit so we built a trip around it!
The White Rim Road is a 100-mile four-wheel drive road in Canyonlands National Park. In the picture above you will notice a dirt road in the middle of the picture that outlines the canyon – that’s the White Rim Road. And now you probably understand why I wanted to get down there. I will say, the road looks easier from far away. Lol. It’s a dirt road but very slow going. Like way slower than I was expecting.
There are campsites along the trail and we were able to reserve one halfway through. It seemed like the perfect plan. Drive 45 miles, camp, drive 55 miles. We made the mistake of scouting the start of the trail the day before at which point I started questioning my life choices. The start of the trail is high atop a plateau but you can’t see past this corner without driving it. After driving this I can tell you the road is actually pretty wide in this section and there are large areas to pass. It’s not as sketchy as it looks.
Day of! Starting our adventure by airing down the tires.
This view is much better than the one we had the day before. The road doesn’t look as stetchy. Let’s do this!
At the start of the Shafrer switchbacks. There’s no turning back now.
The layers. <3
Looking back at what we just drove down. So cool.
Our plan was to drive the entire 100 miles but we ended up only driving the first 20. In Moab, we stayed at a campground and the guy camping next to us had a very decked out overloading vehicle. We were talking to him about his plans in Moab and if he’s driven the White Rim. He has and said he preferred taking the Shafer Switchbacks to Potash and back to Moab. I was unfamiliar with Potash but did a little research that night to see what he was talking about.
Back to the White Rim. It ended up being a lot slower of a drive than we expected. We rarely exceeded 10 MPH for 20 miles. The trail wasn’t hard but there is exposure in some areas. There are a few obstacles farther into the trail but we didn’t make it that far so I can’t comment on them. It was in the 90s when we were in Moab. The White Rim doesn’t have any shade and there wasn’t much of a breeze. Being outside of our vehicle was not enjoyable. And sunset was at 8pm so we had a long, hot day ahead of us. We weren’t having as exciting of a time as we were expecting so we decided to turn around and take Potash to Moab.
There are a few fun stops on the way to Moab once you hit the paved road. First are dinosaur tracks. I’m not a fan of rock scrambles so I sat this one out. The Husband found the tracks and you can barely see him to the right of the rock. The story is the flat rock under the arrow was on top of the mountain and rolled off at some point. It’s so perfectly placed, which is crazy.
Farther down the road are petroglyphs. They’re right on the side of the road and there is parking.
We forgot to visit the Shafer Overlook when we were in the park so we went back the next day to snag this picture and see the Shafer switchbacks from above. It was fun to chat with everyone looking at all the cars going up/down and hear their commentary.
We’d love to finish the White Rim one day when it’s cooler. Knowing how slow going the road is, I might even break it into three days versus two. Overall, we had a great day. It was so fun to start at the top of the plateau and drive our way through all the layers all the way down to the Colorado River!
