If you are twelve miles north of the Arches entrance on Hwy 191 (about fifteen miles north of Moab), there’s a road to the east called Klondike Bluffs Road. Unlike the past, the road now has a good sign in both directions.
Be sure not to mix this up with the North Klondike area further north along Hwy 191!
Klondike Bluffs road is a bumpy road, and if it’s raining while you don’t have four wheel drive / all wheel drive, I wouldn’t go up there at all. In fact, if you don’t want your car to get dusty, and you don’t want your suspension to be beat up a little, don’t go down this road.
If you have a low clearance vehicle, like a regular sedan / car, be very careful, it’s easy to bottom out in places. Even when the mud in the road is dry, don’t drive in the ruts. I drove up here OK in my minivan, I’m embarrassed to admit I bottomed out in one place on the way up, with no damage thankfully. In one other place I was scraping along some mud in the road that was dried. If you’re in a car grab a spot as soon as you can along the road.
Don’t Go Here in Rain Without 4WD
But sure to check the weather before you camp in this area, because you might drive in while it’s just fine out, only to get rained on. If you don’t have the above-mentioned four wheel drive, you may not be able to get out.
In fact, if it’s rained recently, there are a couple challenging spots in the road, primarily at the entrance you’ll find a mud pit about 30 feet long. In that one, with some momentum, most cars can get through it. After that there’s only a couple extra-muddy spots along the way.
If you are self contained and willing to drive on a bit of bumpy dirt roads (don’t try this in the rain unless you have 4WD!), you can head north up to Klondike Bluffs area which is twelve miles north of the Arches entrance road intersection with Hwy 191. Once you turn right onto the main dirt road, there are plenty of dispersed camping areas to park in and spend the night.
Now let’s assume you are not self-contained. This means you don’t happen to have a bathroom with you in your vehicle, like many travelers not blessed with RV* ownership, or other methods of portable toiletry. You need a campground with a bathroom.
Before you get the idea that you’ll just find some spot in the middle of nowhere and dig a hole to go to the bathroom, this is specially banned in most areas around Moab. There’s a good BLM map that shows the various camping restrictions around Moab — map on blm.gov (or use this backup copy if that goes away).
Note that areas along Klondike Bluffs Road (road 142) are actually Utah State Trust Lands. These rules (backup PDF) apply there for disposing of waste, the following is prohibited:
- leaving or disposing of human or animal fecal matter unless:
(a) the fecal matter is buried at least 8 inches deep and at least 200 feet from any campsite or water source; and
(b) all toilet paper and hygiene products are removed from trust lands;
So if you are camping here as a regular tent camper, bring your shovel! Or find another place to camp, there’s plenty of campgrounds around.
I’ll finish off this article with more details soon.
* RV means Recreational Vehicle, these are the big rolling homes on wheels many people travel in.