What is the Moki (pronounced Mokee) Dugway you ask? It is a section of Highway 261 in Utah that is carved along the edge of Cedar Mesa. The lower portion of Highway 261 travels through the Valley of the Gods, then turns into a 3 mile dirt gravel switchback road (11% grade) that climbs 1200 feet before leveling out at the top and continuing north.
In planning our day trip from Durango, the big decision was whether we should travel UP or DOWN the Moki Dugway. We wanted to also visit Natural Bridges National Monument along the route so we decided to travel Highway 261 through the Valley of the Gods, drive up the Moki Dugway, continue north on Highway 261 to Natural Bridges, and then Highway 191 back to Durango.
There is a lot of hype about the Moki Dugway being the "scariest" road in the US to drive on. It was a little nerve wracking, but a lot of fun. There are no guard rails along the edge of the road and at points the road is only wide enough for one car to pass through. Since we were driving up the Moki Dugway, we had to always look back to see the beautiful scenery. Probably would have been better to drive down so the scenery would always have been in front of us. It would have been fun to drive both ways but hubs said "one way was enough". Was it scary? Not really, what can happen when you are only going 5mph? The gravel road caused a bumpy ride, but so worth it as the views from the top were amazing!
