Features
Part of Scenic drive gear under review: the good, the weak and the verdict
Choosing scenic drive gear stops for a longer, loaded trip
Where to break a long scenic drive when you are carrying camping gear: recreation areas with several sites, overlooks with facilities, and what to confirm.
What to take away
- A recreation area with several campgrounds is a better target than a single site.
- Overlooks are for stopping, not sleeping. Check whether camping is allowed before you plan on it.
- Distances on gravel spur roads are the part people underestimate.
- Confirm water, because many of the best stops have none.
When you are carrying camping equipment, the useful stops on a long drive are the ones that give you options. A single small campground is a gamble. A recreation area with several sites and a couple of overlooks is a plan.
Areas beat single sites
The BLM's page for the Canyon Rims Recreation Area in Utah covers 100,273 acres south of Moab. It lists two campgrounds, four overlooks, and the Trough Springs hiking trailhead. Hiking, backpacking, and sightseeing are the main activities.
It notes that the primary roads within the area were built by the agency, include several scenic turnouts, and are designated Utah scenic backways. It names Hatch Point Campground, Windwhistle Campground, and the Trough Springs Canyon trailhead.
Two campgrounds and four overlooks in one area means you can arrive without a reservation and still have somewhere to go. That is what makes it a good stop when you are carrying gear.
Overlooks are day stops
A viewpoint at the end of a spur is an excellent break and rarely a place to sleep. The BLM's page for the Bruneau Canyon Overlook in Idaho describes the only readily accessible point from which to view a canyon carved through basalt and rhyolite by the Bruneau River.
The opposite rim is 1,300 feet away and 800 feet from rim to riverbed, near the northern end of a 60 mile canyon, looking out towards the Bruneau and Jarbidge Rivers Wilderness.
Its directions are the part to read twice. They start on a highway, turn onto an unmarked road at a named cafe, and then run by odometer readings. That is a stop worth making and a poor place to be improvising at dusk.
Choosing stops when you are loaded
- Prefer areas with more than one campground within a short drive.
- Note the spur road length and surface for every overlook you plan to visit.
- Confirm whether water exists, and carry as if it does not.
- Check whether camping is permitted at the site, or only in the designated campground.
- Put the longest spur road in the middle of the day.
The confirmation habit
Call the field office named on the area page and ask three questions: are both campgrounds open, is there water, and what is the spur road doing. Three answers, one call, and the day stops depending on luck.
Add a fourth question if you are traveling in a group or with a trailer. Ask what the largest vehicle is that the site can take, and whether there is space to turn one around at the end of the spur. Reversing a loaded vehicle down nine miles of gravel is a memorable way to end an afternoon.
Where to go next
The equipment side of this, and which categories survive the conditions, is in what holds up on back roads. For stops chosen around history rather than facilities, see historic route stops worth adding.
