Colorado River Trail | Utah

The trail begins at the Lions Park Trail Hub which provides ample parking on both sides of Utah State Route 128,Upper Colorado River Scenic Byway The Trail Hub provides restroom facilities, an electric vehicle charging station and shaded community pavilions. The Hub provides access to not only the Colorado River Trail, but also connectivity to additional paved paths including access north to Moab City, the Colorado River pedestrian bridge, Arches National Park, and the ten mile long Moab Canyon path. An important feature of this trail is its accessibility to non-motorized use, including walkers, dog walkers, bikers, rollerbladers, wheelchairs or simply families with strollers. The trail parallels the Colorado River for its entire length, ands closely parallels the roadway. Where necessary, the trail is over the river bank to accommodate the narrowness of the river canyon. Approximately 0.7 miles from the Hub, the trail leaves the roadway for approximately 0.4 miles and enters a broad riparian area before reaching the Goose Island Campground at approximately 1.1miles. Shortly after leaving the campground (which contains restroom facilities), the trail rejoins the side of the roadway until the 2.3mile mark. At this point, construction is ongoing to connect the last 0.7 mile of the trail where it terminates at the Grandstaff and Porcupine Rim trailheads and the Grandstaff Campground. An important motivation for construction of the trail was to eliminate the hazards faced by mountain billers exiting the world renown Porcupine Rim Trail who needed to use the narrow, heavily used roadway to return to Moab. The Porcupine Rim Trail now has a culvert that serves as an underpass under the roadway connecting to the Colorado River Path, providing a safe access to the Trail Hub and Moab City. The entire length of the trail provides outstanding scenery in a deep canyon of the Colorado River. The river flows along the trail. There are uninterrupted views of Arches National Park to the north, and large sandstone walls to the south. The trail sees a wide variety of activity, including bikes, hikers, rollerbladers, dog walkers and families with strollers. Estimated current use is approximately 50,000 people annually, with the majority of use occurring in Spring and Fall. The completion of trail gap project was the first recipient of funding announced recently by Utah Governor Cox under the Utah Trail Network program administered by Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT).