La Sal Loop Scenic Drive is a beautiful alpine drive east of Moab. Even if you frequent Moab and the Arches National Park area, La Sal Loop Drive is a unique blend of high mountains and Utah red rock mesas.
Begin at Lion’s Park Moab
La Sal Loop Scenic Drive starts right in Moab where the highway crosses the Colorado River. There is a large footbridge and Lions Park right at the turnoff for Route-128. We like to stop and walk across the bridge at the beginning of this drive. Then follow that road east on the south side of the river. It’s a gorgeous ride, with the river sprawled out on the left, and red cliffs rising out of the willows. This part of the drive was amazing.
Castle Valley
After a few miles, make a right onto La Sal Loop (there is a brown sign). This road takes you through a beautiful valley just east behind the hills of Moab. The valley is called Castle Valley, and it is a pretty little area that is very sparsely populated.
The road winds through the valley and then starts to climb up the mountain. Make sure you turn right on the loop and follow the signs. The left fork sign says you’ll end up in Colorado! And be prepared for a steep climb. There are switchbacks as you climb up into the mountains.
La Sal Mountains
The La Sal Mountains are beautiful, and the road is narrow and twisty. When we drove through this area during Spring, the mountains were covered with snow. There is a beautiful overlook when you get to the top of the climb where you can look back over the desert areas. Make sure to pull out and take some pictures. The elevation is 8330 feet at the overlook!
There are a lot of side roads to small mountain lakes, but all of the roads were closed due to snow in early April. If you visit in the summer or fall, make sure to drive out to Warner Lake or Oowah Lake. Both have campgrounds and beautiful areas to explore. We hope to go back and visit.
As you come around to the other side, you will be able to see far out into Canyonlands and the red rock views are beautiful. We drove in the late afternoon, so we were looking right into the sun for these views, so it was tricky to get a good picture. The La Sal Loop Scenic Drive really is very scenic with great vistas to enjoy.
End at Ken’s Lake
We came out near Ken’s Lake just south of Moab. This allowed us to do Faux Falls near Ken’s Lake. You can obviously drive from this side, too. We were glad we drove the way that we did because the drop down to Ken’s Lake wasn’t as pretty as the other side, so going through Castle Valley first and ending at Ken’s Lake was the route we would suggest.
The La Sal Loop Scenic Drive is 63 miles round-trip, so make sure to have everything you need because there aren’t any services other than a few pit toilets. We loved the views on this drive and it was a great way to rest our tired hiking feet. Check out all of our ideas of Things to do in Moab on this post.
