A Whirlwind Southern Utah Backcountry Loop: Volcanoes, Lava Tubes, and the Burr Trail

A whirlwind, off-the-beaten-path loop through southern Utah

Four days, one big loop out of Salt Lake City, and almost none of it on the routes most people take through southern Utah. This trip strung together a volcanic crater, a lava tube system you need a flashlight for, one of the gnarliest stretches of dirt road in the state, and a badlands detour that looks like it belongs on Mars, with a healthy dose of March frost thrown in for good measure.

Worth being upfront about one thing: we didn't camp off-grid on every night of this trip. Two of our three nights were at developed campgrounds, for good reasons we'll explain as we go. But we've woven in the off-grid spots we'd swap in if we did this loop again, right into the day-by-day breakdown below, rather than tacking them onto the end as an afterthought.

Day 1: Salt Lake City to Delta to Pahvant Butte to Fillmore lava tubes to Sand Hollow

The drive to Delta leaves I-15 at Santaquin and cuts west on US-6, past the old mining towns of the Tintic District and out across the open Sevier Desert. It's the least scenic stretch of the whole trip, which is exactly why the stop in Delta matters: it's the last real town before things get weird. We stopped at the Rancher Motel Cafe on Main Street, and it was delicious: a well-worn, seat-yourself diner with a loyal local following, big breakfast plates, and homemade pie. It's the kind of place where the food outshines the decor, and after a couple hours on the road, that's exactly what you want.

From Delta, we cut southwest to Pahvant Butte, a genuinely startling thing to find in the middle of the Sevier Desert. It's a tuff cone volcano that erupted underwater, into ancient Lake Bonneville, roughly 15,000 years ago, and a rough dirt track actually climbs right up into the crater itself. Locals call it Sugarloaf Mountain. At the rim you'll find the concrete pylons left over from a failed 1922 wind-generator project, an odd bit of engineering history sitting on top of a volcano. High clearance helps on the access road, especially the last stretch, and it's not a place to be if the road is wet. If you'd rather camp than just pass through, dispersed sites are scattered across the surrounding BLM desert — see our full write-up for access notes.

From there it was on to the Fillmore/Meadow lava tubes at Tabernacle Hill, a lava field riddled with collapsed tunnels and pits from a much more recent eruption (in geologic terms, around 10,000 to 24,000 years ago). This is where the flashlight warning earns its keep: several of the tubes are long, genuinely dark, and floored with jagged boulders. A headlamp is the difference between an easy scramble and stubbing your way through the dark. The access road off the Meadow exit (I-15 exit 158) is graded dirt with a rougher final stretch; most crossovers and trucks make it fine in dry weather.

By the time we finally got moving again it was a long haul down I-15 to Sand Hollow State Park for the night: red sand, black lava rock, and a reservoir that's genuinely striking even by headlamp light pulling in after dark. We picked a developed campground here mostly because we rolled in after dark and wanted a sure thing. If we did this again, Hurricane Cliffs just east of Hurricane on BLM land is a solid off-grid alternative along basically the same route: 56 numbered sites with fire rings, first-come-first-served, free, and it trades the reservoir view for red-rock scenery and sightlines toward Zion.

Day 2: Sand Hollow to Zion to Red Canyon to past Bryce to Big Horn Canyon to the Hogback to Deer Creek Campground

This was the big scenery day. We ran up through Zion without stopping to hike, just soaking in the canyon on the drive-through, then climbed up onto Highway 12 through Red Canyon, with its close-set red-rock hoodoos right along the road, and past the entrance to Bryce Canyon without turning in, saving that one for another trip.

From there, Highway 12 threads along the edge of Grand Staircase-Escalante, passing near Big Horn Canyon, a colorful, lesser-known slot canyon system cut into Navajo sandstone off Harris Wash. It's one of those places overshadowed by Zebra and Peekaboo slots nearby, but worth knowing about if you have time to hike it.

Then came the Hogback, a roughly four-mile stretch of Highway 12 that runs along the knife-edge crest of a ridge with drop-offs on both sides and essentially no shoulder. It's a genuinely dramatic bit of road engineering, with Calf Creek visible hundreds of feet below on one side. Reviews of it run the gamut from terrifying to not that bad if you just drive the speed limit, and honestly both are true depending on the day and the wind.

We finished the day by turning onto Burr Trail Road out of Boulder and pulling into Deer Creek Campground seven miles in, a small, seven-site BLM campground tucked in a shrub-and-cottonwood canyon along the creek at 5,800 feet, inside Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. This was our one genuinely off-grid night, and a great one: $10, quiet, and about as scenic as a campground gets. Since we went in March, the creek-side setting meant a heavy frost blanketed everything by morning, tents, gear, the whole campground turned white overnight. Beautiful, but pack for real cold if you're doing this trip in shoulder season. If Deer Creek is full, dispersed camping is also allowed on the surrounding BLM land in Grand Staircase-Escalante.

Day 3: The Burr Trail, the switchbacks, Capitol Reef's painted hills, and on to Moab

This was the adventure day. The upper Burr Trail out of Boulder is mostly paved and gorgeous: red rock narrows, Long Canyon, the Circle Cliffs, but the real event is the Burr Trail switchbacks, where the road drops about 800 feet in roughly half a mile as it descends the Waterpocket Fold inside Capitol Reef National Park. It's unpaved, narrow, and steep, with sharp hairpin turns and essentially no guardrails.

Worth repeating clearly, since it matters: this is not a road for a long-wheelbase van or anything towing a trailer. The Park Service and every guide to the trail say the same thing: RVs and trailers aren't recommended, and the switchbacks themselves are simply too tight and steep for long rigs to negotiate the turns. Standard SUVs, trucks, and shorter vans handle it fine in dry weather; anything long or towed should take the paved Notom-Bullfrog road around instead.

From the bottom of the switchbacks we continued through the southern end of Capitol Reef, and out toward Caineville the highway runs right past the Bentonite Hills, sometimes called the Painted or Rainbow Hills, banded in brownish-red, gray-green, blue, and purple clay that genuinely resembles Arizona's Painted Desert. They're one of the most photogenic, least-crowded stops on this entire route and easy to miss if you're not watching for them along Highway 24.

From there it was Hanksville, then north to catch I-70 through Green River, and finally south into Moab for the night. We picked a developed campground here on purpose: a few people in the group wanted a hot shower and real hookups after two nights of dry camping, and that's a completely reasonable call partway through a trip like this. If you'd rather keep it off-grid, Mineral Point Road, past Horsethief Campground off Highway 313, or Yellow Circle Road about 11 miles south of Moab off Highway 191, both put you close to town without paying for hookups you might not need for one night.

Day 4: Moab to Buckhorn Wash to Price to Helper to Soldier Summit to home

The last morning took us north out of Moab and through Buckhorn Wash in the San Rafael Swell, genuinely one of the best boondocking regions in the state, with miles of canyon road lined by sandstone cliffs, ancient pictographs at the Buckhorn Panel, and dozens of established dispersed sites along the nine-mile drive. It's a fantastic overnight base if you have the time to spend a night there instead of just driving through, with 26-plus individual dispersed and fee sites strung along the canyon, plus the historic Swinging Bridge campground at the south end. From there it was Price, Helper, and the climb over Soldier Summit back onto US-6, and finally home to Salt Lake City.

The route, stop by stop

Map points are approximate waypoints meant to show the shape of the route, not exact trailhead or campsite pins. Use the BLM/NPS links throughout this article for precise access directions.

A few practical notes

• Bring a real flashlight or headlamp for the lava tubes. Cell phone lights work in a pinch, but several sections are genuinely dark with jagged, uneven footing.
• Don't take a long-wheelbase van, motorhome, or anything towing a trailer on the Burr Trail switchbacks. Take the paved Notom-Bullfrog road around instead if your rig is long.
• March means frost, especially near water. Deer Creek Campground sits right along a creek at nearly 6,000 feet; expect a hard frost overnight in early spring, even if the days are warm.
• Fill up on gas before Boulder. There's a long stretch through the Burr Trail and Capitol Reef's south district with no services.
• The Hogback has no guardrails and limited pullouts. Keep your eyes on the road; save the photos for the marked viewpoints.

If you're setting up a rig to run comfortably through off-grid nights like Deer Creek or Buckhorn Wash, fridge, lights, maybe a furnace on a frosty March morning, that's exactly the kind of trip our RV and van power systems are built around.

For more free and cheap camping picks near this route, check out our write-ups on Pahvant Butte, Notom-Bullfrog Road, Factory Butte, and La Sal Loop Road, or browse the full list of Utah camping spots.