Heading west out of Glenwood Springs towards Grand Junction, CO, you can definitely see and feel the landscape transform from mountains to desert. Make sure you fill your tank near Fruita as things are about to get desolate. We exited I-70 near Cisco, which is a very quiet exit with no services to speak of. No services, but this road is incredibly fun to drive. Recently resurfaced, the road twists and turns and dips and rises rhythmically as you cross the plateaus and dodge the tumbleweed before it joins up with the river. It’s worth noting the intense black color of the road is beautifully contrasted against the multitude of reds surrounding it. The plan was to take County Road 128 and look for some camp spots along the Colorado River that would be close by to our main destination, Onion Creek Road. In the spring, the river is picking up its pace and flows are higher as snow starts to melt up river. You’d probably be able to find some camp spots in the 3 or 4 public campgrounds next to the river earlier in the week this time of year, but we were rolling in on a Thursday and the campgrounds were jammin’. We drove through them all and not a single spot to be found. Looked like really fun time, though!
Country Road 128 runs parallel to the Colorado River east of Moab, Utah.
As you turn onto Onion Creek Road off of CR128, you have a perfect view of the Fisher Towers, which also has a very nice, but very small campground and would be an incredible place to set up camp for a few days. The views from here are other-worldly. Continuing up the road, there is one more campground before entering the canyon. Camping is no longer allowed in the canyon as flash floods and erosion are a concern. And this point quickly becomes very understandable as you arrive at your first creek crossing. Looking at a satellite image, you can see that the creek crosses the road a bunch of times between the Lower Onion Creek campground and the top of the canyon. We counted 28 times. Maybe 29. They are super mellow as creek crossings go. Very shallow, but super fun.
We had two main missions for this trip: test out the new suspension and off-road upgrades I had recently made to my Tundra and test out a couple of lenses for astrophotography. I had scoured Utah maps for weeks and the info I was able to dig up made Onion Creek Road an ideal candidate for both of these missions. In April, the galactic center of the Milky Way doesn’t show its pretty face until about 3am, so we were planning on being up most of the night anyway. We drove up the canyon a few miles and found a spot that we thought would work perfectly for some astro shots, so we did some scouting and then took a little nap as we waited for the stars to do their thing.
Nautical twilight is my absolute favorite time to photograph landscapes.
Lighting up the canyon walls and Onion Creek with some new headlights on the Tundra.
The canyon was perfectly quiet at night. That’s the benefit of no camping in the canyon. Perfectly dark skies and no one around is one of my favorite recipes. We had a waxing crescent moon that night, so in the early stages of the night, we had a lot of fun playing with the moonlight bouncing off of the canyon walls and glistening off of the creek. And then later, as the moon set, the galactic center of the Milky Way rose. This is one thing that I really enjoy about early season astrophotography is that you basically get a twofer, a BOGO of night sky dishes to partake in. And then Milky Way time turns into nautical twilight pretty quickly and before you know it, there’s the sun. We’ll nap at 9am when the light is hideous.
Matt hanging out in the back of the Tundra at one of our astrophotography spots on Onion Creek Road near Moab, Utah.
In April, the Galactic Center of the Milky Way rises pretty late in the night, but still presents some great opportunities for astrophotography- this capture is about 3am on Onion Creek Road.
The next morning, we found a mother load of BLM campspots at the top of the canyon. We were basically nestled on the edge of a massive wall that overlooked the canyon to the west and a great valley to the south. This high Fisher valley is also a great connector to other iconic Utah trails like Rose Garden and Kokopelli. We explored both of these trails briefly, but wanted to concentrate our efforts on Onion Creek Road, which was definitely worth our time. The road proved to be just a pure joy to drive. Not very technical, but enough creek crossings and dips and climbs to keep you on your toes. We found dozens of spots worth pulling over and exploring. It definitely takes a lot of discipline to pull over and get the camera out at some points because the road is so damn fun you just want to keep driving.
This run could easily be done in a few hours if you’re camped nearby or coming out of Moab. It COULD be done in a very short amount of time, but we dedicated a couple of days to it because we wanted to explore the canyon in all of the different lighting conditions. We wanted two nights of exploring the stars and we wanted multiple sunsets and sunrises. We found all of these times to offer incredible photographic opportunities and the middle of the day when the light is the least desirable is when the canyon is the busiest with other explorers. So that was nap time.
Sunset over Onion Creek on Onion Creek Road near Moab, Utah.
The landscape changes and transforms with every twist and turn. There are some incredible spots to get out and hike up the creek to find new features not visible from the road. Onion Creek Road is easily accessible by any vehicle with decent clearance and all wheel drive. The other trails in the area accessible from the high valley will definitely require a more capable vehicle or side by side, but we found Onion Creek to be the perfect combination of drop-dead gorgeous and super fun. We’ve got our future camp spots scouted out and logged for next year. Take your time and enjoy yourself and this road won’t disappoint.
