The back road Rockville
The road that starts where the bridge ends
The Smithsonian Butte back country byway.
Nine and a quarter miles of BLM road from the highway at Rockville, over the mesa and down to Apple Valley, with the whole Zion front range behind you the entire climb. No fee, no gate and no traffic, and one steep rutted mile that decides whether your vehicle should be on it.
By Scott Buehler, Rockville local
Updated September 2026
The short answer
The Smithsonian Butte National Back Country Byway is a nine and a quarter mile BLM dirt road that climbs south out of the Rockville bridge area, up over the mesa, and down to State Route 59 near Apple Valley, with the whole Zion front range standing behind you the entire climb. Can you drive it? Most of it, yes, if the ground is dry and you have some clearance, but not in a low car and not in a storm. It is unpaved the whole way, washboarded in stretches, and the surface turns to slick clay the moment it rains, so high clearance is the honest recommendation and wet weather is a flat no. The one genuinely hard mile is the climb where the byway leaves Grafton Road and pulls up onto the mesa; come at it from the Apple Valley end and the grade is far gentler. There is no fee and no gate, and nothing up there at all, no water, no fuel and no signal, so carry what you need and tell somebody your plan before you leave the pavement.
Start here
Nine and a quarter miles from the highway to the highway.
Two things make this road worth planning around, and they pull in opposite directions. One is the reason to go; the other is the reason to think first. Take them in that order.
The reason to drive it is what happens behind you. As the road gains the mesa the whole Zion front range opens up in the mirror, the Eagle Crags on one side and the mouth of the canyon on the other, and Smithsonian Butte itself stands off to the south. There is no fee, no gate and no visitor center, and on a weekday you may not pass another vehicle.
The reason to think about it first is the climb. The stretch that leaves Grafton Road and goes up onto the mesa is steep, rutted and loose, and the BLM says without hedging that it is not recommended for low clearance vehicles, motorhomes or anything towing. Coming the other way, from Apple Valley, the road is far gentler and most vehicles handle it comfortably in dry weather.
Getting the turns right
One bridge, then three different roads.
Everything on the south side of the river starts at the same place, and this is where visitors get it wrong, so it is worth being precise about it.
Turn south off State Route 9 onto Bridge Road at the east end of Rockville and cross the truss bridge. About a third of a mile beyond it the road forks. Bearing right puts you on Grafton Road, which runs west, stays graded and flat, and ends at the ghost town in under three miles. That is the easy one and an ordinary car does it.
The byway leaves Grafton Road and turns uphill. That is the climb, and it is the reason this route is signed as a back country byway rather than a scenic drive. Once you are on the mesa the road runs south and east across open country, past the Wire Mesa trailhead, and drops eventually to State Route 59 a couple of miles outside Apple Valley.
The third road out of that first fork is Eagle Crags Road, which carries straight on south for about two miles to the trailhead for the Eagle Crags and the Canaan Mountain Wilderness. It is ungraded near the end and a low car will scrape. That is a walking destination rather than a driving one, and it is covered further down this page.
Do not drive this on a wet forecast. The surface here turns greasy fast and dries slowly, the climb has no room to turn around on, and recovery from the mesa is expensive and slow. A storm twenty miles away over the high country is enough. If you are unsure, drive to Grafton instead and save the byway for a settled week, or come at it from the Apple Valley end, which is the forgiving direction.
What is on the road
Wire Mesa, and the mesa nobody stops talking about.
The Wire Mesa trailhead sits on the byway and is the reason a good many of the vehicles you meet up here have bikes on the back. The loop runs roughly seven miles around the rim of a small mesa with the Zion cliffs on the skyline, and it is the flowing, rolling counterpart to the harder slickrock nearby: less climbing, more movement, with signed splits along the way where the harder option is genuinely harder. From the Apple Valley end the drive to the trailhead is manageable for most vehicles when it is dry.
The other name people arrive with is Gooseberry Mesa, and it is worth being straight about where it belongs. Gooseberry is one of the great slickrock rides anywhere, and one of its two access roads does run off this byway. But the mesa sits above Hurricane, its main way in leaves State Route 59 on that side, and the riding there is covered properly in the Hurricane riding guide. Rockville is a door to it, not the owner of it.
Between the two mesas and the byway itself, this is dispersed country: BLM ground with no facilities, no water and no trash cans. Camping rules differ by parcel and by season, and the agency managing a given spot is the only reliable authority on whether you can sleep there. Check before, not after.
The walk on this side of the river
Eagle Crags and the wilderness behind them.
If the byway is the drive on the south bank, Eagle Crags is the walk, and it is Rockville's own hike in a way that nothing in Zion Canyon can be.
The trailhead is about two miles south of the bridge, off the straight fork of Bridge Road, and the last part of that access road is ungraded enough that clearance is a real advantage. From the trailhead lot the trail climbs about a thousand feet over roughly two and three quarter miles to the base of the crags, a row of sandstone spires standing on the northern edge of the Canaan Mountain Wilderness. Congress designated that wilderness in March 2009 and it runs to about 44,500 acres, pressed up against the southwestern flank of the national park.
The view is the payoff and it is one almost no visitor to Zion ever gets: the mouth of Zion Canyon opening to the north, Parunuweap Canyon cutting east, and the whole Virgin corridor laid out beneath. Allow three to four hours for the round trip. There is no permit, no fee and no water, and very little shade, so in summer this is a walk you start at first light or not at all.
Note what the trail is not. It does not go into the park, it does not connect to anything in Zion Canyon, and it does not lead to the top of the crags themselves, which are a climbing objective rather than a hiking one. It is a there and back to a viewpoint, and that is plenty.
You can stand below the Eagle Crags on a Saturday in April and watch the traffic backed up for the south entrance five miles away, with nobody within a mile of you.
Scott Buehler
Moving Utah About Scott
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The byway, answered.
Nine and a quarter miles, running between State Route 9 at Rockville and State Route 59 near Apple Valley. Most people take the better part of an hour end to end, because the views back toward Zion are the point and you will stop for them. It is managed by the Bureau of Land Management and there is no fee, no gate and no facility of any kind on it.
Not the whole thing, comfortably. The climb from Grafton Road up onto the mesa is steep, rutted and loose, and the BLM specifically advises against low clearance vehicles, motorhomes and anything towing on that stretch. From the Apple Valley end on State Route 59 the road is much gentler as far as the Wire Mesa trailhead and most vehicles manage it when dry. In wet weather the whole route turns to slick clay and should be avoided entirely.
They share the first third of a mile past the Rockville bridge and then split. Bearing right keeps you on Grafton Road, which stays graded and flat and reaches the ghost town in under three miles; ordinary cars do that trip all season in dry weather. The byway turns uphill instead and climbs onto the mesa, which is a considerably harder road. People routinely set out for one and end up on the other, so watch the signs at the fork.
From Rockville out to SR-59 puts the steep rutted mile at the start while your attention is fresh, and it finishes with the long open run across the top.
One steep, rutted mile climbing the mesa. The rest is straightforward graded road in dry conditions, and the whole route is a bad idea when it is wet.
One of its two access roads runs off this byway, yes, and riders do come at it from this side. But Gooseberry Mesa sits above Hurricane and its main approach leaves State Route 59 on that side of the country, so the mesa and its trails belong to the Hurricane guide rather than to Rockville. What Rockville genuinely owns on this road is Wire Mesa, which is smaller, flowier and much less crowded.
Moderate, and mostly a matter of heat rather than terrain. It climbs about a thousand feet over roughly two and three quarter miles each way to the base of the crags, on a route that is easy to follow, and most people are out in three to four hours. There is no permit and no fee. There is also no water and very little shade, and the access road off Bridge Road is ungraded near the trailhead, so clearance helps and a summer start needs to be before sunrise.
On State Route 59 a couple of miles outside Apple Valley, which puts you on the highway between Hurricane and Colorado City. That makes the byway a genuine through route rather than a dead end: you can leave Rockville, cross the mesa, and come back around through Hurricane on the pavement, which is a satisfying half day loop if the weather is settled.
It is the reason the route carries a National Back Country Byway designation, looking back over Zion, the Virgin River valley and Canaan Mountain. Give it more time than the mileage suggests.
A national byway that starts at a town this small.
Having this road out the back door is a real part of why people buy in Rockville rather than four miles up the highway in Springdale. It also means the practical questions, how a lot is reached, what the surface does in a wet winter, what the town permits on the south bank, carry real weight here. I live in this corner of the county and I am happy to walk through any of it before you commit to an address.
Or call me: (435) 357-4345or send me a message
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