For the shortest or the fastest route between Bryce Canyon National Park and Page, AZ, Rand McNally suggests driving 43 miles south on "Road 400" through Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. This road is not shown on either a AAA or Utah State Map. Besides the Escalante website says, "nearly all north-south roads are
"primitive". Can someone reassure me that we could use U.S. 89 through Mt. Carmel, Kanab, Big Water and Glen Canyon to Page, AZ? I am sure it is much farther than the total of 88 miles of the Rand McNally route, but my daughter and I can't cope with narrow, (possibly dirt) roads with many switchbacks. Can anyone tell me approximately how far it is between Bryce and Page using Utah l2 and 63 west and U.S. 83 south east. Actually we would like to continue southeast to Kayenta, AZ the day we leave Bryce. I would appreciate advice from anyone who has traveled this route. Thanks.

you can check all this out on Mapquest. Just enter one town and then the next and it'll give you distances and roads to take.

I can't help you with all the roads but we took highway 89 (not 89a) from Page, AZ to Springdale, UT in April 2002. The road was paved, scenic, no potholes, etc. I believe the speed limit was 55/60 the entire way. I wasn't too concerned about time but I remember it being about 3 hours.

FYI: I found the mileage/times given by Mapquest to be wrong for some of the roads in AZ.

Have a good trip.

Mike Honeycutt

Hi Gloria,

I've never done this road, but I've read about it. It starts out paved at both ends but it is a dirt road. I have always wanted to do it but if I did it would be in a 4 wheel drive vehicle. Do not try it if it is raining, has rained or looks like rain.

The mileage around on pretty easy paved roads is:

Bryce to Mt. Carmel Jct. is 62 miles
Mt. Carmel Jct. to Kanab is 18 miles
Kanab to Page is 75 miles for a total of 155 miles.

You will be a lot safer and probably just as fast to go around the 155 miles.

Utahtea

I believe the "Road 400" is more commonly known as Cottonwood Road. It originates out of Kodachrome Basin State Park, runs 46 miles down to Hwy 89 near Church Wells. We used this road in May 2001 to go from Bryce on our way to Kayenta and Monument Valley. As Utahtea notes, this is a gravel road. It is very well-maintained, not just a 4WD road, and can be easily accessed by cars--we saw maybe 10 cars and trucks motoring along on this road. The caution on rain is dead-on-- do not attempt. Believe you can call the Kanab field office of the Bureau of Land Management to check its status, 435-644-2672. You do not make quick time on Cottonwood Road; I want to say it took about 1.5 hrs or 2 to do. I could not locate your other road, but if you want to stay on paved roads from Bryce to Kayenta, 89 will do it to Page, then 98, then 160 to Kayenta. I believe it took us about 3-4 hours from Page to Monument Valley- fine, uneventful driving. Hope this is helpful.

Thanks everyone for your help. Utahtea, the mileage figures which you gave are especially helpful. We definitely will take this safer paved route.

I drove last june from Page to Bryce. We had a rental car equiped with some mapping/directional device like "roadstar". You told it where you want to go and it gave you directions down to the point where it said left turn in 1/2 mile or you missed the turn. It worked great, right on the money. I miss it.

Anyway on our route from page to Bryce it wanted us to turn right at a particular spot. It was near the Escalante or unroute to. I did turn, but stopped. It was a dirt road. There was a car coming out with a police car following. The officier came over to our van and said "do not take this road, I just pulled these people out. They have been stuck up aways for 2-3 hrs." Told us to stay on the main road and stop over in Kanab for lunch about 20-30 miles away.

Granted I don't remember the route # but thought I'd throw my 2 cents in. Also as you know there was hardly any rain this past summer.

Took 89 last june. No problem, scenic route. I would not take any dirt road unless you are willing to be stuck in the middle of nowhere for hours if you need help. There isn't a whole lot of traffic on 89!!

Great article in a recent (maybe May) Sunset Magazine taking hwy 89 from almost Mexico to Canada

Here is the link on the Sunset article on Hwy 89.

http://www.sunset.com/sunset/Premium/Travel/2001/06-Jun/Highway890601/Highway89main0601.html

Utahtea