Do you ever feel that desire to go ride somewhere way out in the sticks? The kind of place you are unlikely to encounter another human? To go enjoy the West like it might have felt to a lone rider on horseback traversing a great wild land?
A place like that exists, East of Boulder Utah, South of Capitol Reef NP, and North West of Lake Powell.
The Wolverine Moody Loop is a beginner level loop trail with an optional out and back section along the Moody Creek Road. The whole trip is 77 miles long and will be an all day event lasting between five to six hours.
The trailhead is located about 19 miles east of the town of Boulder (37.92, -111.22). Staging and camping can be done on wide pull outs once you exit the paved Burr Trail road. Even large rigs that venture out this way will find a place to park or camp that wont give you too much trouble. The trail features scrubby red desert and beautiful red rock ledges and canyons.
Most of the terrain is a well maintained dirt road, but there may be sandy washes to traverse at certain points. This is a very remote area that you can get to easily thanks to the quality of the roads.
One of the unique aspects of this trail is the amount of petrified wood and petrified forests that exist along the loop. You can read about one of the many locations here: https://geology.utah.gov/map-pub/survey-notes/geosights/wolverine-petrified-forest/.
The closest town is Boulder, which has some lodging and restaurants, but for more amenities and supplies you can visit Escalante to the west, Torrey to the north (though Notom Road may rattle your teeth loose) or Ticaboo to the east.
Safety wise – this area of the state gets very hot, so make sure you bring more water than you need, and pay attention to the weather to avoid flash floods.
- Directions From the North
- Directions from the South
- Facilities: Closest lodging, restaurants, gas is in Boulder, UT. More amenities can be found in Escalante, Torrey, or Ticaboo. The trail is very remote with no services. You can camp in BLM portions of the trail.
- OHVs: All sizes. No width limits. ATVs, MCs, UTVs, 4x4s on most trails.
- Terrain: Well maintained dirt roads. Paved road on Burr Trail Road.
- Signage: Trail is well signed and areas of interest are noted.
- KML File for Google Maps
- GPX File for your Garmin GPS or other Apps
- Emergencies: Garfield Memorial Hospital. 200 N 400 E St, Panguitch, UT 84759. Emergency room open 24 hours a day.
- Garfield County Sheriff: Dial 9-1-1 for emergencies or Non-Emergency Dispatch: 435-676-2678; Utah Highway Patrol: Dial 9-1-1. We highly recommend you purchase a Utah Search and Rescue Assistant Card (USARA) learn more: https://secure.utah.gov/rescue/
GAIA
We highly recommend you get GAIA GPS for your mobile device. GAIA GPS will allow you to download this trail complete with the photos you see here so you can be sure where you are at all times. Simply install the GAIA GPS app and save this trail from the button below.
Here is the 360 view at the trailhead. Feel free to tour around a bit inside Google Street Views. We have recorded the trail in 360 and it is now part of Google Street Views so you can take a virtual tour of the trail to see if it is for you. We’ve made it a bit easier to navigate, scroll down and you will see more 360 embedded tours as we encounter intersections, trail markers or interesting places along the trail.
On any image, you can click the ‘X’ in the upper right corner and the view will change to an overview map showing the Google Street View blue lines. You can click anywhere on that blue line and drop down to the 360 ground-level views at that point.
You can move the image 360 degrees, click the arrow to move further down the trail and zoom in and out to take a closer look. Clicking the box in the upper right-hand corner will enlarge to full screen for a better view.





