Posey-Griffin Top Loop - Garfield CO Utah

The Posey – Griffin Top Loop is a long, beginner style ride mostly sticking to maintained dirt and gravel roads. The length of this trail, almost 70 miles, makes it an all day ride, but due to road conditions, travel speed is optimal at nearly 20 mph.

Riders can expect to see beautiful pine forests and stretches of desert scrub. A few lovely lookout points and bodies of water make for fun stops along the way. The trail travels through Dixie National Forest, so make sure you familiarize yourself with their rules and regulations at: https://www.fs.usda.gov/dixie.

Street legal machines are recommended for Posey-Griffin Top Loop as it is easiest to start in town, and the loop concludes on paved highway. You can start in Escalante at the town park and ride over to Posey Lake Road and drive north until the pavement eventually becomes a gravel road. To visit Griffin Top and complete the loop you’ll be traveling through several intersections, so keep an eye out for trail signage and follow directions given on the signs.

There is plenty of lodging in and just outside of the town of Escalante. The town has every necessity between grocers and gas stations. There is also a Dixie National Forest campground if you’d like to camp off of the trail. Information about the Posey Lake Campground can be found here: https://www.recreation.gov/camping/campgrounds/231916.

Street legal offroad vehicles were recently allowed to travel on county-maintained dirt roads in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and it has become extremely accessible for offroad riding opportunities. Learn more about off road initiatives in the area by watching the video below!

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Directions From the North
Directions from the South
Facilities: Lodging, restaurants, fuel and groceries are all available in Escalante, Utah. Staging can be done from the town of Escalante, or the Posey Lake Campground if you have a campsite reserved.
OHVs: Street legal OHVs (you will drive through some towns on paved roads); high clearance 4x4s on most trails.
Terrain: Maintained dirt and gravel roads owned by the county and national forest. Wide dirt trail on Route 1377 to the Griffin Top Point.
Signage: Intersections and campgrounds are marked with signs and include distance to intersections and points of interest.
KML File for Google Maps
GPX File for your Garmin GPS or other Apps
Emergencies: Sevier Valley Medical Center (Intermountain Healthcare), 1000 North Main Street, Richfield, UT 84701 (435) 893-4100
Sevier County Sheriff: Dial 9-1-1 or (435) 896-2600; Utah Highway Patrol – Richfield: Dial 9-1-1 or (435) 896-2780. 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.

Would you like to see the trail in an animated 3D flyover map? If it appears to pause, that is likely a place I stopped for a while. It will continue, just wait a few moments. Link to 3D flyover.

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.

You can find ample parking in town. The city park makes for a nice spot to start from since its a central location and close to the road that will take you to the dirt. Once you get on to Posey Lake Road, just take it north until the pavement ends and the dirt road begins. First sign a few miles into the trail giving you distnaces to campgrounds and other locations. You can even take these roads all the way out to Loa!

To stay on the loop take the left fork at this sign onto route 154. The sign sits between 15 miles into the trail.

Posey Lake and Campground are about 20 miles into the trail. Beautiful spot to camp, or enjoy the scenery. Restrooms are available at the campground.

Plenty of chances to spot some wildlife! Here's a herd of deer we caught while driving along Route 140.

Offshoot to Clayton Trail which can take you down into Antimony. Go straight to keep heading toward Griffin Top. More signage for another offshoot trail. Once again, remain straight on the road to reach Griffin Top. Turn east on this offshoot road, Route 1377, to Griffin Top. The view area is out and back, so you'll do a little backtracking to get back on to Route 140 after enjoying the view. The gorgeous viewpoint once you reach Griffin Top! After enjoying the view you can drive back to Route 140 the same way you came in. To complete the loop, get back onto Route 140 and turn right to head south. The final route you will turn onto is Route 17. At this intersection there is some complicated braiding, so make sure you spot and follow the right sign. You will be following Route 17 east. After following the trail it will end on Scenic Byway 12, which you can turn east onto to get back to Escalante.