BLM seeks comments on Kane Creek power line reroute near Moab

A small reroute on the Kane Creek corridor could end up changing the feel of one of Moab’s most watched access roads. The Bureau of Land Management opened a 30-day comment period June 16 on Rocky Mountain Power’s plan to move part of the Moab Salt 69-kilovolt tap line off a hillside near Moonflower Canyon and onto the east shoulder of Kane Creek Road.

The proposal covers about 1,605 feet of line and would replace the existing alignment, which BLM says runs along Kane Creek Boulevard, cuts overland near Pritchet Canyon, then rejoins Kane Creek at Moonflower Canyon. BLM says that stretch is difficult to access for operations and maintenance. The reroute would place 16 steel monopoles with 69-kV insulator arms in a previously disturbed shoulder corridor and would require a 50-foot right-of-way, about 1.84 acres of BLM-managed land.

That matters because the utility change is landing in the same landscape as Echo Canyon, the 176-acre mixed-use development formerly known as Kane Springs. The project has long drawn public opposition and lawsuits, and the numbers tied to it have shifted over time. Early descriptions included about 580 homes, 100 lodging units and 72,000 square feet of commercial space. More recent public descriptions have put the plan closer to 430 to 478 housing units, a 102-room hotel and about 67,000 square feet or more of commercial space.

Echo Canyon also became the first project in Utah to receive a preliminary municipality designation after Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson signed a Certificate of Incorporation on June 9, 2025. In February 2026, Kane Creek Development Watch and Living Rivers filed suit in Utah’s Seventh District Court challenging the state law and the certification.

For riders and paddlers who know Kane Creek as a public-land corridor, the practical stakes are bigger than a line move on paper. BLM describes the Kane Creek Recreation Area west of Moab as a gateway to camping, group campsites and mountain bike and OHV trails, including Amasa Back, Hymasa, Hunter Canyon Rim, Pritchett Canyon, Jackson and Captain Ahab. Kane Springs Road, which becomes Kane Creek Road, is a key access route that eventually ties into State Route 211.

The BLM’s comment window runs through July 16, 2026, and the agency has set an in-person public meeting for June 30 from 5 to 6 p.m. at the Moab Field Office. For Kane Creek, the question now is not just where the poles go, but whether this shoulder-side reroute becomes another step toward a much larger buildout pressure in the canyon corridor.