Moab Trail Link Begins, Safer Access to Grandstaff Canyon and Porcupine Rim

A short stretch of pavement and dirt outside Moab is about to change how one of the West’s busiest trail corridors works on the ground. Utah officials have started construction on a 0.7-mile trail connection along State Route 128 that closes a long-standing gap in the Colorado River Trail, keeping hikers and mountain bikers off a narrow highway segment with little or no shoulder.

The new link is budgeted at $12.5 million in Utah’s 2026 construction program and is designed to connect the existing Colorado River Trail with Grandstaff Campground and Grandstaff Canyon. That matters most for riders coming off Porcupine Rim, one of Moab’s signature backcountry rides. Grand County describes the trail as a difficult route with a 3-mile, 900-foot climb, followed by an 11-mile, 2,800-foot descent to the Colorado River. In practical terms, the new connection gives riders a safer exit and gives trail users a cleaner way to move between the river corridor, the canyon, and the trailhead network without mixing as much with highway traffic.

The Bureau of Land Management closed part of Grandstaff Campground from March 9 through October 31, 2026, to provide a staging area for construction equipment for the Colorado River Trail Gap project. BLM said the work will extend the paved bike path all the way to Grandstaff Canyon, which should make the route easier to read for visitors trying to piece together bikes, hikes, and shuttle logistics in the Moab area.

Utah Department of Transportation says this is the first construction project in the Utah Trail Network and the first of more than 20 projects now in development statewide. The larger network’s master plan is expected to be completed in summer 2026. When fully built out, state planners say it is intended to connect 208 cities and towns, 33 universities and community colleges, 74 transit stations, six national parks, and 25 state parks, with roughly 95% of Utahns living within one mile of the system.

For Moab travelers, the immediate payoff is simpler than the statewide vision: fewer awkward road miles between trail segments, less exposure on SR-128, and a more coherent way to link Grandstaff Canyon, the Colorado River Trail, and Porcupine Rim into one trip. That small connection is now the kind of infrastructure that can reshape how a whole ride starts, ends, and flows.