St. George panel weighs the future of Moe’s Valley recreation area
A St. George Town Hall panel put Zone 6’s future under the microscope, with 6,800 acres, more than 430 boulders and a highway fight all in play.
Moe’s Valley came back into the spotlight at St. George Town Hall as leaders, conservation advocates and public-lands stakeholders gathered to talk about what comes next for one of southern Utah’s most important recreation landscapes. The focus was the future of the area, not the legal fight that has already shaped it, even as the stakes around Zone 6 remained high for climbers, bikers, hikers and horse riders who use the land west of St. George.
The panel, held at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 17, centered on Greater Moe’s Valley, a place many locals know as Zone 6. Washington County has proposed adding about 6,800 acres in that zone to the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve as mitigation tied to the Northern Corridor Highway process, and the Bureau of Land Management is considering an amendment to the St. George Field Office Resource Management Plan to support stronger conservation of the area. The discussion also pulled in the larger Red Cliffs system, where the reserve spans almost 69,000 acres and the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area covers about 45,000 to 45,600 acres of public land.
That broader landscape is not just a line on a map. The Bureau of Land Management says the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area offers more than 130 miles of designated hiking, mountain biking and equestrian trails, and recreation advocates say Zone 6 alone includes more than 430 bouldering problems and about 65 miles of multi-use trails. It is also home to habitat for the Mojave desert tortoise, a federally threatened species, which is why any land-use shift in the area carries both recreation and wildlife consequences.
The transportation fight hanging over the panel was just as large. The Utah Department of Transportation says the Northern Corridor is intended to connect Red Hills Parkway to Washington Drive Parkway, and project materials show more than $7.1 million in preliminary engineering and related expenditures as of May 31, 2026. The project still requires federal approval before construction, but it has been in play since 2006 and has been considered eight times, with a January 2026 Bureau of Land Management decision approving the right-of-way after a December 2024 denial. Conservation groups say the road would cut through critical tortoise habitat and threaten climbing access, while recreation organizers see the zone as one of the region’s most important bouldering areas.
Supe Lillywhite said the public can still push for local decision-makers to preserve as many trails, habitats and recreation opportunities as possible if the courts or state agencies change course. For a destination built on open space and easy access to the rocks, the conversation at Town Hall made clear that Moe’s Valley is not just a recreation area to be managed, but a piece of Greater Zion’s identity still being decided.
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