Last summer, a new symbol highlighting the longstanding roads dispute between Garfield County and the Bureau of Land Management sprouted at the entrance to Hole-in-the-Rock Road (HITR), east of Escalante, Utah. A four-foot by eight-foot reflective yellow sign warns HITR travelers to “Use at Your Own Risk,” further stating, “Necessary improvements have been restricted by Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.” A phone number—with no additional clue as to whom one is calling—is provided for anyone seeking more information. It leads to the BLM’s Paria River District, home of the national monument’s headquarters.

The sign, erected by Garfield County, is emblematic of the county’s irritation at straining its budget to maintain a road claimed by the federal government, primarily for the benefit of tourists drawn to the national monument. 

“The tourists are coming out here regardless of the road conditions,” said David Dodds, Garfield County Public Works Director. “We see everything from Chrysler minivans to convertible Mustangs out there, vehicles that generally have no business being down dirt roads. We feel obligated to maintain the road to safe standards because of this.” 

Originally a wagon route plowed and blasted through sandstone by Latter-day Saint colonists in 1879, the 55-mile-long Hole-in-the-Rock Road has become famous for the stunning landscapes it passes through and the increasingly popular sites it provides access to. It is now also notorious for its bone—and vehicle—jarring washboards and potholes.

In the 1980s, locals say, the route required just a handful of road-grader passes each year to keep it drivable for the handful of ranchers that used it. A steady increase in traffic since the early 90s has accelerated sharply in recent years, straining the dirt road and driving up maintenance costs and time. Now county crews must make about 20 annual grader trips to keep it passable, scraping the road’s surface smooth so many times that it now lies several feet below grade in places, leading a former county engineer to observe that it resembles a luge run more than a road.

Dodds says the county spends as much as $200,000 annually to maintain the 17 miles of Hole-in-the-Rock Road within its borders. The state covers roughly $48,000 of that cost, leaving the county to pick up the rest.

Garfield County proposes rebuilding the road and paving the heaviest trafficked portions. Federal guidelines suggest paving routes with more than 400 vehicles per day, and automated BLM counters show Hole-in-the-Rock Road can receive upwards of 400 vehicle passes per day, and Garfield County’s automated count shows that number approaching 600 during the peak season. The feds have allowed the county to chip-seal routes with less traffic—such as the Burr Trail and East Fork roads—saving them time and money.

But what may seem simple is fraught with political and legal complications. While the BLM has jurisdiction over the route, the county has petitioned the courts to gain control of it using a 19th century mining law provision known as RS-2477, which gives local governments control over historic roads across public lands. The county is wary of doing anything that may harm that claim.

In May 2022, Dodds asked the BLM to acknowledge Garfield County’s RS-2477 right-of-way and applied for a permit to chip seal the first five miles of Hole-in-the-Rock. The BLM rejected the RS-2477 request but encouraged the county to instead apply for a right-of-way under Title V of the Federal Land Policy Management Act, after which they could evaluate proposed improvements. The county declined to do this for fear of losing the edge on their RS-2477 title case.

Meanwhile, environmental groups oppose the paving plan, saying it would undermine the backcountry and wilderness qualities the national monument designation was intended to protect, and claim it is an attempt by county officials to undermine federal authority.