As you approach the Moki Dugway from below the mesa a feeling of uneasy starts to build in your chest and eventually it spreads to the very tip of your fingers. How are you supposed to get up that giant cliff wall that is Cedar Mesa? And then the switchbacks appear and the road climbs over 1,100 feet in three miles of steep unpaved glory.

Once you’ve given into the free feeling of flying over the Valley of the Gods and the San Juan River while twisting up the dugway, make sure to pull over and admire the many views it offers you. It’s a marvel of engineering and one of my favorite roads to travel on. Cedar Mesa is criss-crossed with awesome roads, truthfully.