Hole In The Rock
🔞 ALL INFORMATION CLICK HERE 👈🏻👈🏻👈🏻
Hole In The Rock
12 minute guided tours of the world-famous Hole N” the Rock House
Exotic zoo features Camel, Watusi, Albino racoon and more!
The largest collection of Lyle Nichols metal/art sculptures
Antique tools, vintage neon signs, mining equipment and unusual time era pieces
Hole N” the Rock Store: One of a kind souvenirs , t-shirts and memorabilia
The Trading Post: locally made Native American pottery, jewelry , dream catchers and unique gifts for everyone
The General Store: ice cream , drinks, and memorabilia of all types
Birthday parties…..come out and feed the animals
Find Big Foot and Mater
Penny Stretcher Machines with 6 designs
Moab’s Most Famous Roadside Attraction
Hole N" The Rock
11037 South Highway 191 Moab, Utah 84532 Phone: (435) 686-2250 Contact: Lori L.
A most unique home, carved out of a huge rock in Utah’s Canyonlands Country. This historic 5,000 square foot home and unusual gift shop and trading post are open all year. Take a guided tour of the home, and appreciate the rich history within it’s walls.
Located in the Heart of Canyonlands Country 12 Miles South of Moab Utah on US Highway 191
~ Exotic Zoo ~ Souvenir Shop ~ ~ General Store ~ Trading Post ~
Driving the Hole-in-the-Rock Road (West)
If you choose to climb any part of the Hole-in-the-Rock, use caution.
This 62 mile (100 km) drive (one way) runs from Escalante, Utah to the Hole-in-the-Rock on the western shore of Lake Powell following the general route of of the original Hole-in-the-Rock Expedition . Most of the road is in Grand Staircase-Ecalante National Monument, however the last approximately 5 miles are within the boundaries of Glen Canyon NRA. Most of the road on BLM land is passable to high-clearance, two-wheel drive vehicles in dry weather. The last few miles within Glen Canyon are best travelled by foot, bicycle, or four-wheel drive vehicle. There are numerous side-roads that leave this main road. Nearly all of these are only recommended for four-wheel drive.
Persons travelling this road should carry plenty of water (at least one gallon--4 liters--per person per day) and be equipped to get themselves out of any difficulty they might encounter. This road is not routinely patrolled by any agency. Temperatures can range over 100° F (38°C) in summer to near 0° F (-17°C) in winter. Sudden heavy rains, especially in summer months may make this road impassable. If you are caught near the end of the road during a heavy storm, you may not be able to make it back to the paved highway, even with a four-wheel drive.
For latest road conditions and travel information, call the Escalante Interagency Visitor Center at 435-826-5499 or check the Road Report from the Bureau of Land Management .
There are other sections of the Hole-in-the-Rock trail on the east side of Lake Powell as well, where the expedition's journey continued. For the most part, these eastern sections are much rougher, requiring well-equipped four-wheel drive vehicles.
This guide will help point out areas of historical and scenic interest along the road. Mileages indicated do not allow for side trips. Be aware that your odometer may not register exactly the same mileage listed here. Please keep this in mind as you drive.
Mile 0.0, Junction of Hole-in-the-Rock road and Highway 12:
The town of Escalante, a few miles west of this junction, provided the last chance for the pioneers to obtain food and supplies and to make repairs on their equipment.
Mile 4.2, Ten Mile Spring:
A small seep where the first major camp was established after departing from Escalante.
Mile 12.0, Devil's Garden:
About 1/2 mile southwest from this road, one can observe spectacular rock formations. This site has been designated as an Outstanding Natural Area by the BLM. Always carry water when walking in the desert!
Mile 14.0, Twenty Mile Spring:
At this site, now called Collett Wash, water was so scarce the pioneers had to dig in the sand to obtain sufficient quantities for survival.
Mile 36.4, Dance Hall Rock:
This is a large, solid sandstone amphitheater. The pioneers set up a base camp near here and held dances in the natural theater, accompanied by violins, to keep the morale up.
Mile 37.1, Forty Mile Spring:
This area served as a base camp and rendezvous point, since the well-used road ended here. A member of the advance party of scouts, Platt D. Lyman, commented on the terrain that lay directly ahead: "It is certainly the worst country I ever saw . . . "
Mile 39.1, Carcass Wash:
A major obstacle for the expedition, as well as the site of a terrible accident that took the lives of 13 Boy Scouts on June 10, 1963. Brake failure on a truck was blamed.
Mile 45.7, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area Boundary:
You have left BLM lands and are now within Glen Canyon NRA, a National Park Service area. From here to the end, the condition of the road worsens and is recommended for four-wheel drive only.
Mile 48.7, Fifty Mile Spring:
A major mission camp was located in this general vicinity at one of these three springs. The first child born on this journey was born here.
Mile 50.1, Hole-in-the-Rock Arch:
A commemorative plaque is mounted in stone next to the road, pointing out a natural arch at the top of the Kaiparowits Plateau. Careful observation will reveal faint remains of wagon tracks to the side of the road.
Mile 55.3, Hole-in-the-Rock:
The expedition of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints made use of the Hole-in-the-Rock cut to cross the Colorado River in 1880. Construction of this passageway was very difficult. The workers were plagued by lack of wood, forage for cattle, bitter cold, and diminishing food supplies. Blasting powder and picks were used to widen and/or fill various sections of the crevice. At the lower part of the Hole, a road was constructed on the side of a sheer cliff wall. Although a three-foot shelf had already existed, an extension to the shelf was formed by driving two-foot stakes into the rock and piling vegetation and rocks on top. This portion of the trail was nicknamed "Uncle Ben's Dugway" in honor of its engineer, Benjamin Perkins. After six weeks of picking, chiseling, drilling, blasting, and digging, the Hole-in-the-Rock road had been completed.
If you wish, you may hike down to Lake Powell. This trail is very strenuous and is not maintained. You should be in good physical shape and have experience hiking over rough and uneven terrain. Always carry water.
928 608-6200
Receptionist available at Glen Canyon Headquarters from 7 am to 4 pm MST, Monday through Friday. The phone is not monitored when the building is closed.
Download the official NPS app before your next visit
W. Paul Reeve
History Blazer , August 1995
In 1879 when a group of Mormon pioneers began the now famous Hole-in-the-Rock expedition, the San Juan region of southeastern Utah was one of the most isolated parts of the United States. The rough and broken country is characterized by sheer walled cliffs, mesas, hills, washes, slickrock, cedar forests, and sand. Certainly the ruggedness of the country accounts for its colonization coming so late in the Mormon settlement effort. The Mormon hierarchy’s need to improve relations with the Indians, ensure Mormon control of the area, open new farmlands for cultivation, and build a springboard for future colonies to the east, south, and north provided the impetus behind church president John Taylor’s “call” for colonizing mission to the San Juan. Those who answered his plea demonstrated remarkable faith, courage, and devotion to the Mormon cause and persevered even when confronted with the challenges of southeastern Utah’s physical environment. They cut a wagon passage through two hundred miles of that inhospitable corner of the state and ultimately succeeded in establishing permanent communities in its remote expanses.
A total of 236 individuals from sixteen different southwestern Utah villages formed the mission. The majority were from three Iron County towns: Parowan, Paragonah, and Cedar City. Ignoring other lengthy, but well-established routes, leaders of the mission opted to try a “short cut” by way of Escalante that would take them through almost completely unexplored country. The biggest obstacle along the chosen course was the Colorado River, but according to a scouting report from the summer of 1879 it was passable. The scouts had discovered the Hole-in-the Rock, a narrow slit in the west wall of Glen Canyon. They reported that a road could be built through it leading down to the river. Based upon this recommendation the group began to gather in late November and early December at Forty Mile Spring about forty miles southeast of Escalante. In the meantime, exploring parties returned with negative reports concerning the terrain east of the Colorado, which looked extremely difficult for wagon travel. Unfortunately, snow had already blocked any return to their former homes, and so the group determined to forge ahead.
Although challenging, the first sixty-five miles of their journey proceeded with relatively minor difficulties. They formed a base camp at Fifty Mile Spring, about six miles from the Hole-in-the-Rock. From there approximately half of the expedition spent the next month and a half blasting a road through the very narrow crack to allow for the passage of wagons. At the bottom of the steep slope leading to the river the pioneers ingeniously rigged a crib which they piled with logs, brush, fill dirt, and rocks to serve as a “tacked-on” road bed for the outside wagon wheels. Finally the precarious road was completed, and on January 26, 1880, about forty wagons were taken through the Hole-in-the Rock. Elizabeth Morris Decker, in a letter to her parents, wrote a vivid account of the descent to the river: “If you ever come this way it will scare you to death to look down it. It is about a mile from the top down to the river and it is almost straight down, the cliffs on each side are five hundred ft. high and there is just room enough for a wagon to go down. It nearly scared me to death. The first wagon I saw go down they put the brake on and rough locked the hind wheels and had a big rope fastened to the wagon and about ten men holding back on it and then they went down like they would smash everything. I’ll never forget that day. When we was walking down Willie looked back and cried and asked me how we would get back home.”
Even with the Hole-in-the-Rock behind them the colonizers still faced many miles of rugged terrain–primarily solid slickrock and mountains cut by deep gulches—before reaching their destination. Decker described it as “…the roughest country you or anybody else ever seen; its nothing in the world but rocks and holes, hills and hollows. The mountains are just one solid rock as smooth as an apple.” Undaunted the determined pioneers cut dugways and blasted roads through the slickrock, cut a passable trail through the dense cedar forests, and when required made more cribbing for the outside wheels to pass over. Then on the north bank of the San Juan River the weary, hungry, and discouraged travelers faced yet another grueling trial: the solid rock wall of San Juan Hill. According to Charles Redd whose father, Lemuel H. Redd, Jr., drove a horse team up the hill, the steep, slick grade took its toll on the exhausted animals and men. Many of the horses went into “spasms and near-convulsions” as they battled for footholds on the upward climb. When it was all over “the worst stretches [on the hill] could be easily identified by the dried blood and matted hair from the forelegs of the struggling teams.”
The San Juan pioneers reached the present site of Bluff in April 1880 and set to work planting crops, digging ditches, and establishing a new community. Many challenges remained. The San Juan River frequently washed out their
Tourist overlooking Hole-in-the-Rock area.
dams and ditches, and Indian hostilities posed a continual threat. Many of the original group abandoned the hard-won location, while those who stayed were often forced to seek outside employment to survive. Hardships aside, Bluff eventually spawned other colonies in the region, including Verdure, Monticello, and Blanding. These remote southeastern Utah communities owe the ultimate credit for their existence to a tenacious group of Hole-in-the Rock pioneers.
Sources: Allan Kent Powell, “The Hole-in-the Rock Trail a Century Later,” in San Juan County, Utah: People, Resources, and History, ed. Allan Kent Powell (Salt Lake City: Utah State Historical Society, 1983): David E. Miller, Hole-in-the-Rock: An Epic in the Colonization of the Great American West (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1966).
A DIVISION OF THE UTAH DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL & COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT ©2019
By Taysha Murtaugh Published: Jul 5, 2017
Cheyenne L Rouse / Contributor / Getty Images
Photo by Marka/UIG via Getty Images
"I just have this bond with Gladys and just feel like she wants me here, so I'm staying. She died in 1974, but her spirit is still alive."
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
Country Living editors select each product featured. If you buy from a link, we may earn a commission. Why Trust Us?
The 5,000-square-foot home carved into the rock has been frozen in time since the '70s.
On U.S. Highway 191 in Southern Utah, in the heart of Canyonlands Country, is one of the most unique roadside attractions in the United States. Twenty-foot-tall white letters painted on the side ensure that you don't miss Moab's Hole N" the Rock , a 5,000-square-foot home carved into sandstone by the Christensen family nearly a century ago. Today, it's a popular pit stop that pulls in about 500 visitors a day.
For $7, you can take a 12-minute guided tour and learn all about the cave's quirky history. Then spend some time at the on-site petting zoo, browse the metal and stone sculptures by artist Lyle Nichols , and snag a souvenir at one of three gift shops: Hole N" the Rock Store, The Trading Post, and The General Store.
A line on Hole N" the Rock's website says it all: "We are not your destination: We are an amazing stop along the way." And the amazing stop has quite an amazing history, too.
The landmark began as a modest cave where cowboys camped in the early 20th Century, but in 1945, brothers Albert and Leo Christensen expanded the space and founded the Hole N" the Rock Diner.
"It was a tough time," Wyndee Hansen, who owns the property now with her husband, Erik, tells CountryLiving.com. "Many visitors that would come into the diner in the '50s didn't have any money. They had come to Moab to stake their claim during the uranium boom ... Albert would give them a free meal and a couple cold beers, and they'd go in the back and chisel away and help him. It was a community thing."
In 12 years, Albert had excavated 50,000 cubic feet of sandstone, making way for what it would become: a 14-room house, complete with a sculpture of Franklin D. Roosevelt on the outside, a fireplace and 65-foot chimney (which can be spotted above the "C"), and a gigantic concrete bathtub built into the rock. Albert lived in the "Hole" with his wife, Gladys, until he passed away in 1957.
Following her husband's death, Gladys commissioned an artist to paint the letters on the exterior and opened the gift shop, where she sold her handmade rock jewelry. Eventually, she began allowing visitors in to view her one-of-a-kind home.
"It used to be, when she was alive, they'd be giving a tour and Gladys would be back there taking a nap on the couch, or she'd invite some of them to stay for tea and sit down with her," Wyndee says. "She was just that type of a woman. This was her home, but that was the way she made her living."
After Gladys died in 1974, she was buried with her late husband in a cove near the home. The Hansens purchased Hole N" the Rock from Gladys' son, Hub Davis, in 2000. Erik and Wyndee had dabbled in real estate and, after coming across an ad for the property, decided to take on this new venture together. Since then, they've added the zoo and two gift shops, but the original house has remained largely untouched. You can still see Albert's paintings and his "bad, bad" taxidermy, as Wyndee calls it, as well as Gladys's doll collection.
Wyndee knows the history of the space is the reason people stop and are consistently charmed by the 12-minute guided tour. "They come out shaking their heads and thinking, 'These people were hard-working, industrial people,'" she says.
The Hansens even retouch the letters—despite some critics' claims that it "defaces the rock"—because that's how Gladys left it. And for the record, they know those punctuation marks are incorrect (it should be Hole 'n the Rock): "When we went to touch them up years ago, we asked different family members and locals, 'Should we fix it?' and everybody said, 'No, that's how Gladys wanted it,'" Wyndee explains.
Overall, business is good: Hole N" the Rock employs eight people and gets about 500 visitors a day—a number which surged slightly after 2014's Transformers: Age of Extinction filmed a scene right out front, in the parking lot.
Still, at one point, the Hansens were entertaining offers to sell Hole N" the Rock, until their four grown kids talked them out of it—the landmark had become the family's home base, after all. But they needed help running the place, which had become a full-time, 7-days-a-week job. So, their son, Karsten, moved back home to take on some of the management duties.
"It's taken a lot of the pressure off of us, so it's been nice, and we've just decided to cut back … I just would be worried about what would happen if I sold it. I just have this bond with Gladys and just feel like she wants me here, so I'm staying. She died in 1974, but her spirit is still alive. Everybody who comes here just feels that she's still around somewhere. She's pretty funny."
Once, at a psychic reading, "Gladys supposedly came through. [The psychic] came up to me and said, 'She wants to know who moved her dolls.'"
Apparently, a staff member had moved Gladys's collection around the holidays but was sure she had put them all back. "So the next thing, we were all running over to her bedroom to make sure all the dolls were put back in the right spot," Wyndee says laughing.
While on tours, guests have also noted the smell of fried chicken for brief moments—no matter that the kitchen hasn't served dinner in decades. "That was Albert's favorite thing on the menu when it was a diner in the '50s," Wyndee explains. "He had this makeshift deep fat fryer built into the rock, which is part of the tour."
"There's other times when I've been back there working all by myself and my nose fills up with this overwhelming stench of cheap perfume—enough to make my eyes water—but it only lasts for about ten to fifteen seconds and it goes away. It's like, 'OK Gladys, I know you're here, but I don't like that smell.' It's just kind of fun. They're not scary ghosts at all."
But beyond the supernatural, there are earthly reasons to keep the Hole N" the Rock. "I'm attached to what I've built," Wyndee says of the mom-and-pop shop. "Nobody else will take care of it like I do."
The Best Missouri River Town for a Girls Weekend
The Prettiest American Towns to Visit This Winter
Pumpkin Farms Near You to Visit This Fall
The 29 Best Halloween Festivals Happening in 2022
35 Awesome Apple Picking Farms Across the U.S.
Book This Hocus Pocus-Inspired Airbnb ASAP
When's the First Day of Fall in 2022?
What It's Like Staying in a Luxury Treehouse
This Tiny New York Town Goes Big on Antiques
Amazon's Luggage Sale Has Savings Up to 60% Off
Read Ben and Erin Napier's Latest Career News
32 Best Places to Go for Thanksgiving in America
Country Living editors select e
Mistress Tied Panties Gagged
Frans Retro French Anal Porno Video
Mom Handjob Son Video