- Distance: 73.7 Miles (118.61 km)
- Rating: 4-B, The highlights of the road can be highly technical, but other sections are rather tame. We give it an overall 4 rating because of the severity of the technical sections. Ratings Explained »
- Travel: Either direction for best results
- Start: Huntington, Utah
- End: Junction UT-6 and UT-96
- Fuel: Gas available in Scoffield, Utah and in Huntington, Utah
- Along the Way: Scofield Reservoir is supposedly some of the best fishing in the state of Utah. Geroge W. Bush fishes here on occasion. Stop in the log-cabin gas station for a snack and sit out front on the log benches and watch the locals and swarms of hummingbirds.
- Highlights: The Huntington Side (UT-31) are some of the most enjoyable sweepers in the state.When you get to the highest point, you are only a few hundred feet below 10,000 feet. While up there, look to the northwest to see a distant 12,000 foot tall Mount Nebo. After turning off UT-31 and heading towards Scofield, the road will cross an empty alpine valley with sweeping corners all the way along the valley floor, before climbing up a narrow ledge road. When you start descending again, be prepared for some wicked decreasing-radius, off-camber corners - many with debris.
- Advisories: Because this is a coal mining area, be on the watch out for fast moving coal trucks. On the Huntington side (UT-31) excessively heavy handed law enforcement centers around the town of Huntington. So the closer you are to town, the more careful you need to be.
View Larger Map of the Energy Loop
Summary
Stuck in the middle of Utah's coal mining region, this part of the state is unfamiliar to the huddled masses who only visit this region on their way to the mountain biking Mecca of Moab.
The Energy Loop is three Utah highways that connect together to make for one glorious loop. It can be ridden from either direction with equal levels of enjoyment.
Starting in the small community of Huntington, keep things mellow as this area is one of the heaviest patrolled in the state. As you ride up UT-31, you'll be surrounded by towering clay buttes and one towering electric plant with walls of windows and massive smoke stacks. Once past the power plant the road begins twisting through a narrow slot canyon, following Huntington Creek that is supposed to be excellent for fly fishing.Completely resurfaced in 2005, the road is immaculate and throws out a seemingly endless supply of sweepers.
When the sweepers dissipate the road crests a few feet shy of 10,000. Turn off UT-31 and onto UT-264 that crosses a small, narrow alpine valley. The road condition isn't as nice, but few people take this road and even on the busiest of weekends things will be quiet.
UT-264 will climb a steep ledge then start dropping again. Be careful as there is one really nasty decreasing radius corner that will throw unwary riders into a pretty mountain meadow 30 feet below. Ride past the yellow coal chutes and into the town of Scofield, then past Scofield Reservoir. This used to be one of the most densely vegetated areas in the state until clear-cut logging turned into the empty landscape it is now.
Do you have a better photograph of this Road?
If you do, email us your photograph and if we use it, you could win the Ultimate Collectors Edition of Faster, Faster and Faster and The Doctor, the Tornado and The Kentucky Kid a $40 value that has the Directors Cut of all three movies, remastered in 5.1 digital surround sound! More than seven hours of content!
Email photos to contest at canyonchasers.net with the name of the road in the subject line. (Or just click on that link and we'll fill in the subject line for you.)
Rate This Road
Have you ridden this road? How would you rate it? With one star meaning you thought this was a super-lame road with very little value, to five stars meaning that you felt like this was the mother of all roads - a road by which other roads should be judged.
Return to the Treasure Maps Main Page »
Ratings Explained
The CanyonChasers road rating is two parts. The first part, numbers 1 through 5, describe how technical the road is, with number 1 being a gently sweeping road and number five being very technical with challenging corners. The second part of the rating is a letter, A, B, C, D and F. The letter describes the quality of the road surface with A being perfect, pristine smooth and F being degraded, bumpy and crumbly. Rolling joints, tar-stips or "gummy worms" will drop the road one letter grade.
This road information is for planning and recreational purposes only. You may find that construction projects, traffic, or other events may cause road conditions to differ from the CanyonChasers ratings. Ratings may not be applicable to all riders, all bikes and all skill levels.