Hell's Backbone Road is a 38-mile (61 km) gravel road that was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps

Civilian Conservation Corps

The Civilian Conservation Corps was a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men from relief families, ages 18–25. A part of the New Deal of President Franklin D...

 in the 1930s, and connects the towns of Boulder, Utah

Boulder, Utah

Boulder is a town in Garfield County, Utah, United States, 27 miles northeast of Escalante on Utah Scenic Byway 12 at its intersection with the Burr Trail...

 and Escalante, Utah

Escalante, Utah

Escalante is a city in Garfield County, Utah, United States, along Utah Scenic Byway 12. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 818.The town was named after Silvestre Vélez de Escalante, a Franciscan missionary and the first European explorer in the region...

. Half-way along the road is Hell's Backbone Bridge, which is 109 feet (33.2 m) long, and 14 feet (4.3 m) wide. A 1500 feet (457.2 m) drop is on either side. Near the bridge are spectacular views of the Box-Death Hollow Wilderness

Box-Death Hollow Wilderness

Box-Death Hollow Wilderness is a wilderness area located in south-central Utah, USA, on the Dixie National Forest. Vertical gray-orange walls of Navajo sandstone stand above two canyon tributaries of the Escalante River in Box-Death Hollow...

. From late spring to autumn, the road, which climbs to more than 9,000 feet (2,750 m) elevation, is easily passable by ordinary passenger vehicles, but it is very narrow and winding, and not for the faint of heart.

Hell's Backbone Road is a high-country alternative to the paved Utah Scenic Byway 12, which also connects Boulder and Escalante, 27 road miles (44 km) apart.