Supe Lillywhite has scaled the boulders of Moe’s Valley southwest of St. George for more than two decades.
He had hoped to climb there with his 4-year-old son someday, but recent developments may have put those plans at risk.
“It's crazy to look at this and be like, ‘Wow. He will never get to do this,” said Lillywhite, who manages The Desert Rat, a recreation store in St. George. “He will never get to experience this area that has meant so much to me over the years.’”
That’s because Moe’s Valley sits within a piece of land known as Zone 6. These 6,813 acres have become the center of the latest twist in the ongoing saga of the Northern Corridor Highway, a proposed road through the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area.
The Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service authorized a plan in 2021 to connect the northeast and northwest sides of St. George, granting the right-of-way to build the 4.5-mile highway through part of Red Cliffs.
As part of that deal, Zone 6 was added to the conservation area in exchange for the land that would be lost to the highway. But two years later, the federal agencies put the highway plan on hold to take a closer look at its environmental impact. That reopened the hot button issue.
Local leaders and the state say if the highway doesn’t happen, Zone 6 is open for business.
At a Sept. 24 Washington County Habitat Conservation Plan meeting, Aaron Langston of the Utah Trust Lands Administration presented a map showing lot lines for potential homes in Zone 6.
“We’re demonstrating that we’re serious,” the agency’s Washington County assistant managing director said. “If you are rescinding your commitment to us, then the only natural thing is for us to rescind our agreement.”
If the federal agencies decide to reverse course and allow the highway, he said Zone 6 would remain protected. If not, construction on 2,782 acres of potential development could start by the summer of 2026.
This is just the latest move in a fierce debate over the highway that’s gone on for years.
Local leaders say the road is necessary to handle future growth. Washington County also filed a lawsuit against the federal agencies in August that said revoking the previous approval goes against federal law and the agencies’ own rules.
County Attorney Eric Clarke said protecting Zone 6 in exchange for building the highway would count as a win for the area’s threatened Mojave desert tortoises. A 2022 report from the Washington County Habitat Conservation Plan stated that Zone 6 has higher density tortoise populations than most other parts of Red Cliffs.
“I am flabbergasted that the BLM is seriously considering revoking the right-of-way because doing so will open up thousands of acres of prime desert tortoise habitat to development,” he said.
Conservationists, on the other hand, have said building the road would increase wildfires, spread invasive plants and set a dangerous precedent for other conservation lands. Conserve Southwest Utah Executive Director Holly Snow Canada said the options local leaders have given the public related to Zone 6 represent a false dichotomy.
“If Washington County cares as much about Zone 6 as they say, then they should be working on solutions to permanently protect this critical habitat and treasured recreation spot,” she said.
While the idea of Zone 6 losing its protected status has been discussed ever since the highway plan was put on hold, Lillywhite said seeing Moe’s Valley cut up into housing plots on a map hit the rock climbing community hard.
“It's heartbreaking. I think we're all still in shock right now,” he said. “All of us are looking at this and realizing, ‘Holy cow, we've got maybe two years left of this experience … and then it's gone forever.’”
Moe’s Valley is not only a favorite among local climbers, he said, but it draws outdoor enthusiasts from all over the world. Zone 6 is also home to popular mountain bike routes like the Bear Claw Poppy trail and Zen trail.
According to the map Langston shared — which he noted is likely to change — roughly 60% of trails within Zone 6 would be impacted by potential development. That’s in addition to more than 300 bouldering routes and around 80 rock climbing routes.
The northern end would be split into luxury home lots between 2.5 and 5 acres each, built around the boulders of Moe’s Valley. Those could become multi-million dollar houses, he said, or they might be combined into a high-end resort similar to the one near Lake Powell called Amangiri. The average price for a room there this October is more than $5,000 per night.
The southern end near the Bear Claw Poppy trail would be cut into smaller parcels with an eye toward affordable housing, which Langston noted is a critical need. This site is adjacent to the roads and infrastructure in the Bloomington neighborhood and would be accessed on Navajo Drive.
In both cases, the development would mean the loss of recreation areas and habitat for the tortoise and the endangered dwarf bearclaw poppy flower.
“I love this area. I'm not up here saying, ‘Oh, this is so cool. I can't wait to go and bulldoze all this and ruin the habitat,’” Langston said. “We're not ignorant to what Zone 6 is — the lands there, the recreation opportunities, the tortoise densities. We understand the stakes.”
Ultimately, though, the purpose of the state trust land is to generate money for Utah education.
He pointed to another piece of state trust land near the western end of the proposed highway. If the road gets built, he said, there are 160 acres there the state could sell for a high price as commercial property. If not, then the state has a responsibility to generate money elsewhere.
So if Zone 6 is no longer protected, that land would be too valuable to let sit.
“Give us the Northern Corridor [and] we're all happy,” he said. “But that's apparently off the table. We're responding. This is our response.”
The state will begin to accept development proposals from government entities on Oct. 1, Langston said, and will continue to do so through the end of the year. It would then open things up to private developer proposals.
The point of no return for Zone 6, he said, would likely arrive next summer when the state would begin entering into contracts for the proposals it selects. After that, it would become more difficult to change course even if the federal agencies approve the highway.
