Towers of Silence

Issue #077 - Two Weeks in the Desert, Utah

The tall, white formations, called the “Towers of Silence” are located about five miles up Wahweap Wash, above the small town called Big Water, Utah, fifteen miles north of Page, Arizona, on Utah Highway 89. This is the spot where all the concrete was mixed for the Glen Canyon Dam, back in the 1950s. Today, their main industry is houseboat storage for Lake Powell boaters. A BLM Visitor Center is directly across the highway from the main street into Big Water.

Walking up Wahweap Wash is the most direct route to the towers. From Highway 89, drive north at the BLM Visitors’ Center and through the center of Big Water. Continue north onto the dirt road beyond the intersection of Smoky Mountain Road (that goes east). Follow the dirt road, which veers northwest. You will drive past a long row of man-made fish farm ponds and a single house sitting on a rise overlooking the ponds. When you come to the corral, turn left heading west. As you reach the wash, don’t drive across if the stream is flowing. Park and walk with your gear up the west side of the wash. If the wash is dry, drive up the center of the wash. At the barbed wire fence, about a half-mile north, pull out of the wash and park on the high spot on the left. Walk alongside the flowing wash or up the center of the dry wash for 4.7 miles. The Towers are on the west side of the wash. The tallest fluted column has a black cap rock. You can see it in the distance as you approach.

This journey is best made in the early morning for the best light on the towers and maybe a good sunrise. There are very few footprints around these formations. The off-white, fluted silt-stone columns that support black cap rocks are fragile. It is very important that visitors to this delicate area do not walk or climb on the formations or damage them in any way. A tripod leg can punch a hole in the brittle material. Once damaged, the formations can never be restored. Avoid harming the area and it may never be fenced off and “protected” from the public.