Portal Overlook Grit Hike: Grow Your Grit Above the Colorado River
Updated: Sep 13
Moab Grit Hikes Series | Deer Creek Retreat, Old La Sal, Utah
The Mountain Meets the Desert
The Portal Overlook grit hike is the ultimate testament to how the mountain meets the desert. Growing up as a kid in Moab, the sandstone wall framing the western horizon for me wasn't a recreational playground—it was simply part of the permanent scenery, like a family portrait hanging on the living room wall, frozen in time. High on that rim, where an enormous natural slit cuts into the cliff face with a massive buttress to the right, the rock forms a distinct silhouette on the left. My dad always pointed up at it and called it the "Lady on the Pot," because it looked just like a woman sitting on the toilet doing her business.
Back then, as a Grand County High School kid, that entire western ridge on the other side of the Colorado River felt miles outside our world. We weren't allowed anywhere near the river. My dad had a deep, healthy fear of that treacherous current: Let the tourists go down and swim—you kids have plenty to do up here in town. Beyond the water, Highway 191 in the 80's and early 90's was just a roaring, two-lane highway, reaching all the way across the river bridge, and then on to the turnoff onto Potash Road which was roughly over five miles out. In my mind, that opposite cliff line was reserved for older folks with a driver's license, a car, and somewhere specific to go.
To be completely honest, after decades of my Moab connection of home town, I didn’t even know the Portal Overlook Grit Hike existed until recently. Discovering that there is a defined trail climbing right to the top of that childhood landmark came as a total shock. Looking at the topo lines from a local’s and a military veteran's perspective, the ascent is very doable—not an impossible mountaineering feat, but an honest, gritty challenge waiting across the river. It’s officially marked as my very next summit run.
However, keep in mind, this hike isn't just about bagging another trail on the map. It's about what the climb demands of you along the way.
In her research on resilience, Dr. Angela Duckworth points out something crucial: grit is not a fixed trait you're born with—it’s a muscle that gets built through intentional effort (Duckworth, Ch. 5). Your starting point isn't your ceiling; it's simply your training ground. Looking up at the rim from across the river, the Portal Overlook is just the next proving ground waiting to be tackled.
Getting There from Deer Creek Retreat
The drive from Old La Sal to the trailhead is a beautiful 43-mile journey through the transition from mountain forest to high desert — roughly 60 to 70 minutes depending on your pace.
Drive through town heading north across the Colorado River bridge on US-191.
Just before the entrance to Arches National Park, turn left onto UT-279 (Potash Road).
Follow the river corridor for 4.2 miles until you reach the Jaycee Park Recreation Site on your right. Park in the lot; the trailhead starts near the rear of the campground.
Trail Stats:
Stat | Detail |
Distance | 5 miles out and back |
Elevation Gain | 900–1,200 feet |
Difficulty | Moderate to Strenuous |
Drive from Deer Creek Retreat | ~43 miles / 60–70 minutes |
The trail begins with a steady climb over rocky switchbacks on Kayenta sandstone ramps. Near the top, a few narrow sections carry significant drop-offs. If heights make you cautious, slow down and breathe — the view from the overlook is spectacular even if you never go to the very edge. This is a trail that rewards presence over bravado.
Is Grit Inherited or Intentional?
Before your boots hit the switchbacks, consider the question Dr. Angela Duckworth puts on the table at the start of her "Grit Grows" chapter: is grit something you are born with, or something you build?
Her answer, drawn from twin studies comparing identical and fraternal twins, is decisive: grit is far more built than born (Duckworth, Ch. 5). Perseverance of effort — grit's "keep pushing" half — shows moderate heritability of roughly 30 to 40 percent. Consistency of interest, the long-term passion component, is even less hereditary at around 20 to 30 percent. The takeaway is clarifying: your genetics provide a starting range. Your daily choices, your reactions to setbacks, your willingness to stay in the discomfort — those determine where within that range you actually land.
If you have ever internalized a label like you're just not a finisher, take note. That label is a snapshot, not a sentence. Its a mindset and in that moment might just hold you back. The Portal Overlook grit hike will offer you a chance to revise that thought process — one switchback at a time.
Desert Survival 101: Hike Like a Local
The Moab desert is stunning, dry, and ancient, and it will not soften itself for the unprepared. Here is what to pack and how to think before you leave Deer Creek's driveway in Old La Sal.
The Essential Kit
Water — the One Gallon Rule: Carry at least 3 liters per person for this hike. Pre-hydrate with a full 20 ounces before you leave Deer Creek Retreat — getting a head start on hydration makes a measurable difference at canyon temperature.
Electrolytes: At 10 percent humidity, water alone will not replace what you sweat out. Bring electrolyte tablets or hydration mix, maybe Gatorade, or salty snacks to prevent the sun and heat bonk.
Sun shield: Wide-brimmed hat, polarized sunglasses, and SPF 30 or higher. The sandstone reflects UV light upward, it reflects the sun similar to snow — protect the underside of your nose and chin too.
Navigation: Cell service drops once you descend toward the river. Download an offline map through Gaia GPS or AllTrails before you leave. The moab visitor center might be a good resource spot, not only to ask directions, but to pick up a paper map.
Desert Life Hacks
The Wet Bandana: Soak a cooling towel or bandana and wrap it around your neck. It can drop your perceived body temperature by several degrees on exposed sections.
Time the Shade: Because the Portal trail sits on the west side of the river, the canyon cliffs provide natural shade in the late afternoon. The sun sets quick, even at the higher elevation, because of the rock formations. If it is a hot day, plan your hike around that window.
Don't Bust the Crust: The black, bumpy soil off the trail is biological soil crust — living organisms that take decades to grow and prevent erosion. To avoid destroying biological soil crust, stay strictly on the trail or on bare sandstone. This is not just a courtesy; it is how the desert stays alive.
Connecting Mountain & Desert? Equip Your Journey
Whether you're exploring the high alpine passes of the La Sals or ascending exposed canyon shelves, equip your trip with our printable and mobile 12-page companions:
High-Desert Survival Field Guide: Real-world wilderness safety, 1-gallon hydration math, 12:00 PM alpine lightning rules, mountain storm protocols, and off-grid navigation checklists.
Moab Grit Hikes Field Manual: Complete 7-trail tactical guides (Mount Peale, Mount Tuk, Moab Rim, and more), friction-footing rules, Angela Duckworth grit diagnostics, and local trail stories.
Why Grit Grows with Age — and Why That Matters on This Trail
Duckworth’s research highlights a consistent finding: older adults reliably score higher on the Grit Scale than younger people (Duckworth, Ch. 5). Part of that is generational, but most of it is maturity. With time, we develop longer horizons, learn to treat discomfort as useful feedback rather than an existential threat, and stop scattering our energy across a dozen half-hearted ambitions. As Proverbs observes, "The glory of young men is their strength, and the splendor of old men is their gray head" (NKJV, Proverbs 20:29).
In my own doctoral research exploring the architecture of human resilience, I examined this exact phenomenon across lives that refused to break under pressure. Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison, emerging not shattered, but sharpened—his vision refined across decades of sustained resistance (Duckworth, Ch. 5). Winston Churchill absorbed repeated political humiliations, electoral defeats, and career collapses, using each setback to hone the resolve he would later require on the global stage. And in his final years facing terminal cancer, pastor Timothy Keller framed aging and suffering not as diminishment, but as deepening—a clarifying fire that stripped away superficial idols and left what truly mattered standing (Keller, The Atlantic, 2021).
A trek up the Portal Overlook only lasts a few hours, not 27 years. But the psychological principle remains identical. The steep, exposed switchbacks aren't obstacles keeping you from the view—they are the very reason the vantage point carries weight once you reach the rim. Real stamina is never accidental; it is built through the miles you choose not to quit.
The Grit Scale: A Mirror, Not a Verdict
Halfway up the switchbacks, when the sandstone is radiating heat and your legs are asking honest questions, is a good time to ask yourself an honest question of your own: where does my grit actually wobble?
Duckworth's 12-item Grit Scale measures two things — consistency of interest and perseverance of effort (Duckworth, Ch. 5). Rate statements like "I have overcome setbacks to conquer an important challenge" and "New ideas and projects sometimes distract me from previous ones" on a scale of one to five. Average your scores. The result is not a grade. It is a mirror. It shows you where your passion tends to lose its direction and where your perseverance tends to crack under pressure. Take the Grit Scale here and use your score as a baseline — not a ceiling.
Most people discover they score higher on perseverance than passion consistency. They can push through a hard day. What is harder is staying loyal to the same pursuit across months and years when the excitement has faded and the work has lost its novelty. David Epstein reinforces why this slowness is not a defect: "Deep learning is slow. The slowest growth, the researcher wrote, occurs for the most complex skills" (Epstein 165). Learning to challenge yourself on a hike, taking in the moment overlooking Moab valley, is not a pit stop but a lifestyle change. The most meaningful things you will ever build — in your faith, your relationships, your work, your character — will take longer than you initially planned and much more of a process than a check list. That is not failure. That is the nature of anything worth finishing.
Why We Quit — and Why We Do Not Have To
Duckworth identifies three common quitting triggers: boredom, doubt about whether the goal is worth it, and disbelief in your own capacity to succeed (Duckworth, Ch. 5). Most people abandon meaningful pursuits not from inherent weakness but from entanglement in one of these three psychological traps. They are not weak; they are just underprepared for the interior terrain.
Fear — of failure, of wasted effort, of looking foolish — is the engine under most quitting decisions. Love, in contrast, is stabilizing. It shifts the motivation from self-protection to genuine care for the goal, the people, and the calling involved.
That said, not every exit is a failure of grit. Brené Brown draws a careful distinction: "Owning our story can be hard, but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy" (Brown 161). Walking away from a goal that was never truly yours, or that no longer aligns with who you are becoming, can be an act of courage — a reclaiming of authentic direction rather than an abandonment of grit. The difference is whether you are leaving out of fear or out of clarity.
Carol Dweck's growth mindset research completes the picture. When boredom hits — and on a trail like this one, there will be a moment around mile two where the novelty has worn off and your legs are simply asking to stop — the fixed mindset says the meaning is wrong, not worth it. The growth mindset says this is the forge, what will it take to get to next. Dweck writes: "The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even (or especially) when it's not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset. This is the mindset that allows people to thrive during some of the most challenging times in their lives" (Dweck 117). The boring mile on the Portal Overlook grit hike is not a detour from the trail. It is the trail.
The Four Assets of Grit — Built on the Switchbacks
In studying the mechanics of perseverance, four distinct psychological assets consistently emerge in those who finish what they begin. On an exposed sandstone climb like the Portal Overlook, these stop being academic concepts and become practical survival tools:
Interest: Gritty individuals maintain sustained curiosity about the objective. Even through crippling arthritis, Pierre-Auguste Renoir kept painting because his devotion to the craft outlasted the pain in his hands (Duckworth, Ch. 5). On this trail, interest means genuinely caring about what lies beyond the next rim—not just rushing for a social media snapshot.
Practice: Deliberate, targeted effort focused on weaknesses rather than going through the motions. In my research, Mandela's imprisonment stood out not because he simply waited, but because he actively studied, read, and strategized from his cell (Duckworth, Ch. 5). Every steep switchback on this bench is deliberate practice in keeping your rhythm when your lungs want to stop.
Purpose: A connection to something larger than yourself. Churchill's resolve wasn't fueled by personal ambition, but by a clear duty to preserve a free civilization. When the grade steepens above the river, having a defined why anchors your focus.
Hope: The active conviction that your effort matters, even when the summit isn't visible yet. Edison treated thousands of failed filaments not as dead ends, but as practical data (Duckworth, Ch. 5). On the trail, hope is trusting that the next ledge will open into the view—and taking the step to find out.
The View: Portal Overlook Grit Hike
The La Sal Mountains have outlasted every hiker, every season, and every trend that has ever passed through this canyon country. They are not impressed by short bursts of enthusiasm. But when you reach the rim of the Portal Overlook, when the canyon opens and the Colorado River glitters far below and the fins of Arches catch the light to the north and the peaks of the La Sals rise to the east — you will feel something that short bursts of enthusiasm could never produce.
You will feel the quiet, solid satisfaction of someone who stayed with it.
Look back east toward the La Sal Mountains from the rim. Somewhere up there, above the tree line, is the ridge above Deer Creek Retreat — the place you woke up this morning, the place you are going home to tonight. You have connected the mountain to the desert with your own legs and your own grit. That connection is yours. Nobody can take it from you, and nobody can give it to you. It only comes from doing the work.
"Our potential is one thing. What we do with it is quite another" (Duckworth 14).
The Challenge: Grow Your Grit at Deer Creek Retreat
Duckworth's invitation is not to admire gritty people from a distance. It is to build the muscle yourself — one rep, one step, one honest showing-up at a time. The Portal Overlook is one of those reps. And Deer Creek Retreat is the base camp where the training happens.
Lincoln failed in business twice, lost four elections, and endured a nervous breakdown — and returned each time to the same north star: preserving the Union and advancing human freedom (Duckworth, Ch. 5). His grit was not born in the good days. It was built in the hard ones. Your version of that story does not have to be historic to be real. It just has to be yours, pursued faithfully, one day at a time.
Stay in the main house and begin your grit-building in a space that holds you well — a full kitchen to fuel your mornings, a porch where the La Sals fill the horizon, and the kind of stillness that makes it easy to think clearly about what you are actually chasing and whether you are chasing it with everything you have. Cook something real. Rest deeply. Plan tomorrow's trail with intention.
Stay in the tiny home and let simplicity do what simplicity does best — clarify. Strip away the noise, the distraction, the performance, and what remains is the essential question: what are you building, and are you willing to stay with it long enough for it to matter? The tiny home is for the person who already suspects the answer is yes and just needs the space to commit to it.
Either way, you are waking up tomorrow at the base of the La Sal Mountains, closer to the trails than any hiker in Moab, with the Colorado River canyon waiting 43 miles to the west and a Duckworth style Grit Scale score waiting to be improved.
Take the free Grit Scale at GrittyGritGrit.com. Book your stay. Set the alarm. The muscle does not build itself — but every rep counts, and this is a very good place to start.
Reserve your stay at Deer Creek Retreat — main house or tiny home — and come grow your grit above the Colorado River.
Cheers!
Justin
🥾 The Moab Grit Hikes Series
Mount Peale: Mount Peale Grit Hike: Effort Counts Twice on Southeast Utah's Highest Peak
Mount Tukuhnikivatz: Mount Tukuhnikivatz Grit Hike: How Gritty Are You on Moab's Iconic Skyline Peak?
Portal Overlook: Portal Overlook Grit Hike: Grow Your Grit Above the Colorado River
Moab Rim Trail: Moab Rim Trail Grit Hike: Effort Counts Twice on the Stairmaster
Gold Knob Trail: Gold Knob Trail: Grit, Grace, and the Long Game in the La Sal Mountains
Hidden Valley Trail: Hidden Valley Trail: A Sacred Hike Just "Inside" the Moab Valley Rim
Grandstaff Canyon: Grandstaff Canyon Grit Hike: The Long Obedience That Builds Morning Glory
🎒 Heading out on the trail? Download our Moab & La Sal High-Desert Survival Field Guide for instant mobile and printable access to our 1-gallon hydration formula, 12:00 PM lightning cut-offs, and 10-essential trailhead audits.
About the Author
The author holds a Ph.D. and is an ordained professional chaplain, specializing in the integration of motivation and choice theory, psychological resilience, and pastoral soul care. Transitioning from a ten-year active duty career as a Chaplain in the U.S. Army—where he served within the high-intensity environment of a critical care hospital—his work bridges empirical behavioral science with practical strategies for long-term identity formation. He serves as the primary researcher for grittygritgrit.com, a digital platform dedicated to helping individuals cultivate authentic perseverance through the profound transitions, traumas, and valleys of life. You can explore more of his work and high-mountain-desert writing at deercreeklasal.com.
Works Cited
Brown, Brené. Rising Strong: The Reckoning. The Rumble. The Revolution. Spiegel &
Grau, 2015.
Duckworth, Angela. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. Scribner, 2016.
Dweck, Carol S. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Updated ed., Random
House, 2016.
Epstein, David. Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World. Riverhead
Books, 2019.
Keller, Timothy. "Growing My Faith in the Face of Death." The Atlantic, 7 Mar. 2021,
The Bible: The New King James Version. Thomas Nelson, 1982.
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