Utah’s Taylor Flat Airstrip Reopens After 30 Years

After 30 years of closure, Taylor Flat Airstrip (TF9) in Daggett County, Utah, has officially reopened for recreational and backcountry use, the Recreational Aviation Foundation (RAF) announced Tuesday. 

On May 9, volunteers and representatives from the RAF and the Utah Back Country Pilots Association (UBCP)—a joint collaboration throughout the restoration project—formed a work party to revitalize the airstrip and prepare it for renewed operations. Supporters with skid steers came from Colorado to help fill ditches that had been dug after the airstrip’s closure. Other improvements included painting rocks that lined the airstrip’s corner and threshold, as well as installing a new windsock pole and RAF-branded windsock. 

As part of the airstrip reopening, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which approved the airstrip’s resumption, shortened the airstrip from its original 4,300 feet to 2,500 in order to avoid an environmentally sensitive area. Sixteen-foot red X’s were painted nearby to alert pilots of the area. 

Once the work party was finished, RAF ambassador and UBCP board member John Clayton became the first pilot to land at Taylor Flat since the restoration project began. 

Taylor Flat’s three-decade-long journey to being reestablished as an operable backcountry airstrip was largely due to efforts by RAF Utah liaison Wendy Lessig. After an initial request to refurbish the airstrip was denied by the BLM in 1995, it sat largely dormant until in March 2023 when Lessig reengaged the BLM on conversations around reopening the airstrip. 

Throughout the process, Lessig helped prepare a right-of-way lease agreement and coordinated between Daggett County and the BLM, as well as helped gather information during the BLM’s required environmental assessment of the strip. 

In September, the BLM authorized Taylor Flat Airstrip to reopen, which happened in June after May’s work party.

“Thanks to Wendy taking action as the RAF liaison and her professional persistence following through the lengthy public review process, Taylor Flat Airstrip will reopen as another unique backcountry destination,” RAF president Bill McGlynn said.

Lessig has been hard at work in her home state recently. Also in September, Lessig was awarded a grant to help fund cultural surveys on five backcountry airstrips—Nokai Dome, Piute Canyon, Wee Hope Mine, Red Canyon Meadow, and Castle Creek—in Utah’s Monticello region. 

“The work party was a resounding success,” Lessig said. “We are grateful for the 25 volunteers who handpicked rocks from the airstrip and used them to mark the runway corners and threshold.”

The restoration project is a part of the RAF’s 2026 Expanding the Map initiative, where the organization plans to announce the opening and reopening of more than 15 airstrips across the U.S. Taylor Flat is the second such announcement after Walker Ridge Airstrip in California was reopened earlier this month.