Monticello • San Juan County may only have 15,000 residents but it’s the largest county in Utah by geography, sprawling across 5 million acres of canyons, mountains and rivers in the southeast corner of the state.
Driving from the hamlet of Navajo Mountain near Lake Powell to the county seat in Monticello takes over four hours. The towns of Oljato, Aneth, Montezuma Creek, Bluff and Spanish Valley are all an hour or more away from Monticello.
Rough roads and scattered homesites can make it difficult for members of the Navajo Nation, which overlaps with the southern portion of the county, to interact with the local government, according to some residents.