A new place to go

[vamedtech]

My friend and I have been taking a biking trip to Moab every April for years. This year we've decided to shake things up and go elsewhere. I would like some advice as to where to go. Some ideas we're kicking around are Goblin Valley in the San Rafell Swell area. Also, Nine Mile Canyon East of Price looks interesting. Hovenweep area south of Blanding also looks fun. If you know these areas or have another suggestion, please respond to this message.
Thanks

[Sombeech]

I'm not sure you'll find much biking in Goblin Valley.

I would really suggest going to St George for riding. We just got back from there tonight, and I'm writing some trip reports as I speak, with pictures. :cool2:

I love the trails in St George.

[chromehead58]

there is some good biking in san rafael...look up 5 miles of hell..and then there are some pretty good slick rock play grounds near black dragon, which is pretty close to goblin valley.
if you are looking for a biking trip though, i would go st george...this time of year can not be beat...awsome trails

[asdf]

there is some good biking in san rafael...look up 5 miles of hell..and then there are some pretty good slick rock play grounds near black dragon, which is pretty close to goblin valley.
if you are looking for a biking trip though, i would go st george...this time of year can not be beat...awsome trails

Have you been on the slickrock around black dragon? Any pics? i really want to do this ride... soon.
Any info would be cool.

[Udink]

Also, Nine Mile Canyon East of Price looks interesting.
I've been up there a few times in a vehicle, and I'm not sure that riding that road on a bike would be all that great. It's a nicely maintained gravel road, and during the warmer months there's plenty of tourist traffic and gas company trucks driving down the road. If you're in it for the bike riding, it's probably not a good road. If you're in it for the rock art, I think driving a car would be best, just take it slow so you don't miss anything.


Have you been on the slickrock around black dragon? Any pics? i really want to do this ride... soon.
Any info would be cool.
Here are a few pics from the north side of Black Dragon Wash. It's pretty steep, but I'm sure you can find a lot of places that are good for mountain biking. The first picture was taken by a friend of mine, the rest were taken by me.

http://img.geocaching.com/cache/41496_200.JPG
http://www.udink.org/pictures/11032006/img_6528.jpg
http://www.udink.org/pictures/11032006/img_6548.jpg
http://www.udink.org/pictures/11032006/img_6553.jpg
http://img.geocaching.com/cache/log/fb36abc1-9121-4453-b1dd-387d1553d518.jpg

[chromehead58]

great pics....yea, you do not want to ride the rode into the dragon on bike, but as you can see the slick rock has lots of opportunity for riding..aint no slick rock...but fun anyway....i have not riddent the five miles of hell, but a great article on utahmountianbiking.com talks about it, I am going to give it a shot this summmer!! if you go let me know what you think would ya?

[greyhair biker]

You could always head over to the Vernal area for sweet singletrack desert riding and go to Altitude Cycles for trail maps & maybe a guide or two...Great trails ....great shop! :2thumbs:

[accadacca]

St. George: http://uutah.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=651

[asdf]

Thanks Udink, that looks like fine. I am for sure going to lug the dh bike up there and bomb down from the top of the reef to the bottom hehe

[HEADHUNTER]

You could always head over to the Vernal area for sweet singletrack desert riding and go to Altitude Cycles for trail maps & maybe a guide or two...Great trails ....great shop! :2thumbs:

Agreed - Vernal is a good place and Altitude is a great place. I went to HS with Troy Lupcho - great guy!

[Scott P]

I'm not sure you'll find much biking in Goblin Valley.

Make that none. It's illegal there. :nono:

Anyway, one of the best secret bike rides in my opinion is the access road to Gem Canyon. See the "getting there" directions for the Upper Trailhead. It's an interesting bike ride from Kimball Draw to Horizon Arch.

http://www.summitpost.org/canyon/152456/Gem-Canyon-Middle-Fork.html

Fruita and Vernal have some interesting places as well.

[Udink]

Anyway, one of the best secret bike rides in my opinion is the access road to Gem Canyon. See the "getting there" directions for the Upper Trailhead. It's an interesting bike ride from Kimball Draw to Horizon Arch.
I'll second that. I drove that entire stretch in my truck about a year ago, and it was a lot of fun. You might make better time on a bike. :smile: There are a few pics here (http://www.udink.org/pictures/03252006/) of the road and surroundings.

[Brewhaha]

I don't know of anything around Hovenweep for mountain biking.

If you are willing to come that far, there's always Durango.

[Scott P]

There are a few pics here of the road and surroundings.

Nice pics.:2thumbs:

Anyway, just a minor correction, that stuff is actually gypsum rather than mica. Just in case you were curious.

[Udink]

Anyway, just a minor correction, that stuff is actually gypsum rather than mica. Just in case you were curious.
Ahh, thanks for the correction. Some forms of gypsum look so much like mica, I just always assumed the two names were interchangeable. I'm always up for a geology lesson though. :smile:

[Mtnbiker]

I'll second that notion for the riding in Vernal. It is awesome.. there are some great Fruita-esque desert loops as well as aspen-lined trails there as well at the base of the Uintas.

Also we just did a great ride in Price, and there are many more miles of singletrack there that looks pretty nice too! Look up Fuzzy at Fuzzy's Bicycleworks downtown Price and he can hook you up with info. You could probably find him by googling PASS (Price area singletrack society)

Ride on!

In case you haven't seen www.utahmountainbiking.com check it out - they have a great trails index there with tons of info.

[vamedtech]

I've been studying the road to Gem Canyon and I think it looks interesting. I like the remoteness. Thanks

[TreeHugger]

Fruita. Colorado, that is. :-)

[greyhair biker]

Fruita has been the hardest place for me to go, and its closer than Moab ...I just need to get down there and DO IT! I have the maps, the trail descriptions, everything but the bodies to go with. I hate to ride somewhere new by myself. Any takers?? :mrgreen:

[accadacca]

Fruita has been the hardest place for me to go, and its closer than Moab ...I just need to get down there and DO IT! I have the maps, the trail descriptions, everything but the bodies to go with. I hate to ride somewhere new by myself. Any takers?? :mrgreen:
You'd better believe I would go... :2thumbs:

[greyhair biker]

Fruita has been the hardest place for me to go, and its closer than Moab ...I just need to get down there and DO IT! I have the maps, the trail descriptions, everything but the bodies to go with. I hate to ride somewhere new by myself. Any takers?? :mrgreen:
You'd better believe I would go... :2thumbs:
I am all for that trip! When should we go?

[accadacca]

As soon as the weather is feasible. You plan a date and let me and rest of the fellas know. I have never been there or even studied maps or info. I am a Utah bitch. :lol8:

[vamedtech]

OK now where's Fruita. I'm itchin to try something new.

[greyhair biker]

OK now where's Fruita. I'm itchin to try something new.
Fruita, now I am guessing since I dont have the EXACT MAP info in front of me, is just west of Grand Junction, CO on I70, OR if coming from Green River, UT. a little over an hour past the turn off to Moab. I have driven the route from Vernal to Rangley,CO and turning south & heading over Douglas Pass where the trails actually start that the local bike shop in Fruita has mapped (Flight of Icarus starts near the top of Douglas Pass)and I have been to Fruita a number of times on the way to Moab or Grand Junction, NOW I gotta bike there :lol8:

[Scott P]

OK now where's Fruita.

I lived there from 2001-2004. It's on I-70 exit 19, 19 miles east of the Utah border.

[shagster]

As soon as the weather is feasible. You plan a date and let me and rest of the fellas know.

Yea, I am definaltey up for something new. If you need some help with gas money I am in..

[Mtnbiker]

Fruita is like the unknown Moab. It is growing in popularity due to its grassroots mountain bike vibe, but there is no "slickrock trail" that everyone and their brother knows about.

There are TONS more miles of actual singletrack built by actual bikers - NOT jeep roads and sandy doubletrack.

They like to keep the singletrack skinny and take great pride in that fact.

There are a lot of buff, skinny desert cruisers on the north side of the highway (18 Rd area) and the Kokapelli Trailhead area on the south side of the highway is home to more technically demanding trails like Moore Fun (insane) and Horsethief Bench, Troy Built, etc.. You could bring your SS and A/M bike and have a blast.

Not to mention Grand Junction a few miles away has some awesome riding too!

Greyhair - how about going down for the Fruita Fat-tire fest? We are thinking of going this year, April 26-29.

[greyhair biker]

Fruita is like the unknown Moab. It is growing in popularity due to its grassroots mountain bike vibe, but there is no "slickrock trail" that everyone and their brother knows about.

There are TONS more miles of actual singletrack built by actual bikers - NOT jeep roads and sandy doubletrack.

They like to keep the singletrack skinny and take great pride in that fact.

There are a lot of buff, skinny desert cruisers on the north side of the highway (18 Rd area) and the Kokapelli Trailhead area on the south side of the highway is home to more technically demanding trails like Moore Fun (insane) and Horsethief Bench, Troy Built, etc.. You could bring your SS and A/M bike and have a blast.

Not to mention Grand Junction a few miles away has some awesome riding too!

Greyhair - how about going down for the Fruita Fat-tire fest? We are thinking of going this year, April 26-29.
I'm looking at the dates and I have the fri & sat off but that's all I can manage. I would really like to go too. Let me see what I can do.

[vamedtech]

Are most of the trails in fruita snow free in April. This area sounds intriguing for my trip.

[nefarious]

You could always head over to the Vernal area for sweet singletrack desert riding and go to Altitude Cycles for trail maps & maybe a guide or two...Great trails ....great shop! :2thumbs:I bought the Northeastern Utah Mountain Bike Rides from Altitude Cycle but I havent had the chance to ride any of the trails yet, just a "secret" track laid out near Roosevelt. The landscape around there looks a lot like St. George, I wonder if some of the trails are similar.

[brettyb]

Fruita, Fruita, Fruita.

Singletrack to die for. Purpose built mountain bike trails with no ATV's or motorcycles. Blows the door off Moab in this respect, though the scenery is not quite to Moab standards.

I'd hesitate to call it unknown though. Lots and lots of weekend visitors from the Front Range. It is very unlikely there will be snow in April--it's at fairly low elevation, about the same as Grand Junction, just a bit higher than Moab.

[greyhair biker]

Are most of the trails in fruita snow free in April. This area sounds intriguing for my trip.
There are only a few exceptions -trails - that are not rideable most of the year as Ive been told. 'Flight of Icarus' is one that needs to dry out until summer since it starts at the top of Douglas Pass. Most of the rest of the trails are similar to St.George...or Vernal for that matter...just different color rock(cactus is cactus...sagebrush is sagebrush)and the only time the trails north of 18rd are not rideable are when its wet/rainy...desert mud/clay is impossible to ride in and they tell you not to so as to avoid rutting /destroying the trail. Ive never seen the south trails but Ive been told they are Moab-esque and/or better :2thumbs:

[greyhair biker]

sounds like we're going to be busy this year! :ride: :ride:

[vamedtech]

Whats the road like between I-70 and Kimball Draw. Could we camp in the Kimball Draw area? How far is it to Horizon Arch? Would the ride be technically difficult on a bike? I'm seriously considering going to this area.

[greyhair biker]

Whats the road like between I-70 and Kimball Draw. Could we camp in the Kimball Draw area? How far is it to Horizon Arch? Would the ride be technically difficult on a bike? I'm seriously considering going to this area.
someones' gonna have to help us out here 'cause I never have stopped between there..Ive always been driving through :2thumbs:

[Udink]

Whats the road like between I-70 and Kimball Draw. Could we camp in the Kimball Draw area? How far is it to Horizon Arch? Would the ride be technically difficult on a bike? I'm seriously considering going to this area.
If I recall, the road between I-70 and Kimball Draw was pretty nice, I think you could get a passenger car through there. I was driving a truck, however, and wasn't paying terribly close attention. I do recall seeing some small 2WD trucks down in Kimball Draw, so for sure you could get something like that down there. It seems to me that there might have been a few places to camp off the road, but I also don't recall for sure.

The ride wouldn't be very technically difficult on a bike. The whole time, you'll be on a road that a 2WD truck could probably handle, as long as it's dry. Although, there was one hill that I shifted into 4-low for, but I don't think I actually turned in the hubs. I just wanted to take it nice and slow. There are quite a few ups-and-downs along the road after you leave Kimball Draw.

From I-70 to the end of the road near Horizon Arch is 13.9 miles. From where you first turn onto the road in Kimball Draw it's only 8.7 miles to the arch.

The attached GPX file shows the tracklog from my GPS when I was there in April 2006. There are waypoints (numbered 1-18) that actually count backwards from I-70 to near the arch. So 18 is where you exit I-70, and 1 is the end of the road near the arch. I believe from the end of that road, it's a pretty short hike to the arch, probably under 1/2-mile.

[vamedtech]

Thank you so much UDink. These way points are very helpful. My plan is to camp somewhere near Kimball Draw and bike to the arch. We may drive a little closer if we can. We'll be going sometime in the middle of May.

[vamedtech]

I thought I'd post some pictures of our bike trip to Horizon Arch. We had a wonderful time and some really nice weather except for a brief thunder bumper as we rode back from the arch. The great part is we saw not a single soul the whole time we were there. It was peaceful unlike Moab. Thank you Udink for the suggestion.

[vamedtech]

All the pics I have are to big to post. Can anyone tell me how to reduce the file size so I could post them.

[Sombeech]

All the pics I have are to big to post. Can anyone tell me how to reduce the file size so I could post them.

I've got the perfect solution. Do a quick read on this thread:
http://uutah.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1718

and then download that picture resizer, also here:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/whistler/Install/2/WXP/EN-US/ImageResizerPowertoySetup.exe

I love it, use it all of the time. :2thumbs: