Moab vs St George

[Sombeech]

out of the 2, where do you prefer to ride, and why?

[accadacca]

Tough choice. I'd vote STG right now. You can ride there practically year round. Mesquite and Vegas are close to roll the dice or eat crab until you puke. Lotta scenery too. (At least in Vegas. Mesquite. ) You got Zion down the road and plenty of hiking and climbing in STG and Zion. Plenty of great single track and a few slick rock trails near Zion. IMO Gooseberry Mesa is one of the best in the state. Cedar City is only an hour down the road and has a ton of great trails in the mtns.

YOMV - Moab can become an outdoor theme park for most of the year. No thanks. That said, it was hard for me to choose.

[Deathcricket]

I voted St. George cause the good trails are less than 2 minutes away.

[greyhair biker]

I cant decide! I love em both differently, although if I was closer to Sr.George I'd definitely make it there more.

[Ryan]

My vote goes to Moab, it just feels more like a vacation location. Campgrounds, shops, big river ect.
I have to drive from the O town area so it is closer.
With that being said I would rather ride Gooseberry than anything in Moab.
Also, I am jealous as hell about your latast trip Beech I wanted to go.

[Kent K25]

St. George, but not for Gooseberry. Rode that one once and thought it was about the most boring ride ever.

Still not sure what everyone loves so much about Gooseberry?

JEM and Bearclaw on the other hand...awesome!

[Ryan]

JEM is a good trail also.

[Sombeech]

Gooseberry's a good trail, if you want to spend an ENTIRE day out there.

I haven't had the desire to drive clear out there on that terrible road for a few years now. I'm finding a lot of trails with easier access to fulfill my technical ride quota.

[Kent K25]

That is probably the issue...."technical" I'm just not a fan of technical rides. Am I the best technical rider out there? Certainly not, and I just don't enjoy the techy stuff enough to hit those trails time and again to be a tech pro. I'm way more into the faster adrenaline pumping rides like JEM and Bearclaw when you ride them right.

[neilether]

Still not sure what everyone loves so much about Gooseberry....

This is interesting. I rode Gooseberry for the first time this past November and absolutely loved it. In my opinion it had a little bit of everything all in a 15 mile convoluted loop ride. There was some fast flowy singletrack, technical tight turns and ledges, some steep/scary slickrock sections on the south side of the loop, and countless step ups/downs along the way. If you're not a fan at all of constant technical challenges I can see where it wouldn't be that fun. I loved it. Little Creek was much the same, except it had a lot more flowy sections to it.

We rode Gooseberry in the morning and then JEM (from the top) in the afternoon. That was an excellent mix of technical in teh morning and fast flow in the afternoon. That worked for us anyway.

I haven't had the desire to drive clear out there on that terrible road for a few years now. I'm finding a lot of trails with easier access to fulfill my technical ride quota.

The road condition obviously changes from time to time, but in November is was a pretty easy cruise and didn't seem to take that long. There were a couple of low clearance sedans in the parking lot when we got there.

[neilether]

.......it was a pretty easy cruise and didn't seem to take that long. There were a couple of low clearance sedans in the parking lot when we got there.

Allow me to clarify a bit, we were staying in a hotel in Hurricane. So that does change things if you are coming from St. George. Still an awesome trail though!

[devo_stevo]

My response to the same question on UMB.com

I'm voting Moab simply for the solitude. I know what you're thinking. Where do you get that in Moab? Well, if you ever venture off of the beaten path and into the mountains (in the summer) or down south toward the Needles District of Canyonlands or somewhere else like that, you can go days without seeing very many people. It really is a great place. I have a great book from sometime in the early 1990's that is called Above and Beyond Slickrock that has around 40 rides in it. It's a bit dated and there are obviously a lot of newer rides that aren't in it, but the great thing about it is that there are a ton of rides that take more than a day to complete. I still haven't done many of them but plan to do so just so that I can be away from everything for a while.

Wow. That's a serious run on sentence. Sorry about that.

I like St. George a lot too though, but for different reasons. It's a great place to go when the weather everywhere else sucks and there are some classic trails for sure, but I'm still voting Moab.

Also, Moab is a way cooler town to visit than St. George and the scenery is better IMO.

I also love Gooseberry though. That was one of the first really tough trails that I ever rode (outside of Moab). I was there in 1995 and 1996 and rode it with the former owner of Bike Zion in Springdale as part of the Zion mountain bike festival. This was before any of those trails (Gooseberry, Slickrock Swamp, and Little Creek among others) were even legal. They were still just a bunch of bushwhacking across the top of the mesa with a few well established routes once in a while. There were a bunch of things that are no longer a part of the official trail that I still remember but couldn't find to save my life.

Those were the days. Is 32 years old too young to feel a bit outdated?

[johnnyspoke]

St. George, but not for Gooseberry. Rode that one once and thought it was about the most boring ride ever.

Still not sure what everyone loves so much about Gooseberry?

JEM and Bearclaw on the other hand...awesome!

ha ha, horses for courses I guess. I know this will come out as outright blasphemy on this board, I've found Jem to be the worst trail I've ridden in the St. George area, and I've pretty much ridden them all. I will concede the first mile of singletrack is pretty good, after that Zzzzzzzzz........

[mfshop]

St. George, but not for Gooseberry. Rode that one once and thought it was about the most boring ride ever.

Still not sure what everyone loves so much about Gooseberry?

JEM and Bearclaw on the other hand...awesome!

ha ha, horses for courses I guess. I know this will come out as outright blasphemy on this board, I've found Jem to be the worst trail I've ridden in the St. George area, and I've pretty much ridden them all. I will concede the first mile of singletrack is pretty good, after that Zzzzzzzzz........

I think that's the first time i've heard anyone dis gooseberry or jem . But it's definitely true, we all get something different out of riding...

[blueeyes]

I voted St. George. Surprised?? haha I didn't think so. But then there is more than trails influencing my decision right now.

I have only been to Moab twice and really love it for the camping and vacationing aspect, but if I had to choose a place to live out of the two. St. George hands down. Year round biking, hiking, Zion, Vegas, and skiing about an hour away in the winter.

Did I mention I am applying for a job at DSC wish me luck! It is an opportunity I can not pass up even if St. George didn't offer all that I love to do.

[Scott P]

You should make Fruita one of the choices in the poll as well.

[chromehead58]

gooseberry number one trail, slick rock number two, then stucci springs..so two of my top three in st george, have to cast my vote for st george.

[Sombeech]

I've yet to do Stucki Springs.

[RedSpecialized]

Since I haven't ridden ST. George, I can't really vote. My friend and I go to Moab once a year and he swears that ST. George is better. I would love to ride there some time. My goal is to get out there some time this year. My friend pays for the hotel everytime we go to Moab so it is hard to pass up a free trip minus the gas.....It is hard to beat a trail like the Whole Enchilada in Moab though. That trail has a little bit of everything.

[Pelon1]

There are not many things better than riding the "cow trail" with a full moon! That is the last section of the Bear Claw Poppy Trail. It just sorta glows with the moon light.