Moab, Sedona, Zion.

[kootenayskier]

Just back from two weeks vacationing and riding in Moab, Sedona and Zion. Thought I’d share some very subjective observations for anyone considering something similar. I’m a solid expert rider (on a Carbon Nomad) who likes to ride technical trails all day, and my (lady) partner is only a little less fit and daring.



Moab.
We’d ridden here 18 months ago, and only had a few days. Captain Ahab was already my favourite trail anywhere, and now with the new Hymassa climb and combined with an out and back to Pothole arch, it’s hard to beat. Tried the Klondike bluffs area for the first time, and enjoyed it so much that we went back. Mega-steps, Alaska, Homer, EKG, Miners, and Dyno-flow are all constantly entertaining. Love Muffin can’t be beat for breakfast. Wouldn’t go back to Moab Brewery - mediocre beer and food in a frenetic atmosphere. We’ve found the staff at Moab Rim Cyclery to be friendly and lacking in dude-itude. River Canyon Lodge was acceptable for a cheap ($60) motel.


Sedona.
Had a week to check out a good selection of the trails. Particularly enjoyed Chuck Wagon, Airie, Grand Central, and Little Horse. Loved Slim Shady, Mescal, Hiline (despite walking the chute), and especially Hog Wash. Camping at Page Springs Resort for $15 a night (only 20 mins out of Sedona, on Oak Creek, with hot showers) was quiet and idyllic. Sedona is beautiful, but on the surface an expensive new-age theme park for baby-boomers, and other than in the bike shops (and on the trails) we felt like aliens. Cottonwood (down valley) is a real town with plenty of better moderate dining options. OTE and Bike & Bean were both helpful.

Zion
Only had a couple of days here. The very welcoming guys at OTE in Hurricane steered us away from Little Creek to Guacamole, and we’re glad they did – at least our equal favourite ride of the trip. The Cryptobiotic- Goosebumps – Jems loop wasn’t so memorable. Endless options for free camping in the desert, and huge clean room for $39 at the Hurricane Super8. Checking out Zion NP is a must.

[smmokan]

It sure would be nice to see a few more pictures.

[Percy Rideout]

Moab Cyclery are the guys right near city market? If so I've had the same experiences with that crew. Solid guys, and much less douchnozzleness than some of the other places in Moab (I'm looking at you Poison Spider).

[My Pet Powder Goat]

Wouldn’t go back to Moab Brewery - mediocre beer and food in a frenetic atmosphere.

I walked in took one look at the shitshow tourist trap that was Moab brewery and went back to Woody's; a dive bar with actual locals and some good music on weekends. The sushi Joint in town is an absolute must do.

Guacamole is an amazing a sunset ride.

[jono]

Guac has it's upsides, but if you like Ahab I'm surprised they would point you there instead of Little Creek or GBM. Glad it worked out, of course, but curious...I felt like Ahab was a lot more like Little Creek than Guacamole. Has Guac been upgraded lately? It has been a few years for me.

[ShoNuff]

^^ We just did a similar trip with some OR, CA and ID alpine thrown in at the beginning and end. I really dug Little Creek Mesa, only a days worth of riding, but well worth it. GBM and Grafton were killer as well. Gotta love the Sothwest.

[ghosthop]

just got back from gbm and little creek, excellent riding for sure. A couple of the guys in our crew hit up the zen trail and had good things to say about it. The little creek loop was by far the highlight of the trip, great crew and a great ride, a little stem and cap action didn't hurt either...

[WaistDeepGroomers]

Zion
Only had a couple of days here. The very welcoming guys at OTE in Hurricane steered us away from Little Creek to Guacamole, and we’re glad they did – at least our equal favourite ride of the trip. The Cryptobiotic- Goosebumps – Jems loop wasn’t so memorable. Endless options for free camping in the desert, and huge clean room for $39 at the Hurricane Super8. Checking out Zion NP is a must.

Any more info on trails around here you'd care to share? Headed there for thanksgiving with the girlfriend and some friends... hoping to do some riding during that time. GF is not so hot on the tech stuff...

[alewi11]

If your gf doesn't like the tech stuff, the trails around St. George might be a good option. Bearclaw Poppy comes to mind. If you're wanting to stick to the Hurricane area stuff, Jem is nice and easy.

[WaistDeepGroomers]

If your gf doesn't like the tech stuff, the trails around St. George might be a good option. Bearclaw Poppy comes to mind. If you're wanting to stick to the Hurricane area stuff, Jem is nice and easy.

Right on... many thanks! What's Little Creek to Guac like?

[crashtestdummy]

Right on... many thanks! What's Little Creek to Guac like?

Little Creek has much more uninterrupted slick rock, and 3 to 4 times more trail length. It is also harder to navigate. It is easier to get though.

The inner loop of Guac isn't very technical, but the middle loop is, and the outer loop is half technical, half buff singletrack. The last half mile of the road up to Guac can be real nasty if it's at all icy, and it gets very little sun in the winter.

[Swine]

Any more info on trails around here you'd care to share? Headed there for thanksgiving with the girlfriend and some friends... hoping to do some riding during that time. GF is not so hot on the tech stuff...

Have her shuttle you up crybaby one day and ride Grafton down. She won't like it, but you will - by far my favorite in that area.

[WaistDeepGroomers]

So it sounds like I'll have one full day by myself to explore while my gf goes to Bryce with her friends. Just got my mach 6 and am so pumped to get some riding in!!

So based on your giys feedback and research, my potential list looks like: bear claw poppy, JEM and Goulds, little creek and guac, gooseberry Mesa, and grafton. Shuttles may not be in the picture unless there's any chance of hitching up to the top. Would love to get some long downhills in enduro style. Will be packing the knee pads but probably not the full face. Should I bring goggles???

Also, what's cell coverage like? Any chance with verizon I'll be able to stay in touch with gf while she's in Bryce? Many thanks

[kidwoo]

Jem is that flat one outside of hurricane right? The one that's just like pedaling a strip of dirt in a flat field of sage and wind?

From what I remember of grafton it's not that big of a deal to just climb the road if you don't want to shuttle. It's not fun, but you go up. That and bear poppy and (especially) the zen trail outside of st George are the best riding I've seen of the area. Bear Poppy isn't what most people call 'technical' but it gets technical in terms of line choices once you let go of the chicken sticks. Zen is just a rad mountain bike ride. Goes up, awesome views, neat rock all over the place, then goes down with some fast rowdy bits that don't need to be rowdy if you don't want to fly down it. It's also fairly short so you can do it twice or tie it in with some of the other stuff that's right there.

There are definitely some trails there that never seem to really go up or down consistently which I wouldn't call fun riding......but it's all kind of relative because that whole area is like riding around on mars. It's ALL got great scenery and just looking at the landscape is an activity in itself.

I've only ever been to zion in the winter but having that park pretty much empty seems like the best way to see it. Just watch out for ice in some of the slots.

Last time I was down there, cell coverage is fine around hurricane/st George.

[joetron]

Def go ride Zen w/out lady friend at some point. Very close to StG and super fun. It's right next to BEarclaw Poppy, but they have different access points.
Use Utahmountainbiking.com as a resource for trailhead directions, but I find their trail descriptions fairly unhelpful.
I have not ridden Little Creek/Guac, but have heard from numerous sources that it's kinda tough to go in blind without someone who knows where to go. Would not recommend such a scenario for a gf ride.
Grafton shuttle will be a tough hitch-uation.
There is fun stuff out by Santa Clara as well: Barrel Roll, etc

[LeeLau]

Dunfee - i just PMed you contacts for locals. Like what Woo and Flowtron said it's far easier to follow a local who knows the lines.

[evdog]

Icehouse is probably the longest sustained descent around that area and is a pretty fun trail. But again its not that long for the amount of climbing to get to the top.

For Grafton you can always do a couple loops up top before dropping down the final descent. That would make the climb back up more worth it. You can also ride the connector from Gooseberry to Grafton. Its a fun trail but always seems to take more time and effort than I remembered. Both of those plus a lap at Goose would make for a pretty good day, and if you time it right you could have the GF pick you up at the bottom of Grafton on their way back to Hurricane.

Is the GF going to Bryce for real? Or did you mean Zion. Just asking cuz Bryce is a couple hours away. Thunder mountain next to Bryce is well worth riding also.

If you want long descents go to Brian Head. Shuttle required there, though.

[crashtestdummy]

Bryce will not have good cell coverage, although Bryce Canyon City might. Forget riding Thunder Mountain or any Brian Head stuff, it will all have 6" or more snow in any shaded areas.

JEM has some nice flowing (oh no, I used that word) downhill. Bear Claw is harder to get good flow out of. It always seems to me that the uphill doesn't equal the downhill return.

I have heard the Icehouse is crap since it burned several years ago, but I always thought that it was crap.

A great place to hook up with other riders or to get advice is Over The Edge in Hurricane.

[jono]

Verizon has good coverage on Gooseberry whenever you're not down between two rocks, and I think about the same on Little Creek. s out in a few spots on the road toward Zion; that might apply to some of JEM toward Virgin.

If Lee's PM included Morgan, you might consider taking a ride with him and the gf, (if she's also planning to ride). I've ridden with him a couple times on Little Creek and had great fun both times, once with my wife along--he knows how to make it interesting regardless, and like Lee said, those rocks are more fun with someone that knows the lines and the tricks. Plus the guy basically built the GBM trails, so it's a little like busting out the jeans and taking a run with Iceman.

[WaistDeepGroomers]

thanks all for the advice and connects. finishing up some planning stuff:

-well do first night in watchmen then hopefully mosey over to GBM for the other nights. Is it doable getting up that road in a sedan?
-best hikes for our crew seem like angel's landing and observation point
-for bike day top candidates are GBM loop, grafton, and the goulds/hurricane rim/JEM loop. If i packed the first two in could I leave the car at the white trailhead and split up those 2 rides morning/afternoon?

Thanks crew, can't wait ride the red wave brah!

[kidwoo]

-best hikes for our crew seem like angel's landing

Hold on tight.

[WaistDeepGroomers]

Hold on tight.

GF's friend's BF is more of the timid variety/afraid of heights or something. Is he going to have a panic attack up there?

[kidwoo]

Certainly a possibility. He wouldn't be the first.

I hiked up there last January with 50lbs of camera gear and two tripods hanging off my back with the intention of catching a sunset and some stars. There was packed snow and ice all over the two sketchy bits and facing down while squatting with the tripods freaked me out a little bit because they were dragging (and my feet were sliding, even with those yak track things on my boots). I wasn't cool with doing that in the dark so I turned around.

Given, I was loaded down, awkward and it was slick as hell but it definitely spooked me a bit. And I'm usually someone who's fairly fine with anchors or something like the chains they have along the hike. But the exposure is no joke if you don't like the heights.

There's a little intermediate saddle you top out on right before walking out onto the spine. He could hang out there and still enjoy some nice views while you guys go out to the point.

[smmokan]

I know Angel's Landing is the popular hike, but I recommend Observation Point in Zion instead. It climbs above Angel's Landing and has a better view of the entire canyon, plus you get a view to the north for a little bit of the hike as well. It's longer and covers more vert, but is definitely worth it. My wife and I did the hike fairly early in the morning and were the only ones at the top... we looked down on Angel's Landing and could see dozens (if not hundreds) of people.

This was from the top of OP, and Angel's Landing is the outcropping you see on the right. The trail comes in from the right of that, not the left:



And a couple others from the hike:

[StuntCok]

I am sitting here with a ruptured Achilles and looking toward Oct/Nov, when I should be recovered. When is too late in the season to get the most out of Moab/Fruita? I was there in Oct a few years back and the highest trails got some snow but I was told this was unusually early. Thanks.