Utah, best rides?

[toast2266]

2nd pretty much everything Woo said, except the part about Mag 7. Mag 7 > Blue Dot > Portal might be my favorite ride in Moab. It's long, and there's plenty of pedaling, but it's not that much more pedally than whole enchilada.

[evdog]

Interesting how everyone's opinions differ. I have always thought GJ and Fruita are highly overrated but I love Gooseberry. Much prefer it over little creek.

Just got back from Durango/Moab Sunday night. I'd agree on descending upper Hymasa/lower Ahab. Upper Ahab kicked our butts after doing Rockstacker plus 8 prior days of riding. I like Mag7 too but it is definitely not a descent. Blue dot/gold bar is a total ass kicker, much longer than I remembered. You can always bail out before Gold bar and loop back, its still more xc-ish but flows pretty well up til there. Portal is highly worth it though if you can put in the effort to get there.

I'd normally hit Moab when its a bit cooler but wanted to do TWE from the top as well as Durango high country, so we couldn't be here too late. May will be getting warmer in both Moab and Hurricane.

I have done Thunder a couple times at the start of May. Keep an eye on conditions. If you want descents keep an eye on Brian Head too. If el nino doesn't happen and it is a low snow year there are some great descents there that may be accessible. May is pretty early for Brian Head, though.

There is a new-ish trail system in Moab Navajo Rocks that is supposed to be a fast pedal with lots of variety. A few people have recommended it but we didn't have time to check it out.

Personally I'd do a day in Hurricane/StG at each end of the trip to break up the drive. Besides everything else mentioned Guacamole is one of my favorite trail systems there. And Icehouse is a good shuttle outside StG that is pretty fun. That and a Grafton shuttle would make for a good day. TWE, Mag7 and Amasa are probably my 3 favorite rides in Moab. Moab is a cool place but it was total culture shock with all the crowds after seeing pretty much no one in Durango all week.

[kidwoo]

Next year. Whatever it takes I'm heading there next year.

And you'll be letting me know when that happens or I'll throw things at you.

[zion zig zag]

Reading all of this just makes me realize it's been way, way too long since I've been to Moab since I don't even recognize a bunch of these trails. Next year. Whatever it takes I'm heading there next year.

You know how many times I've ridden there since the time I went with you? Once. And I live 4 hours away. I've probably ridden in six other states since then but for some reason when I go to Moab area I end up climbing/hiking and not taking the bike. I think I may have to go this fall and check out some of the "new" options.

[alewi11]

I'm going to be yet another that tells you to skip Gooseberry. I just don't get it. I've ridden it a few times and really have no desire to ever do it again. Just a shitload of techy, punchy climbs. And that's fun in moderation, but an entire ride of it is not my idea of fun. If you do end up doing it, make sure you hit the singletrack (I forget the name) that runs through the middle of the loop. It's the only fun part IMO.

[zion zig zag]

If you do end up doing it, make sure you hit the singletrack (I forget the name) that runs through the middle of the loop. It's the only fun part IMO.

Hidden Canyon?

Also, If you are heading into St. George to ride Zen check out Barrel Roll at the Santa Clara preserve trail system, it's close and worthwhile.

[marving]

My take: skip hurricane and just ride the zen trail and surrounding area down by st george. Do zen twice even and smash things harder. Don't confuse the zen trail with the gem trail up by hurricane. I did and one is just a rolly sandy thing through a bunch of sage.
Gooseberry riding is kind of like the slickrock trail. Pretty, novel, but the riding itself isn't really that fun IMO if you want speed and it's certainly not descent oriented. Ride Grafton Mesa instead for something in the hurricane/virgin area. It's good and rowdy. Pedaling up the road to get to it kinda sucks but it gets you there. It's over on the road to the south end of zion.

Slickrock is exactly as flowtron said.....it's kind of a novelty ride with a bunch of punchy climbs that get tedious after #60. It does go out to a really cool view spot over the river.

The amasa back stuff is fun. Rockstacker to the Jackson trail consists of one steep fun part right at the beginning of Rockstacker, and then a long flattish traverse over to the Jackson trail. Like everything, the scenery is neat while you spin over. The Jackson trail is an actual sustained descent. I'd be scared of doing it in may in an el nino winter though because of that river crossing. You may be swimming. The trail is pretty fun though.
Lower ahab is good. Do it twice. I did it 4 times in three days. Good and smashy. Rallying down the old jeep trail is fun too. The trail out to pothole is pretty fun as well. I've only ridden up hymasa but given how tight it is, I can't see it being that fun (ie fast) riding down.

Flowtron steered me towards the alaska/homer descent at Klondike bluffs. I climbed up baby steps to get there and then knew I also had to come down it. So I went up it again and then turned around. Both descents are good, fast, pretty sustained rock banging. I'm getting happy just remembering it. But climbing the bluffs twice isn't really any big deal. You could easily spend a whole day there. The stuff to on the south end looked like IMBA curvy wurvy routing to me. You can get moving on alaska and baby steps.

The mag7 thing looked pretty horrible topographically to me until you get to portal. Someone told me to just push up portal and ride that. I think that's the way to do it. I rode the poison spider way up there at the end of a summer a long time ago and that sucked so hard because of the sand. Maybe it's better in spring?

That's my heavily descent biased version of what to check out. Porc rim speaks for itself. If scenery makes up for descending you really can't go wrong anywhere. Bot both areas have really good maps available. You'll have fun no matter what you ride. That whole part of the country is like another planet.

awesome info, thanks!

[jono]

Tastes are very clear in this thread. I'm with Evdog on Gooseberry. It's my favorite trail on earth, because I love the techy stuff including the trials stunts and anaerobic climbs. GBM is the quintessential trail of its type, tighter than Slickrock without the huge (moto-friendly) climbs. Little Creek can be similar, too, but the distance between real challenges and more mid-sized steps leave LCM a bit watered down by comparison. Love it or hate it, the whole loop at GBM (particularly south rim's 'skate park,' yellow, and north rim from bowls and ledges west) is the benchmark for naturally occurring technical features without major elevation change.

Some people like drag racing, some like lots of turns. Personally, I found a bit of each in Mag 7 and the Amasaback trails; when I got bored I pedaled a little and things got much more interesting. I guess if the goal is just the Portal, a person could ride the Gemini Bridges road to miss anything before Goldbar/rim, but don't you have double track at home? It looks like the only thing we can all agree on is that lower Hymasa is for riding up, not down. Diversity is a beautiful thing. You guys might even convince me to give Klondike another chance one day; it was pretty tame the last time I went, but it's been a while.

For another variation on the practice loop in lieu of Slickrock: do the practice loop, then head out on the main loop and just turn around wherever for an out and back. The trail is quite different in the other direction, and if you don't go halfway around it doesn't have to be a death march, just ride as much as you want. If you want to save energy and tread just turn around at the big, long climb up the spine after the 4x4 track. Or before that: just pick a sand trap and call it.

[Catch22]

If I had 7 full days (with two good recovery/driving days) to ride moving from west to east then back to the west in May here's what I would plan and some reasoning:

1) Gooseberry-I really enjoy goose as a whole. Great technical riding with tons of play areas where you can create all kinds of fun lines. There are a number of trails up there but I prefer the skatepark/south rim/hidden canyon routes over the north rim stuff. If you want screaming fast flowy stuff afterwards and someone is burnt out and is a willing shuttle driver JEM is a really fun adn pretty quick add on ride. If you ride Hurricane Rim back to the highway be prepared for some rolling terrain with some significant climbs. Big views on the rim though.

2)Full Mag 7 shuttle-The initial downhill from the shuttle drop is fun, relatively fast with some short up sections and a nice introduction to Moab riding. When you finally bottom out in the valley you've got a pretty long grinder up to the ridge but it is absolutely worth it. There are some really cool views over some small sanyons along the way up and even folks I've gone up there with that walked damn near the whole climb thought it was worth it once you make it to the rim. Huge views and amazing riding along Blue Dot and then into Portal. For me Blue Dot and Portal are as good as Moab gets. Absolutely make sure you try to hit the original Blue Dot route up to the top and along the rim. I still haven't ridden the legal Gold Bar version but my impression is it adds some needless climbing and skips a couple cool spots along the way.

3) Amasa/Pothole/RockstackerHymasa/lower Ahab- Probably my favorite overall ride in Moab. Up Amasa (Amasa if you like sessioning technical ledge moves and Hymasa if you would prefer a fairly easy and uneventful climb up. They cross several times so you can mix it up.) Enjoy the rip out to the slickrock domes. Make sure and go to the top of the big dome at the end because there are huge views off the back that people miss (as well as a sketchy line down to the little bridge between a death cliff and huge pothole). After taking that in check out the couple rad wallrides at the bottom of the dome before heading out to the Pothole Arch. On the way back from the arch take the turn off for Rockstacker and be ready for some fairly hair raising moves right away. One slippery drop down a steep slickrock slab to a loose chute and a section of 4 nasty switchbacks are the most noteworthy but the whole thing is fun. Once you've made your way back to the start of Ahab I'd also suggest skipping upper Ahab and rallying Upper Hymasa to lower Ahab. Upper Ahab is pretty life-sucking at the end of that ride and takes some of the fun away from probably the single bet descent segment in Moab.

4) WTF (Welcome to Fruita day) Start the day with Kokopelli loops. If your group will enjoy an 'as tough as it gets' level tech trail I'd say start with Moore Fun from east to west. The climb is all rideable but relentless technical moves on a fairly consistently steep climb up to the best viewpoint at Kokopelli. I love the tech drop down from there. It's pretty long and drawn out and it's one of those rides that if you can find the flow it's as good as it gets but it will make you work to find it. Once down Moore head out Steve's Cutoff to Mary's to the classic Horsethief Bench and then bomb Marys doubletrack back to the main road. If Moore Fun is out of the question I'd start with climbing Lion's out on the west end of Koko. You could start at the main Koko lot on the east and warmup riding the couple miles of road, setup a shuttle, or start at Lions knowing you're going to have to finish with some gravel road riding. Take Lions to Mack Ridge which is one of the better lesser used trails in Fruita. After Mack hit Steve's Cutoff to Marys/Horsethief/Marys as mentoned before. After Koko at stop at Hot Tomato for lunch is absolutely mandatory. With 3 or so hours to dusk head out to 18 road. I'd recommend using Prime Cut as your climb route and do a couple Prime Cut to PBR laps. Make sure you've got enough daylight for a final climb up Prime Cut and head out to Joes Ridge to MoJoes. 18 Road is fun but for me it's simply a day ender type area. I can't really imagine killing a whole day out there with the good the surrounding area has to offer. It is an awesome place to hang out at the end of the day spinning some laps and enjoying parking lot beverages. It should be followed by more Hot Tomato as well.

5) Palisade Rim morning and Lunch Loops/Holy Cross evening- Palisade Rim is a pretty tough and fun technical climb up with a couple loop options up top. I'd recommend hitting them in a counterclockwise direction. There is a pretty obvious saddle area before the upper loops start with some pretty nice petroglyphs (and a huge boulder with dino bones if you pay attention). On the upper segment I tend to start up the counter clockwise option til you see a spur trail that drops down into a wash. This leads out to a really cool overlook point. I'll usually head out there and then upon return to the main trail head back down the same direction you came from. The rest of the upper is pretty meh and the run down from there is fast and fun (and exposed in places). Once you hit that saddle finish the clockwise portion of the lower loop and enjoy the long rally back to the bottom. There is a nice brewery/distillery in Palisade worth checking out after. Afternoon I'd go over to Lunch Loops and do something that will get you on Holy Cross. Best option is probably arranging a shuttle for the Ribbon with Desert Rat Tours/Shuttle. Ride the Ribbon down and once you climb out of the canyon cross the road and hit Gunny to the Gunnector, then back across the road to PreNup to Holy Cross and then add on as much as you would like on the way to Curt's Lane to get to the lower trailhead.

6) Whole Enchilada- I'll preface this one by saying I would only add WE to the list if shuttles are running to the top. Without the initial new singletrack from the dropoff and the amazing stretch of trail from Burro Pass this long slog is pretty meh for me. I don't really get Hazard, UPS and LPS are fun, and Porcupine Doubletrack is the biggest buzz kill segment of 'trail' ever (IMO). It sucks every ounce of enjoyment out of this ride for me to the point where I barely enjoy the great stretch of singletrack that follows running down to the river. We're riding it this weekend and my plan is to drop Burro down til you hit the Schumans turn. Schumans is awesome steep downhill much like Burro. Bad news is you have to get back to that junction which means pedaling up some gravel road and then a pretty long hike a bike back to the top. Then hit Hazard and the new Jimmy Keen singletrack instead of the Kokopelli Road (even though it's fast and filled with water bars to jump), then UPS/LPS, and at the primary Porc overlook I'm going to rally the jeep road (2 or 3 miles of downhill tech jeep road) back to Sand Flats (to Milt's for a bacon cheeseburger). If Burro is a no-go I'd definitely hit Klondike for part of a day and maybe mix in part of Navajo Rocks. It was a great option on a rainy day last spring and I've heard it's running really good even without moisture now.

7)Guacamole morning/Zen afternoon- Pretty straightforward here. Getting back closer to Vegas with a couple really good rides. Little Creek is also an option here if you can find a guide or Grafton.

[Anospa]

This is well timed! I fly to SLC tonight and head to Moab tomorrow/Friday morning. We're shuttling he whole enchilada on Saturday and fly back from SLC Monday afternoon.

First trip out, pretty stoked! Thanks for all the info, I'll try and remember some of it.

[marving]

Wow you guys are amazing, thanks so much for all that. That is seriously great. Just curious, you swapped Thunder Mountain for Guacamole/Zen, what's the reasoning?

If I had 7 full days (with two good recovery/driving days) to ride moving from west to east then back to the west in May here's what I would plan and some reasoning:

1) Gooseberry-I really enjoy goose as a whole. Great technical riding with tons of play areas where you can create all kinds of fun lines. There are a number of trails up there but I prefer the skatepark/south rim/hidden canyon routes over the north rim stuff. If you want screaming fast flowy stuff afterwards and someone is burnt out and is a willing shuttle driver JEM is a really fun adn pretty quick add on ride. If you ride Hurricane Rim back to the highway be prepared for some rolling terrain with some significant climbs. Big views on the rim though.

2)Full Mag 7 shuttle-The initial downhill from the shuttle drop is fun, relatively fast with some short up sections and a nice introduction to Moab riding. When you finally bottom out in the valley you've got a pretty long grinder up to the ridge but it is absolutely worth it. There are some really cool views over some small sanyons along the way up and even folks I've gone up there with that walked damn near the whole climb thought it was worth it once you make it to the rim. Huge views and amazing riding along Blue Dot and then into Portal. For me Blue Dot and Portal are as good as Moab gets. Absolutely make sure you try to hit the original Blue Dot route up to the top and along the rim. I still haven't ridden the legal Gold Bar version but my impression is it adds some needless climbing and skips a couple cool spots along the way.

3) Amasa/Pothole/RockstackerHymasa/lower Ahab- Probably my favorite overall ride in Moab. Up Amasa (Amasa if you like sessioning technical ledge moves and Hymasa if you would prefer a fairly easy and uneventful climb up. They cross several times so you can mix it up.) Enjoy the rip out to the slickrock domes. Make sure and go to the top of the big dome at the end because there are huge views off the back that people miss (as well as a sketchy line down to the little bridge between a death cliff and huge pothole). After taking that in check out the couple rad wallrides at the bottom of the dome before heading out to the Pothole Arch. On the way back from the arch take the turn off for Rockstacker and be ready for some fairly hair raising moves right away. One slippery drop down a steep slickrock slab to a loose chute and a section of 4 nasty switchbacks are the most noteworthy but the whole thing is fun. Once you've made your way back to the start of Ahab I'd also suggest skipping upper Ahab and rallying Upper Hymasa to lower Ahab. Upper Ahab is pretty life-sucking at the end of that ride and takes some of the fun away from probably the single bet descent segment in Moab.

4) WTF (Welcome to Fruita day) Start the day with Kokopelli loops. If your group will enjoy an 'as tough as it gets' level tech trail I'd say start with Moore Fun from east to west. The climb is all rideable but relentless technical moves on a fairly consistently steep climb up to the best viewpoint at Kokopelli. I love the tech drop down from there. It's pretty long and drawn out and it's one of those rides that if you can find the flow it's as good as it gets but it will make you work to find it. Once down Moore head out Steve's Cutoff to Mary's to the classic Horsethief Bench and then bomb Marys doubletrack back to the main road. If Moore Fun is out of the question I'd start with climbing Lion's out on the west end of Koko. You could start at the main Koko lot on the east and warmup riding the couple miles of road, setup a shuttle, or start at Lions knowing you're going to have to finish with some gravel road riding. Take Lions to Mack Ridge which is one of the better lesser used trails in Fruita. After Mack hit Steve's Cutoff to Marys/Horsethief/Marys as mentoned before. After Koko at stop at Hot Tomato for lunch is absolutely mandatory. With 3 or so hours to dusk head out to 18 road. I'd recommend using Prime Cut as your climb route and do a couple Prime Cut to PBR laps. Make sure you've got enough daylight for a final climb up Prime Cut and head out to Joes Ridge to MoJoes. 18 Road is fun but for me it's simply a day ender type area. I can't really imagine killing a whole day out there with the good the surrounding area has to offer. It is an awesome place to hang out at the end of the day spinning some laps and enjoying parking lot beverages. It should be followed by more Hot Tomato as well.

5) Palisade Rim morning and Lunch Loops/Holy Cross evening- Palisade Rim is a pretty tough and fun technical climb up with a couple loop options up top. I'd recommend hitting them in a counterclockwise direction. There is a pretty obvious saddle area before the upper loops start with some pretty nice petroglyphs (and a huge boulder with dino bones if you pay attention). On the upper segment I tend to start up the counter clockwise option til you see a spur trail that drops down into a wash. This leads out to a really cool overlook point. I'll usually head out there and then upon return to the main trail head back down the same direction you came from. The rest of the upper is pretty meh and the run down from there is fast and fun (and exposed in places). Once you hit that saddle finish the clockwise portion of the lower loop and enjoy the long rally back to the bottom. There is a nice brewery/distillery in Palisade worth checking out after. Afternoon I'd go over to Lunch Loops and do something that will get you on Holy Cross. Best option is probably arranging a shuttle for the Ribbon with Desert Rat Tours/Shuttle. Ride the Ribbon down and once you climb out of the canyon cross the road and hit Gunny to the Gunnector, then back across the road to PreNup to Holy Cross and then add on as much as you would like on the way to Curt's Lane to get to the lower trailhead.

6) Whole Enchilada- I'll preface this one by saying I would only add WE to the list if shuttles are running to the top. Without the initial new singletrack from the dropoff and the amazing stretch of trail from Burro Pass this long slog is pretty meh for me. I don't really get Hazard, UPS and LPS are fun, and Porcupine Doubletrack is the biggest buzz kill segment of 'trail' ever (IMO). It sucks every ounce of enjoyment out of this ride for me to the point where I barely enjoy the great stretch of singletrack that follows running down to the river. We're riding it this weekend and my plan is to drop Burro down til you hit the Schumans turn. Schumans is awesome steep downhill much like Burro. Bad news is you have to get back to that junction which means pedaling up some gravel road and then a pretty long hike a bike back to the top. Then hit Hazard and the new Jimmy Keen singletrack instead of the Kokopelli Road (even though it's fast and filled with water bars to jump), then UPS/LPS, and at the primary Porc overlook I'm going to rally the jeep road (2 or 3 miles of downhill tech jeep road) back to Sand Flats (to Milt's for a bacon cheeseburger). If Burro is a no-go I'd definitely hit Klondike for part of a day and maybe mix in part of Navajo Rocks. It was a great option on a rainy day last spring and I've heard it's running really good even without moisture now.

7)Guacamole morning/Zen afternoon- Pretty straightforward here. Getting back closer to Vegas with a couple really good rides. Little Creek is also an option here if you can find a guide or Grafton.

[leroy jenkins]

I'd say just hike the portal trail, and climb the webbing protected crack and walk to the arch that looks down on the rim trail parking lot. Lots of stuff up there to miss out on if youre just biking through, and as has already been said, the biking isnt amazing there or anything.

[muted]

There is a new-ish trail system in Moab Navajo Rocks that is supposed to be a fast pedal with lots of variety. A few people have recommended it but we didn't have time to check it out.

It's good, but nothing unique or real exciting. Some areas need to be packed down still.

[Catch22]

Wow you guys are amazing, thanks so much for all that. That is seriously great. Just curious, you swapped Thunder Mountain for Guacamole/Zen, what's the reasoning?

Well, I guess the problem for me is TM is just too damn far from everything else to make it convenient. It's a great ride with awesome views but pretty short for the amount of driving it takes to get there. If you haven't been to Bryce and seen that kind of scenery before I would move it up the list a bit. If you can hit it on one of the rest/driving days on the way through I would do it as well. Or you could kill a full day and do that in the morning and the Cassidy/Rich/Losee in the afternoon. The other concern is weather. In May you're probably going to be okay but if S Utah gets hit hard with the El Nino year it might still be a mess. It's an absolute no ride if it's wet. One other thing to consider, the horse groups can be completely inconsiderate in the early season and it's not exactly irregular for them to go out and posthole much of that trail in the spring. One of those things that you'll never know til you get there so it's a bit of a gamble.