Jenny's Mountain Adventures: Southwest Utah Mountain Biking

Utah is famous for its epic slick rock, mesa-top mountain bike trails and desert towers. When we started planning a riding trip to Utah this fall everyone assumed we were heading to Moab, the winter mountain bike mecca for Canadians looking to escape the snow. Most people had never heard of St. George, and were surprised to hear that it neighbours the town of Virgin, home to Red Bull Rampage. Southern Utah is a mountain bike destination in it's own right and is worth a visit for those looking for fun, technical desert riding.

Riding rock slabs on Gooseberry Mesa

After 1700km of driving, we arrived in the town of St. George, the biggest town in Washington Country, Utah. Here we warmed up with some of the classic single track and got used to the punchy, technical trails. After three days in St. George, we then moved our base camp to Hurricane for the rest of the trip. Within a 30 min driving radius, we were able to access trails in Hurricane, La Verkin, Virgin and Grafton. This is where we found the most fun and interesting trails, and I would suggest Hurricane over St. George as a mountain bike destination. Having a car with decent clearance was very helpful to access the trailheads, some of which were at the top of mesas and required some minor 4x4 driving. On our "rest days," we hiked in Zion National Park (30 mins away) and rented a side-by-side for a day out in Sand Hollow State Park.

Welcome to America

St. George

Although we spent little time in the town, we did enjoy a visit to the new cocktail bar "Spiritual" with some reformed Mormons that we had met out on the trails. Apparently the liquor laws are easing in Utah and you can now buy 5% beer at the grocery stores. St. George offers a number of restaurants, grocery stores and is home to Red Rock Bike Shop. The staff at the bike shop were happy to share their local knowledge and give us some recommendations about their trails.

Zones we rode

Trails

Zen ⬥

Barrel Roll and Suicidal Tendencies 🟦 / ⬥

Church Rocks 🟦 / ⬥

Gooseberry Mesa 🟦 / ⬥

Hurricane Rim 🟦

Grafton Mesa ⬥ / ⬥⬥

Flying Monkey ⬥⬥

Nephi's Twist ⬥

Guacamole 🟦 / ⬥

Charcuterie and cocktails at Spiritual, St. George

Zen ⬥

Distance 10km

Elevation 240m

Time 1h30m

Our first ride in St. George was Zen Trail, a 10 km loop starting from the Green Valley Parking lot. We rode this trail counter-clockwise which gives a longer descent on the technical trail. It was a good warmup for the riding to come with lots of punchy up and down sections. The trail tops out at the top of a mesa with views over the Bearclaw Poppy trail. The descent was broken up by some short climbs which made it feel longer than 240m. We made some friends who shared their local beers with us in the parking lot!

Climbing up to Zen

Kyle shows off his technical skills

First post-ride desert beer of the trip

Barrel Roll and Suicidal Tendencies 🟦 / ⬥

Distance 24 km

Elevation 483m

Time 3hrs

This link-up started from Santa Clara and took us up to the top of a mesa. We started Barrel Roll (not to be confused with a nearby trail called Barrel) in a clockwise direction before turning onto Sidewinder to access Suicidal Tendencies. The blue sections of trail were more flowy and the black sections were technical with lots of short rock features. The trails were well signed and easy to follow. We had awesome views from the mesa.

Barrel Roll single track

Viewpoint on the climb

Mesa-top lunch break

A very different landscape than home

Good signage at every intersection

Descending Suicidal Tendencies with views of St. George

Rocky side-hill

Cool rocks

Post-ride donuts in the shade

Church Rocks 🟦 / ⬥

Distance 13.5km

Elevation 215m

Time 1h45m

We woke up early Sunday morning for church. Well... the mountain bike version. This was a really fun trail that was mostly rock slab. There were a few alternative lines and optional features that we sessioned. You need to pay attention to spot the faint lines on the sandstone. We also rode Dino Cliffs to finish off the loop.

Optional slab line

Sandstone trail

Another alternate line through the rocks

Hurricane

We spent the majority of our trip based in Hurricane. We were able to find cheap accommodation at "My Place" where we had a kitchenette and access to the outdoor hot tub. They seemed fine with mountain bikers and we were able to store our bikes in the room. We cooked most of our meals in the room, but also frequented River Rock Roasting Company for early morning to-go coffee and breakfast on the way to the trails and sunset post-ride patio beers. We also spent some time at Over the Edge Sports, the local bike shop. Despite trying to organize a shuttle day in advance, we never heard back from the local companies organizing shuttles so we were on our own. Fortunately many of the big rides are loops!

Home for the week - My Place Hurricane

River Rock Roasting Co. Our favourite patio in Utah

Red Bull Rampage Site

We spent an afternoon exploring one of the original Red Bull Rampage sites which was visible from Kolob Terrace Road north of Virgin. The stunts look so much bigger in real life!

Lining up one of the stunts

Rocks mark the take-off

Jumps everywhere!

Gooseberry Mesa 🟦 / ⬥

Distance 26.3km

Elevation 289m

Time 4hrs

This was my favourite trail of the whole trip, and the most exhausting 300m of elevation I have every done. We managed to ride most of the trails on the mesa by riding a big counter-clockwise loop including Practice Loop, Bowls and Ledges, North Rim, Yellow Trail, Gooseberry Point and South Rim. We also added on Hidden Trail as an out and back and it was absolutely worth the effort! This trail had lots of technical sections as well as amazing views as you worked your way along the mesa rim. It was a full body workout. The trails were marked by signs at intersections but you had to watch for white circles painted on the rock to find the line. Sometimes it was easy to get turned around and end up heading back in reverse direction! The access to the trail was from Apple Valley and involved a long section of dirt road and washboard. There were lots of people camping up on Gooseberry Mesa too!

A fine selection of local flora

North Rim of Gooseberry Mesa

Perfect day for a ride

High up on Gooseberry Mesa

Gooseberry Point

Looking off the South Rim

Rock slabs on the South Rim

The edge of the world

Up and over the rocks on the mesa

More rocks around every corner

Follow the white dots on the rock

Hurricane Rim (IMBA Epic) 🟦

Distance 40.9km

Elevation 560m

Time 4h20m

This was our longest ride, but ended up being the least technical. The IMBA Epic route around Hurricane Rim was more of a cross country single track ride and was a nice break from the very physical riding that we had been doing. We rode the loop counter clockwise and finished on Jem, a pedally single track descent.

Up and down on Hurricane Rim

Smooth single track, a nice change from sandstone punch climbs

Desert views

Looking down at the Virgin River

The one challenging corner on the trail

Short, fast descent

Dusty and happy back at the car

Grafton Mesa ⬥/⬥⬥

Distance 16.5km

Elevation 435m

Time 2h10m

Grafton Mesa had some really cool trails and a longer descent trail than we had ridden so far. The climb from the parking lot was a steep dirt road that gained elevation quickly. Once we were up on the mesa, we rode Show Me the Money, More Money and Grafton Mesa DH. These trails were our first double blacks of the trip and were super fun. The DH trail was steep and loose and a bit exciting too.

Up the road to Grafton Mesa

Long steep climb

Short section of gnar on "Show Me the Money"

Kyle dropping into Grafton Mesa DH

Grafton Mesa DH

Fast side hill single track

The road gap at the bottom of Grafton Mesa

Flying Monkey ⬥⬥

Distance 5.2km

Descent 346m

Time 30min

Since we didn't have anyone to shuttle with, Kyle and I both rode this trail solo. The shuttle road was paved and built right into the cliff. The trail was steep and exposed. I walked a few sections that probably wouldn't have been super difficult, but had serious consequences if you fell. There were other trails that dropped off the side down crazy spines that reminded me of the Rampage site.

Checking out the drop in for King Kong

Guacamole 🟦/⬥

Distance 19.3km

Elevation 166m

Time 2h25m

Our final ride before the long drive back to Canada. We started this one at sunrise and it took quite a while to warm up. The trail intersections were marked with either old buckets or rocks wrapped in chicken wire. We rode the trailforks "Best of Guacamole" route to include Margarita, Guacamole, Lime with a Twist, Holy Guacamole and Salt on the Rim. It was a fun trail with lots of rock riding but also some flow.

Trailside bike inspection after a sudden unexpected OTB

Views of Zion National Park with morning light

Optional features

Trying to follow the trail was hard sometimes

The "lake"

Lamb's Knoll

An afternoon outing to Lamb's Knoll was a fun rest activity. We hiked up to the top then rappelled down a 2 pitch route through a chimney back to the bottom.

Exploring the top of Lamb's Knoll. Can you spot me?

Enjoying a sunny afternoon

On rappell!

I hope this goes!

Sunset at Lamb's Knoll

Sand Hollow State Park

Hurricane is probably better known for its off-roading and rock crawling than its mountain biking. We rented a side-by-side for the day and explored Sand Hollow State Park. It was super fun ripping around on the dunes and through the rock formations!