Southwest Utah Mountain Biking - St. George, Hurricane and Virgin

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

One Day in Zion National Park - Angel's Landing and the Narrows

A November trip to Southwest Utah was an excellent getaway from shoulder season in Canada. Although our trip was focused on mountain biking, Zion National Park made a perfect day trip from our basecamp in Hurricane and gave us a change of pace from big days in the saddle. We only had one day to explore the park so we decided to ignore the conventional advice of one hike per day and tackled the two most popular hikes in the park, Angel's Landing and the Narrows, in one tiring push. If we had more time, we would have loved to check out the West Rim Trail and some of the canyoning routes but those will have to wait for next visit.

Happy hikers