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Ride hard and relax.
The seemingly endless stretches of mesas and sandstone rock formations in the Zion National Park area and the unique orange and red hoodoo formations of Bryce Canyon National Park are like nowhere else on earth. The rides we've chosen for you to explore this gorgeous region range from a twisting maze over the slickrock of Gooseberry Mesa to the downhill, hoodoo slalom of Thunder Mountain within Red Canyon. The weather during May is ideal - plenty warm, but we'll avoid the scorching temps of the summer season.
After your arrival in Las Vegas, catch the St George Express shuttle to St. George, Utah. The shuttle will drop you off at the Howard Johnson in St George, where we will meet the entire group at 6pm sharp and shuttle out the Bryce Canyon area and our first night’s stay.
We’ll get rolling in the Hermosa Tours van around 10am from the lodge. Very soon we'll arrive at the lower Thunder Mountain trailhead where we'll unload. There are several ways to ride Thunder Mountain, but we prefer to climb the scenic bike path that parallels Utah's Route 12 and then up a short pitch on an ATV trail. At the Coyote Hollow trailhead it's time to go downhill. With the exception of a few short ups, this mostly downhill singletrack is like a fast descent on a foreign planet. In addition to weaving between hoodoo formations, this ride features a ¼ mile section atop a "fin" formation some 300 feet above the valley floor. This incredible descent ends at our morning start point where a tasty lunch will be waiting for us. Depending on time we’ll be happy to shuttle back up and hit it all again if you’re up for it! Ride length is between 13 and 19 miles.
Day two’s ride will be an adventure in time as we ride the Cassidy Trail...named after Butch Cassidy. The canyon we ride in today was a known hideout for Butch Cassidy and his Hole in the Wall Gang. We do some rustling ourselves, but by mountain bike on some of SW Utah’s finest singletrack. The topography on this ride changes numerous times from moonscape, to ponderosa forest to Bryce Canyon-like hoodoo formations. This ride is still a bit of a hidden gem you simply won’t believe in spots. Today’s ride length is about 12 miles.
Our third ride will be the first section of the Grandview Trail also within the Red Canyon District. The Grandview Trail changes many times throughout its 75+ mile length, but we’ll be tackling the first 13 miles – a mixture of single and double track across several canyons. Amazing eye-popping views come with little or no warning. Today’s ride will involve some short sections of hiking our bikes, but the overall experience is tremendous. After our ride we move on to Springdale, UT for our final two ride days closer to Zion National Park. Ride length is 13 miles.
We'll go exploring the desert mesa country on Gooseberry’s sister mesa - Little Creek Mesa. When this singletrack route isn't winding through juniper, pinyon and manzanita it’s depositing us onto rock outcroppings with eye-popping vistas of neighboring mesas and Zion Canyon. The slickrock portions of this ride are reminiscent of Moab’s Slickrock trail, but without the lung-busting steep climbs. These slickrock sections also lend themselves to playground attitude; our guests always enjoy the little stunts and jumps. Ride length is about 15 miles.
Gooseberry Mesa. Just the mention of this world-class trail is mountain biker catnip. Gooseberry is the best of technical slickrock and great singletrack. While the riding is incredible, be sure to keep your wits about you – the cliff edge views are unbelievable and vying for your attention. Long views of stone monuments and Zion Canyons are plentiful. The end of the day’s route is Gooseberry Point and the erratic overhead pattern of the Virgin River, as well as pine-laden vistas of the Pine Valley Mountains Wilderness. To say today’s ride has been awe inspiring would short change the experience. Ride length is about 12 to 15 miles.
After a great week of riding, we say goodbye and return you to the Howard Johnson hotel in St. George, UT.
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