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Ride hard and relax.
The seemingly endless stretches of mesas and sandstone rock formations in the Zion National Park area 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 fast flowy desert singletrack of the JEM Trail. The weather during spring and fall is ideal - plenty warm, but we'll avoid the scorching temps of the summer season.
From our Monday morning start in St George, Utah we'll set up base camp at The Cliffrose Lodge and Gardens. Situated a mere 200 yards from the entrance to Zion National Park and nestled along the Virgin River, The Cliffrose is a picture of relaxation with a lush pool and Jacuzzi area, comfortable pillow-top beds and a riverside beach area. We'll ease into each morning with a healthy breakfast amongst the acres of gardens and then shuttle out to the day's guided ride.
After your arrival in Las Vegas, catch the St George Express shuttle to St. George, Utah for your first night’s stay. The shuttle will drop you off at the Howard Johnson in St George, which is also our Monday morning pickup location, but you’re welcome to stay anywhere you like in St George on your own this first night.
We’ll get rolling in the Hermosa Tours van around 9am from the Howard Johnson in St George. The start of today’s riding is the Bearclaw Poppy Trail. The Bearclaw Poppy Trail is a rollicking desert singletrack with fast run down into a wash, some very manageable technical obstacles and some hard-packed roller coaster sections. We’ll get in as many shuttle runs as time and the group energy allows. After a healthy, satisfying lunch we’ll spin a few expansive desert singletrack trails also around the St George area. Ride length is between 13 and 19 miles.
Our route today is yet another classic: the Gould’s Rim, Hurricane Rim and JEM Trail loop. The Gould’s Rim section is a combination doubletrack and singletrack that snakes through sagebrush to nice outcrop vistas and skirts along the edge of Gould’s Canyon. The JEM Trail section brings much of the same topography, but with the added bonus of a very fast, sustained downhill and spectacular views of the Virgin River. Finally, the Hurricane Rim portion of our route offers up mildly technical singletrack suspended above the Virgin River and some fun traverses over rock slab. As usual, we’ll head back to the lodge to recuperate and refresh, then unwind with a great BBQ dinner around a riverside fire. Today’s ride length is about 22 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.
We’ll go exploring the desert mesa country yet again 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. Again we will return to the Cliffrose Lodge for recuperation and a tasty dinner that night. Ride length is about 15 miles.
Gooseberry Mesa part two. We hit Gooseberry Mesa again this morning and make sure we’ve ridden all it has to offer. After a week of slickrock riding you’ll want to challenge yourself on the obstacles you may have passed on earlier in the week. From our shorter ride at Gooseberry we shuttle the JEM trail by itself for one last swooping singletrack descent.
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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