Mountain Biking in Moab - rock on!
- Girls Gone Adventuring
- Jan 6, 2018
- 3 min read
This one was a good one! Moab is an Adventuring Mecca, and this mountain biking Adventure was a super-amazingly-awesome one :)
Teenager day-date idea? It's perfect.
Couples one-day-escape? It's perfect.
Mom/daughter or Dad/son fun-day? It's perfect.
Friend outing? It's perfect.
Basically - it's perfect! We had the best mountain-biking expert as our off-site 'tour guide' that told us about this route, gave us directions, encouraged us, and gave us a great app to keep us from getting lost. Dan Walker - you rock!
(The app is called "Trail Forks" - look for the Klondike Bluffs trail in this app - it will follow your progress as you go to make sure you don't wander off into places unknown :)
The trail was called the Klondike Bluffs Trail, it starts at a trailhead about 20 minutes north of Moab (click here for directions to the trailhead and a great run-down of the trail from UtahMoutainBiking.com)
(or click here for directions and trail info from Rim Cyclery) We hauled our mountain bikes to Moab in the back of Katy's mini-van, so no excuses that you can't do this Adventure because you don't have a bike-rack :)
The trail starts out a little rough, the road is sandy and really difficult to ride through and the bike trail 'shortcut' up to the left is actually pretty narrow and difficult! We were wondering what we had gotten ourselves into at this point! Once you get past that initial section though you'll be super glad you didn't let it deter you. The trail is varied with riding over rocky roads, slick rock, and through dry river beds.
We admit it freely and openly - we had to walk our bike up parts of the trail...We are not expert mountain bikers by any stretch... But it was an awesome trail and being able to hike in the back way to Arches National Park at the end was soo awesome! There are signs at most forks to keep you on the Klondike trail and white lines every so often to help if you aren't exactly sure where the trail is -- mostly up on the slick rock sections. (PS - slick rock isn't 'slippery' - it's just that you're riding on a rock mountain, not dirt roads.)
You get to a section where you'll park your bike and hike up a trail to a fence with an "Arches National Park" sign and a little gate to walk through. Hiking into the back of Arches was so amazing, the views were just incredible! We spent some time at the top admiring the beautiful views before heading back down the trail. The way down was MUCH easier than up, and more fun too! You do have to be careful not to get going too fast, if you hit a rock at the wrong angle going super fast you'll likely get to meet the rocks up close and a little too personally!
The sun was just setting as we were getting back, it turned cold and we were glad we had gloves! We saw not another single soul on this entire trip out and back, which was likely due to the time of year. I'm sure this trail is more crowded in the fall and spring months, but we enjoyed the serenity of having the trail to ourselves.
We hope you enjoy this incredible trail as much as we did - tell us about your experience in the comments!
HOW TO DO THIS YOURSELF:
1) Renting Gear: If you don't have a mountain bike, there are many options for renting one in Moab, here are a couple:
** http://moabcyclery.com/rental-bikes/ ($55 for standard bike rental, up to $100 for premium bikes)
** https://chilebikes.com/#tab-rental-fleet-for-2018 ($60 for standard bike rental, up to $100 for premium bikes)
2) Bring lots of water, snacks, and your camera for the beautiful shots!
3) Timing: Our roundtrip biking adventure was 3 1/2 hours. It took us about an hour to get back from the top, which will help as you're planning timing for your trip. It was about 9 1/2 miles, so a good little jaunt :) We arrived to the parking lot at the trailhead around 2:00 and got back at 5:25. Plan your timing accordingly based on the location you'll be coming from.
** Is there an Adventure you think we should discover? Comment below!
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