Cross Canyon trail, Klonzo North trail system.

We went to the Outerbike Moab bike festival, tried some great bikes and scored some nice swag!

Demoing bikes at the Outerbike festival. Riding North 40 in the Moab Brand (Bar M) trail system.

Circle-O trail, Moab Brand trail system.

Beautiful campsite among the boulders (only accessible for short 4 X 4 high clearance rigs). I posted it here on Campendium if you'd like the coordinates.

Rocky Tops trail (Navajo Rocks trail system).

Ramblin trail (Navajo Rocks trail system).

Chisholm trail (Horsethief trail system).

Big Mesa trail (Navajo Rocks trail system).

Trying to play the trumpet with Stéphane.

Our beautiful campsite on Dalton Wells Rd.

I've already written a lot about Moab since it is our 4th time here (I published a long post containing lots of practical info last year), but we still had a long list of trails to ride. We stayed in Moab 3 weeks this year and rode almost daily, so we checked pretty much our whole bucket list! The Navajo Rocks sector blew our mind (Big Mesa was a favorite) as well as Bull Run (Mag 7).

We went back to Milt's as is our tradition for the girls birthday now and discovered that the food is much better if you eat inside than outside (that was the Milt's we knew from 5 years ago - we had been disappointed in the quality of the food in the last few years). The space inside is very limited (a snack bar counter and two tables, but it's well worth waiting at the back door for a party to leave - it is still much faster than doing the line outside and waiting 45 min to be served).

We drove the whole Gemini Bridges Rd in the Westy. This year, we ended up staying on Dalton Wells Road since Willow Springs was very crowded. We found a great spot off the main road along some beautiful green cliffs. It gets pretty windy on those flats sometimes, but there's no avoiding it in that area. Just keep your awnings in check.

We also discovered a great place to get awesome espresso without having to wait in line at Moab Espresso and Gelato, it's a little bike shop café called Bike Fiend.

We spent a lot of time at the Poison Spider bike shop since our bikes got damaged just before we got to Moab when a trucker backed up in our Westy while we were parked in a truck stop to cook dinner one night. Lucky for us, the trucker's insurance company was great and covered all the damages and bike rentals while the bikes were getting fixed (JF got a brand new bike). We had great service and if ever you need anything while in town, go see Russell, one of the managers, he's really an awesome person!

There are so many awesome trail systems in Moab that you could pretty much ride every day for a month and never do the same trail again... I'll talk more about all of them in a next post, but for this one, I will focus on Dead Horse Point State Park, for no other reason than Isa took lots of good iPhone pictures and that the view is incredible.

This trail network is probably one of the easiest in the area, but it still offers some fun technical sections and an amazingly rewarding view. Actually, the view is so amazing that it's almost dangerous because you cannot help but look at it while riding! None of the trails is close enough to the rim that it feels scary (no exposure).

This is one of the only trail network that requires you to pay an entrance fee (since it is in a State Park). It's $10 for a 3 day access. After the ride, drive or ride to the view point at the end of the road, it's 2,000 feet above a gooseneck in the Colorado River. The State Park is right on the edge of Canyonlands National Park. You can also hike the Rim Trail (an hour or two before sunset is the best time!).

If you are planning to go, here are some information about the trails. All the trails start at the end of the Visitor Center Parking Lot (the Visitor Center is at one end, the trails start at the other end). Ride Intrepid to Great Pyramid and the the whole Big Chief loop (stop to eat lunch at the point of Big Chief, then take Crossroads (green). If you still have some energy left, do Whiptail (blue), Twisted Tree (black) and Prickly Pair (blue with black sections) back to the Visitor Center. If not, just come down Prickly Pair. Don't take Raven Roll down (unless you are very tired after Big Chief), it's a very boring green.

Moab, 2017 Edition

Dead Horse Point State Park, Moab, UT