Need some help... I want to plan a trip to Moab next year for about a week riding dirt bikes. There are so many trails and different areas to go to my head is spinning. I will be with guys that I would say conservatively are above average riders and like all types of conditions. I am hoping to get a point in the right direction to make the most of the trip. Any help would be great.
I suggest doing Slickrock, Hell's revenge, and Fin's 'n Things first. You can go up or down in difficulty from there. If you find yourself wanting "The Escalator" and "Hell's Gate". Then you will wanna go ride Amasa Back, up Pritchett and down Kane Springs, or Poison Spider to Gold Bar Rim to Metal Masher to Rusty Nail to Golden spike. If it's about right you wanna ride Sovereign. Lots of choices, read Moab 101 by Rodzilla.
Beat me to it Mylsmkj Do a search on here for Moab101, lots of information. It's a good way to familiarize yourself with the area and the trails. There's easily weeks worth of great riding, plenty of great slickrock, ledgy jeep trails, ledges, fast sandy arroyos, and extremly technical singletrack so it's going to depend on your preferences. If you click on my vid link in my sig there's many of the area's MC rides including Moab, Whitewash, and San Rafael Swell. Don't trust Jeep vids, they don't show many of the lines used by bikes. There's plenty of other Moab videos out there also, see what interests you ride-wise.
http://www.traildamage.com/trails/index.php This will give some lengths, locations and some GPX files for most of the popular trails. The ratings are based for Jeeps and easy might be hard on a dirt bike and the opposite may be true too, so don't base your ride on the ratings. I was there twice this year riding a Ktm 530exc with a 6.3gal tank on it. Mostly riding alone, so didn't take too many chances. Top of the World is a nice ride with the last 4 miles being pretty rough on a dirt bike but deffinitly doable. View is worth it at the top. Metal Masher is a hoot, lots of slickrock ledges and climbs and again, a thousand foot cliff at the top. I made it to the waterfall on Poison spider but again, I was alone, it was late in the day and I didn't want to risk the climb but it seemed to be a decent trail. Lookout at the top of that one too. If you want a high mountain climb, after the end of June on should be free of snow, then try La Sal Mountain Pass. Some rough, steep, loose rock climbs up to 10,400' or so. White Rim is long, 6.5hrs on a dirt bike but tons of awesome scenery, around 245kms round trip. Onion creek is a blast with water crossings galore and great scenery. Rose Garden Hill is the ultimate climb, if you really want to test yourself...I didn't. I also followed the Traildamage.com GPX track for Dome Plateau and it takes you all over the place in all kinds of terrain, seems like forever, then the last few miles you pass caves, abandoned mines and shacks. Hurrah Pass to the end of Chicken Corners is a nice ride, nothing difficult, nice scenery and you can hop onto Lockhart road for some challenging stuff. Don't miss Kane Creek Canyon, it's a blast! I also did the start of Hell's revenge and Baby Lions Back, nice little climbs. I picked up the Guide to Moab Backroads book by Charles Wells and the two maps, Moab west and east, at the Visitor Center.
The Moab Trail Guide has been incredibly helpful to me over the years. Order it from Amazon or pick up a copy once you get to Moab (Many of the stores have it, I got my last copy from the Moab Adventure Center). http://www.amazon.com/Guide-Backroads-4-Wheel-Trails-second/dp/B004ROT4ES/
Thank you for the replies.. Just ordered from amazon . I am afraid once I get there I am not going to want to leave .
Kane Creek is cool. Has some sand, red rock technical and some awesome water and canyon stuff. For faster single track, the Sovereign Trail just north of town is awesome. White Wash Dunes: has sandy river beds but also red rock trails and double track dirt with lots of whoops. Best variety of terrain.
what's the range of mileage for different loops out of town? what's average? trying to figure out what we'll need for range...... tia
Kane Creek can be accessd a few miles from town from the river side. Or you can ride/drive about 15 miles south of town and catch it, my fav, and finish in town. Soverign trail is north of town about 7 or so miles near the old Shell gas station (no gas). White Wash I would guess is about 20 miles north west of town plus whatever you're riding that day.
Most of the trails/loops are in the 20 mile range I should think if trailering to the trail heads most bikes are fine with stock tanks Sand Flats Rec area (where Slickrock, Fins, Hells Revenge and Porcupine rim are), Poison Spider, Sovereign/Salt Wash singletrack are all within ~5miles of the center of town. Klondike Bluffs, Monitor/Merrimac, Gemini Bridges are less than 10 miles north of town Then South entrance to Kane Creek/Behind the Rocks is about 15 miles outside of town
You can always get more for you buck with a Guide serves like DualSportUtah.com and get more longer and or faster rides rides in with less thinking about running out of gas or getting lost best to do 1-2 days tour then do your own stuff if you like! Great videos http://www.youtube.com/user/dualsportutah?feature=results_main
I go to Utah once a month usually from November to May. Last trip was Nov. 8th - 12th. I never even bother riding Moab. To many other areas that are much better riding. We always base our rides out of Green River. We are heading back over Dec. 14th. Give me a yell when you plan on going and if it works out, I'll show you some fantastic trails.
I've been to Moab 4 times now (all this year), Jeeping and dirt biking. Can't get enough, and can't wait to go back an explore more. I'll second mylsmkj on Slick Rock, Fin's 'n Things and Hell's Revenge, and add that Slick Rock is a must (for me every trip). This would be a great day of riding on some iconic trails, just outside of town. Depending on the time of year, you'll need to watch for MTBers on the Slick Rock trail and you may get some good buggy shows on Hell's Revenge, lots of cool obstacles. If you're looking for an easy afternoon ride after beating yourself up in the morning, Hurrah Pass to Chicken Corners was fun and scenic. If you're looking for a day ride, you can check out White Rim trail. I did it with a few friends and ADVriders last weekend. See thread: http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=840447
If you like slickrock you'll probably like Mary's trail out at Whitewash, same stuff but much more "sphincterish" <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/UMKv9i2-YWk?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=57337 Great info guys! Keep it coming . We are thinking of coming out September or October.