Category: Travel

Jon and I got up just after dawn, to ride the famous Slickrock Trail before the sun got too hot. Though it wasn’t our first experience on slickrock – that was last night – it was an awesome loop, 10 or so miles over grippy, rolling rock, following the painted white dashes. The views over the Colorado River were amazing in the early light. By the time we got back to the van it was scorchio-hot, I wouldn’t want to do this in the middle of the day!

We’d run out of food again, so we stocked up in the supermarket. We can fit about 3 days’ worth of fresh food in the fridge, after which we have a couple of meals of non-perishables, and then need to find a shop again. We’re eating out now and then, but generally cooking in camp. Heading north out of Moab we drove into Arches National Park, only a few miles out of town. The plan was to head straight to campsite which was shown as being full, but in the past we’ve had success finding a space where someone had cancelled, or the rangers hadn’t quite got things right. This time it really was full. It’s a small site and all the pitches are reservable, and it supposedly fills up months in advance. But Rose chatted up the camp host and he let us stay in the group area – result!

The arches park is stunning. Driving in from the visitor centre you climb a steep, twisty road between huge red walls of rock, overlooking the Moab geological fault which created the valley below. Even though the whole town is surrounded by rock, cliffs and desert, it still feels like you’re entering a different place. The ochre coloured walls are so steep, so big and such a strong colour. Amazing shapes everywhere – not just arches. After a while you think you’re getting desensitised to incredible scenery, but then something comes along that sets the barrier even higher – the Arches National Park is one of these places. We explored a few spots, took a bunch of pictures and soaked it all up.

The classic sunset Thing To Do is to hike up to Delicate Arch, Utah’s state symbol, which catches the setting sun. It’s a mile or so away from the parking lot, but even though it’s a strenuous walk there were crowds of people up there waiting to get their own classic photo. It’s an impressive amphitheatre of rock, with the arch sitting on the back rim. Mr Sun wasn’t playing ball tonight though, and tucked behind a big bank of storm cloud early in the evening, so no glowing gold sunset for anyone.

Back at camp, it got really windy which meant no camp fire, but on the plus side also meant no mosquitoes. The sky cleared up to reveal gazillions of stars. I love the night sky in the desert – usually with no trees around you get a good view of the whole hemisphere – and you’re miles away from any bright city lights. We’ve not had a moon for the past couple of weeks, so the night skies have been sensational.

Maybe the most picturesque campsite yet? We woke to amazing views – colossal sandstone cliffs forming a cove around the camp, and dry, scrubby desert stretching out to the horizon. Somewhere out there is canyon country! We spent the morning scrambling around, testing the limits of friction on the steep, grippy rock.

As we were only a few miles away from the Needles Overlook – a viewpoint perched high on a cliff above the Canyonlands National Park, we made the detour. Woah. Huge. While not as deep as the Grand Canyon, the views out over the Canyonlands are supposed to be just as impressive, and the distances to the far side are greater. It’s so arid. Just crumbling rock and sand for miles and miles. So much to look at, it’s impossible to soak it all in.

The drive to Moab was exactly how I’d expected Utah to be – lots of open scrubby desert, big rocks and awesome scenery. Just like the whole of the rest of the trip, every minute on the road has been interesting in some way or another. There’s just so much to look at and soak in, even out here in the desert. It’s only when we double back on ourselves and drive the same road again that we get the opportunity to focus on anything other than gawping out of the windows. We passed Wilson’s Arch on the way into town and of course scrambled up there too.

After setting up camp in town at Slick Rock Campground, the temperature had dropped a bit so we headed out for a ride at the “Bar-M” trails area just north of town, ending up doing the Circle-O loop – following a painted line on the slickrock for a few miles. A big storm was drenching the Arches National Park and the El Sal mountains to the south, but it rolled on past without hitting us.

Moab is perhaps one of the world’s most famous mountain bike towns, mainly due to the unique, endless slabs of rock surrounding the town. Not only is this place a mountain bike mecca, it’s also a top spot for 4-wheel-drivers and off-roading, river rafting and general outdoor adventures – but not a place I’d like to live. Too hot in the summer, and not much else going on as far as I can tell.

I got up early and wandered down to the lake overlook. Not much of a lake really. The water had clearly been much, much higher when the local maps were made, but now there was not much more than a pond sitting in the bottom of the valley. Back into Colorado, where we stopped at Durango, another mountain bike hub. First port of call was a place called Steaming Beans for coffee and internet catch-up, and to make plans for the next few days with the maps and guide books out. Jon and I tackled another of Colorado’s Top Ten Rides – a double black diamond rated route up onto a ridge and down a super rocky, technical descent – more like trials riding than mountain biking, with a huge vertical drop into the valley below if you get it wrong. So not many pics.

At the top we met a couple of locals, Andy and Ivan, who showed us some more awesome riding over the back of Horse Gulch and Telegraph Hill, including an epic swooping twisting downhill called Sidewinder. We met the girls for dinner at Steamboat brewery, then piled back into the van for a late night drive to Mesa Verde National Park, where we camped.

Rode another of Colorado’s top ten trails this morning – the start of the Monarch Crest trail, and then breaking off left down Fosse Creek. Rose wasn’t riding, so she took the van round to pick us up at the bottom, which meant a short bit of climbing for us – with stunning views – and then 9 miles of downhill. Probably the best ride I have ever had in my life. Real mountains, dry, dusty trail, incredible scenery, fast technical downhill that just went on and on and on. Two more pinch punctures – I’m getting good at quick tube changes!

Colorado definitely deserves its title as the mountain bike centre of the world. There are so many amazing trails – we’re only managing to scratch the surface. It feels awesome to have been able to get a taster – I wonder if I’ll ever be back?

Time for a shower, which meant heading east into a small town called Salida to find a motel. In the afternoon, we wandered round the place, did a round of laundry, and then had a meal out. Salida is yet another Colorado mountain bike town – filled with a mix of hippies, cyclists and old timers. Met a couple in a cafe who are cycling down from Montana to Mexico and had a quick chat.

Friday 15th

Drove up over Cottonwood Pass – the highest the van has been so far on this trip, an altitude of over 12000 feet. And then all the way down the other side to Crested Butte, one of Colorado’s many mountain bike towns.

Introduced J&H to The Great American Breakfast at Paradise Café, then headed on up into the hills through Mount Crested Butte, to find somewhere to spend the night. Found a wild National Forest site, perched on the side of Gothic Mountain, along a bumpy dirt track. I’d spotted that the local ski centre was doing free chairlift rides in the evening, so we all had a few hours riding the downhill trails of the bike park. Thunderstorms around the local hills meant that the usual free-Friday night crowds weren’t around, and it wasn’t too hot. My bike is still just about holding together, it’s pretty old and tired now. No idea what I’m going to do with it when we go through the next phase of selling / giving things away in September, to thin possessions down for our trip south. I managed to get two pinch punctures during the evening, broke a tube valve, and a pump. Awesome riding though – typical bike park trails – a range of smooth swoopy berms and rougher technical bumpy stuff through aspen groves.

Saturday 16th

We’d come up this valley to be near a trail called the “401” – one of Colorado’s ten best mountain bike rides. We took the van a short way further up the road and parked up. The ride starts with a couple of miles of tough climbing – a bit of dirt road and then singletrack to the high point at about 11000 feet. Pretty hard work riding at this altitude, but incredible scenery. Then perhaps 6 miles of downhill, skimming along the side of the valley, looking out over amazing views, swooping and twisting through chest-high wild flowers. They say that the height of the wild flowers is a prediction for the depth of snow that’s going to settle in the coming winter. Left Rose and Helen at the bottom of the trail while we rode back up the road to get the van.

There’s a load more riding here, but we need to keep moving. It’s the same story with everywhere we’ve been – it would be easy to spend days, even weeks, getting to know a place and meeting people, but with limited time, we’re choosing to just get a taster of each spot. So we headed on south through Gunnison towards Salida – over the top of Monarch pass then found a campsite nearby. I was just starting my shower out of the back of van when the rain clouds opened – Jon and Rose put the awning up. The rain didn’t last long, and by the end of the evening we were sat around the camp fire, burning the cardboard bike boxes that we’d been lugging around ever since J&H arrived.