Thought I'd post a few pics and ride info on my recent trip to southern Utah. Though I usually go directly to Moab, this year I thought I'd stay further south and ride some new stuff and some stuff I haven't ridden in over 20 years. This trip was mainly in the area of Canyonlands south of Moab, Blanding, Bluff, Hite's Crossing, and Natural Bridges National Monument. This area is much less traveled overall, and it may have even more awesome scenery than a lot of the Moab stuff.

I also hooked up with some northern Colorado trail riders for a few days of camping and riding. I've gotten to know some of these folks over the years and always have a blast with them.

The first part of my trip started off by camping in my van in northern New Mexico at the BLM Angel Peak area. Though there's not much riding in the immediate area, it is the perfect first night's camping spot when I head to CO or UT for a ride trip. The scenery in this little known place is amazing, quiet, and remote...and free.

 

The first stop was the area between Blanding, UT and Natural Bridges National Monument area. This lonely stretch of highway has almost no residents and is some of the most beautiful part of Utah. In minutes you can be in fairly high forested mountains above Natural Bridges or in some of the big canyon complexes that are all over the area. Lake Powell is just to the south, and this area has lots of riding that I've done in the past. There was so much riding to do elsewhere that I didn't even make it over to the lake area. This area is almost all BLM or national forest, and free, open camping is all over the place. I found a cottonwood grove of trees with a grass meadow and creek to camp for several days that I used as base camp. It was perfect.

In this Blanding, Bluff, and Natural Bridges area, you have Comb Wash and Comb Ridge running all the way to the north of Blanding to the south of Bluff...about 40 miles. There are only 3 spots where it is even possible to get over Comb Ridge...two on the highway and one called Posey's Trail. Posey's climbs up a small, rocky, switchback shelf to the top of the ridge. The views are spectacular and the exposure in case of a mishap are huge. Looking at it from the bottom of Comb Wash, it looks impossible, but there's a decent shelf for a dirtbike or ATV to climb. I wouldn't want to do it in a 4WD vehicle. It's narrow. The pics do it no justice, but there is a video of it over on ADV and YouTube done by an ADV member called Ridefreak. His video was what put me on to finding and riding this spot. His vid is going down the Posey's, but I rode it up. Though not extremely hard, you have to pick your line through all the ruts and rocks. It gets a little steep in places. Riding by myself here gave me pause in a few spots. The view at the top is a magazine cover quality scene with the Comb Wash and Ridge all in view. In that third pic, look just above my bike, and you can see a faint, thin line climbing up at an angle along the ridge wall. That's the trail. These digital pics do no justice to the height and exposure present on this trail. You almost get vertigo in some spots. You can tell that it's not used much when you're on it.

 

Very nice!! Looks like you had a great time out there!! Thanks for sharing it with us Thad.

 

The next stop was the Hite's Crossing area on the far north end of Lake Powell. I don't normally camp at fee locations, but it was "free park" week for some reason, so I took advantage of it. This is called the Glen Canyon Recreation Area. It's still remote and uncrowded, but it costs $15 to get in to the facilities here with paid camping. It was nice to hit it lucky with free park week, as the place did have a nice, uncrowded, lakeside camping area with drinking water, restrooms, and gasoline available. I always bring a chemical, portable toilet in the van which makes life much easier. Plus some remote camping areas, free or not, are requiring you to have a portable toilet if you do any primitive camping. I wouldn't go anywhere for this kind of camping without that toilet. You don't even have to get out of the van or tent during the night. Don't worry...these things are totally airtight. There are no odors or spills even when they turn over. People crapping and leaving their toilet paper all over the place out in the boonies is becoming a problem. Many of them apparently have no clue on how to dig a "cat hole" for their business, hence the BLM and forest service is having to get "nazified" a bit about these portable toilets in some places. I gotta agree.

From my Hite's Crossing camp I rode over to the Canyonlands area in the Maze one day. I also rode Sunset Pass over to the Dirty Devil river from the east. It looked fairly crossable as it appeared to be running quite low, but being by myself I didn't risk crossing. You just don't run into hardly anyone in this area. It would be a 30-50 mile walkout if you had a mechanical. I carry a SPOT locator, but still, you don't want to have use it if you can keep from it.

The next day I rode Poison Canyon trail that goes to the Dirty Devil river from the west. This was one of the best trails of the whole trip. You go through cottonwood laden canyons with a small creek running through a good bit of it. It's absolutely beautiful, and there are some fun sections to challenge you a little. There is also a spur off this trail that takes you to an amazing overlook of the Dirty Devil, and there are some sheer dropoffs just off the trail to keep your attention. This was a great ride.

I also rode some of the Woodenshoe trail just south of Hite that has overlooks some of the Dark Canyon primitive area. Awesome scenery and some fun riding.

 

The next area I rode was the forested area north of the Natural Bridges area. The Dark Canyon primitive area is located here. It's a wilderness designated area, but since there a couple of old 2-tracks established there, you can still get in to the bottom of this beautiful spot. Dark Canyon is huge and has many offshoots. As long as you stay on the 2-track in a 60' wide area with your vehicle, you can go in and explore. This place is remote, wild, and just spectacular. The first 2 miles of the trail going in is rocky and narrow. I don't think anything but a small jeep or such could make it on 4 wheels. On a dirt bike, it wasn't tough. After that 2 miles, you're on the canyon floor just meandering around in a forest, a creek, and high canyon walls. Talk about getting away.

 

Next stop was the southern Canyonlands area called the Needles District. I went to get the primitive camp spot I usually use in this area to save it for the Colorado crew who were coming in the next day. The camping area is on what's called the Lockhart Basin trail just a mile off of the paved road into the Canyonlands National Park. It's free. It's a huge rock formation that is quite scenic. Just 400-500 yards down the trail is a BLM fee camping area that's not as good as this free location. I've used it before and it's great. I rode Hart's Point trail that day and relaxed the rest of the day, as I knew a "beatdown" was coming with those Colorado folks...LOL!

 

The Colorado crew arrived, and for reason I didn't take a pic of our mass camping group. We had 4 van campers, 2 tent campers, and big toy hauler. Two of the wives came along on the trip, and it was great to see ladies ride this good over some gnarly stuff. I've ridden with some of these folks before, and we had a great time camping at this spot. This was mainly a KTM fest as far as the kind of bikes present.

The first ride with the toughest. We did the Elephant Hill/Beef Basin Loop which is about 100 miles. Eight bikes did this ride. I hadn't ridden this loop in about 22 years. The last time I did it was on a well modded KLR650, and while it had some difficult spots, I didn't remember it being that heinous. The crew usually does this location every 3 years or so, and they told me that many years of jeeps and 4WD use had taken their toll on making bigger ledges, more loose rock, and more erosion ruts and such. Man, they were right. I could never have ridden a KLR650 in the condition that trail is in now. Now, I'm not complaining as it made the ride very challenging and a decent accomplishment, but it's definitely tougher than 22 years ago...despite my age...LOL!

We also did a loop off of the main trail that I hadn't done in the past with a spot called "Impossible Hill" in it. All but 2 of us just bulldogged our dead engined bikes down a good bit of this downward hill full of loose rock with a big dropoff on one side. It's called "impossible" because of the inability of a bike to actually ride all of it going uphill. It's just too steep and loose to get enough traction. Other riders have to help each other when going up just to get the bikes up it. So we did it downhill. A CO enduro "A" rider rode it down as well as another very talented rider. The rest of us "walked", and even that was no easy feat with the bike trying to slide out from underneath you. Even the two ladies who were with us did a great job of wrestling their bikes down.

When you start at the Elephant Hill trailhead, the constant climbing and descending is unrelenting for a few miles. It finally breaks out into more of just a challenging 2-track until you reach a more developed dirt road toward the end of the loop. We were all whipped when that day was over, and we rode for several hours to keep moving, so I didn't even get many pics. I'm not sure I'll even do that section again. I guess my 60 year age is starting to show. I made every climb and descent without much drama or any accidents, but I'm not sure I want to work that hard for that long anymore on my rides...LOL! I ran out of water...100 oz...and had to beg some water from some car tourists toward the end of the ride where the dirt road sections came in from the other end of the loop. That constant up-and-down section near Elephant Hill is one of those areas that you hope you can make it up the next uphill, because you really wonder if you could make it up some of those descents you just came down if you had to turn around. I guess it's why most people run this loop counterclockwise for the most part.

 

Reminds me of the movie 127 Hours. Cool Pics

 

The next day 4 of us did the Lockhart Basin trail from our camp to the Colorado river toward Moab. It's another 100+ mile day but not quite as hard as Elephant Hill. It's a lot of fun as you constantly weave in and out of Lockhart Canyon toward the river. Only the first 10 miles or so are a relaxing cruise. From then on, you're twisting and turning, dodging rocks and ruts. It's a lot of fun overall. I finally got a pic of me riding at one spot. I find more and more that these rides don't involve a lot of posing or picture taking of the riding. Everyone seems fairly intent on riding and not stopping...kind of like an enduro competition...LOL! Once again I was the Kawasaki in a KTM sandwich. And of course, I'm the one wearing green gear.

 

Daamn that scenery is awesome. I need to ride out West sometime!! Good stuff man, thanks for sharing


OH - still have your stock rad shrouds? Want to sell?!