UT: Moab - Navajo Rocks

 My friend, Kara, and I had been planning a Moab biking weekend for a while. She had never been there, so I wanted to maximize our ride time and show her all the popular routes. We settled on a weekend in late April and as luck would have it, we now have a few friends who live there. Karin and Max offered to host us and we reached out to a few other friends to check on their availability to ride.

It's about an 8-9 hour drive from Phoenix, but it's a fairly scenic drive. I worked a few hours in the morning, then we hit the road. The nice part about this drive is you get to go through Monument Valley.

Can't really argue, it applies to the entire Four Corners region.

Yeah!! Here we go, Kara doesn't yet know what Moab does to you as a rider. Photo by Kara.

We were laughing at all the people standing in the road for the Forrest Gump shot. It's a bit ridiculous.

Mexican Hat rock, always a cool thing to see. Geology is neat.

We rolled into Moab a bit after dark, but with just enough time to grab a bite to eat at Moab Brewery, as the kitchen was closing in 20 minutes. All fueled up we made it to Karin's place, but she was driving back from Colorado the following day, so we were quiet and tried not to disturb Max - who was planning to ride from home for a huge White Rim Lap, some 150+ miles. We have cool friends.

We reached out to some other local friends, Eszter had recently settled down with a house in Moab and another friend, Amanda was visiting. Andrew & Katie Strempke (Dispersed Bikepacking) don't live too far away and everyone was free for a ride around Navajo Rocks in the morning.

Max had taken off on his ride around 1a, but was back home by 6a due to numb hands & feet, it still gets quite cold in the mornings here. He was also game to join the group, might as well, he's warmed up now!!

We met at a fairly empty trailhead around 9a on a Friday. Looked to be a beautiful day. Let's ride!!

I kept up with Andrew's pace for a couple of miles, but was dropped on the longer slickrock climbs. Surprising no-one.

A rare stretch a super smooth slickrock, which is really fun when you can find it.

Katie, Amanda & Kara mashing up a steep grinder.

Amazing views at every turn. Dots on the landscape.

Pedaling dots.

I was really curious to see how the singlespeed hardtail was going to treat me over the weekend. So far, so good. Photo by Max.

Amanda & Katie on a smooth section.

What a crew!! Myself, Andrew, Kara, Katie, Eszter, Amanda & Max.

Rockstars!! Like, literally.

Andrew cruising down a wide open slope of slickrock.

Max!!

Eszter!!

Kara!!

Amanda!! A really nice surprise to ride with her again.

Katie!! Zoom!! and they were all gone. Time to catch up.

We neared the halfway point of the loop and Andrew's hands hadn't quite recovered from his impressive southbound AZT300 ride a week or so prior, so he and Katie opted to cut it short and get some shopping and chores done while in town. It was so great to see them and get a few quality miles in as well. If you are in need of bikepacking bags, look no further than Dispersed Bikepacking - field tested by the best!! Perhaps our schedules would align again before we headed back to the desert.

Follow the dots, they lead to cool places.

I really like this shot. Photo by Max.

Snack break with a view.

Navajo Rocks is a great way to get your Moab legs going.

Kara lining up a big, fast descent.

This outer loop is a riot.

Slightly awkward move here as the small step-up is angled and slippery, plus you have to navigate between boulders. No problem for Eszter.

Amanda glides through.

No problem for Kara.

Nice view of the La Sal Mtns. over the final miles.

Fun trail routing through here.

It's desert bloom season.

A rare wooden feature, Max took the opportunity to snap some cool pics:

Eszter!!

Me.

Amanda!!

Kara!!

We wrapped things up shortly thereafter and as we were heading out of the parking lot another friend came riding up...

Haha!! Lindsay Nohl was in town teaching a clinic. Rad.

We made our way to the food truck court in town for lunch. What a cool spot.

Subtle reminder about filtering water in the wild. There's uranium in them thar hills.

What a fun way to get things started. So great to see and ride with everyone and the weather was perfect. Kara was beginning to see what Moab was all about. After our lunch break, we still had plenty of daylight, so I thought this would be a good time to show her some of the local chunk. Capt. Ahab loop would be up next.

Route: