Ride Stats
- Trail Description:
- Hardpacked clay sediments, slickrock, and coarse sand on two-laned dirt roads.
- Best During:
- Spring & Fall (But not after rain)
- Trip Distance:
- 15.6 miles (out-and-back)
- Ride Time:
- n/a
- Elevation Gain:
- Low 4,550 - High 5,380
- Overall Rating:
- Moderate
Trail Log
- 0.0
- Continue by bike towards Klondike Bluffs.
- 2.7
- Flare left off of this sweeping right turn.
- 3.8
- Turn right, at the "T" after the cottonwood grove to enter a short canyon, avoiding the fork left.
- 4.5
- Stay low, close to the red sediment slope as you traverse the plane of white slickrock.
- 5.2
- (L) A nice "track record" of dinosaur tracks looks like giant bird prints. At the following crest, where there's a huge cairn, strike out straight across the rock instead of dipping down on the road. A string of cairns is usually in place starting from this point, as the route descends, then climbs across opportune plates of rock. The fractures separating these plates are widened by delving roots and mild acid releases from plants.
- 6.4
- Well after regaining a soil roadbed, take this obtuse spur right, to avoid the connector up and over to Salt Valley.
- 7.8
- This is your turn around point. As you gain the view of the white-capped Klondike Bluffs, further travel on bike becomes inconvenient. Nice textures embellish this area-lichen patterns and ironstone concretion, plus beds of chert flakes studding the soil.
More Info
Moab Visitor Information
(801) 259-8825 or (800) 635-6622
US Forest Service Campgrounds
(801) 259-7155 or (800) 280-2267
Slickrock Campground
(801) 259-7660
Mountain Bike Resource - Trails - Klondike Bluffs Ride Summary
Ride Description
The first few miles of this route weave through the bleached, clay hills of a sterile landscape. Upon turning to Little Valley, evidence of life in a renegade band of cottonwood trees earmarks the canyon that is the gateway to a broad, tilted plane of slickrock. When you reach this plane of white rock, you'll find that it is jointed and fissured, a fact that actually limits and makes easier the route finding across open rock. Cairns are often in place to mark the route ahead. After gaining a soil roadbed, the route nearly doubles back on itself as it climbs up to the Klondike Bluffs proper.
Directions To Trailhead
About 16.6 miles north of Moab (Main x Center Streets) on Highway 191 (0.4 mile north of mile marker 142 and just before a concrete embanked bridge), a dirt spur right passes through a fenceline. This is the (unposted) trailhead.
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