When we initially roughed out a hiking/MTBing schedule, we'd thought to go up to the Intrepid trails at Dead Horse Point State Park midweek. We were watching the weather, however, and it was due to get hotter on Friday; since DHPSP is up in elevation, and thus cooler, we decided to ride there then. The reshuffle sent us out to Klondike Bluffs on Wednesday instead as the forecast was for sunny skies and a high of 80 F. We got out the door at 8 a.m., leaving a pouting Milton behind, and drove north on 191 to the trailhead.
The last, first and only time we've been to Klondike Bluffs was in 2012. It's just a little further out (nearly to the airport) so we often forget about it, and it's just a little sandier than I like. It was good to go back, however, and do something different. There was just one other vehicle in the parking lot when we pulled in, although we'd driven past several campers and trailers in the dispersed camping on the way out there.
We started out on the Klondike Bluffs 4x4 road, heading to the Arches National Park overlook/border. Since 2012, the trail crew has put a MTB only trail in from the parking lot to the main trail junction, paralleling the 4x4 road and marked as "much less sandy." That was great, as I remember getting bogged down in the sand a lot before. When we were on the KB road proper, it was a combination of jeep road and wide slickrock ramps. It was a steady climb all the way to the park border but going up that slickrock is easy and really fun.
As before, we left our MTBs at the park border and walked in to the overlook of the Salt Valley. When we got back to the bikes, we backtracked just a little until we picked up the Baby Steps trail, which was a combination of fun and flowy red singletrack and technical pieces above the washes. It was starting to get hotter as we came out on a jeep road - complete with range cows - that took us back to the truck.
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