navajo rocks

When Wednesday of our Moab vacation week rolled around, we were up at 6 a.m. and out the door at 7, leaving behind a Milton who had been quite hopeful whilst watching H load the MTBs onto the truck.  We were off to ride the trails at Navajo Rocks, which we hadn't done since November 2016.  This newer trail system is very popular in the busy season: if you go, go early or really late.

Yay MTBing!

We had our wheels on the dirt around 8 a.m., heading out on the same loop that we'd done last time around, only doing it clockwise (recommended direction, per the signs) this time.  We did Middle Earth to Coney Island to the Big Lonely to Big Mesa and saw literally no one else while we were out there.

Big Lonely slickrock

We rode fairly well in the middle sections but the start of Coney Island and the end of Big Mesa are rather more technical, with loose rocks, ledges and tight, sandy corners, forcing us to hike-a-bike.  There is no shame in hike-a-bike.  Big Lonely was lots of fun: rolling hardpack through the sagebrush and big, wide, flat slickrock stretches.  There was one other truck in the parking lot when we finished our loop, requiring us to stare at the scenery during our post-ride beers since there were no people to people-watch.

Views during beers

It rained off and on in the afternoon, including a downpour while we were at Woody's for beers.  The clouds broke up a little: the daytime cloud cover had been keeping temperatures reasonable even with the slightly higher humidity.  We even managed glimpses of stars that night.

Ride stats: only 10.29 miles but it took a while because I had to walk so many sections