Gooseberry Mesa Singletrack
Mountain Biking in Utah with Western Spirit Cycling
Highlights
- Experience the famous Gooseberry Mesa Trail
- World class singletrack
- Stunning scencic vistas
Full Description
This 5-day singletrack along the Gooseberry Mesa Trail is a mountain biker's dream adventure.
Just south of Zion National Park lies the famed Gooseberry Mesa Trail. The Bureau of Land Management has done an incredible job on this trail system. Sections of fun slickrock are intermixed with twisty, turny singletrack through the juniper, piñons, ponderosa, and manzanita. And off in the distance lie the Kolob Canyons and colossal walls of Zion National Park
But we don't recommend looking at the scenery while riding, as there are lots of technical maneuvers that will require your full attention. Of course these areas are perfectly interspersed with smooth flowing sections of singletrack that truly are world-class.
And after four days of swooping and zooming through the desert, we cap off the trip with a day of hiking in the park, either to the dizzying heights of Angels Landing or through the spectacular Zion Narrows.
Riding Surface: Slickrockm singletrack trails and some dirt roads.
Technical Difficulty: Strong Intermediate with some more difficult sections; slickrock singletrack is tight, and the dirt sections can be loose and rocky.
Physical Difficulty: Moderate; singletrack is unsupported.
Altitude: 3,000 - 5,700 feet.
Includes:
- All meals from lunch on first day to lunch on last day
- Support vehicle
- Guides
- Campsites
Excludes:
- Rental fees
- Gratuities for your guides
- Alcoholic beverages
- Applicable sales tax
Day by Day Itinerary
Day 1
After our meeting in St. George, we will load into the van for a short shuttle to the goods. Who would think such a quick drive would take you out of the city and onto some of the best desert singletrack around. We are headed for the Bearclaw Poppy trail network. The Bearclaw Poppy is a plant endemic to Washington County, Utah and it is a federally listed endangered plant. This perennial produces abundant white showy flowers in the spring and thrives on the clay soils derived from the Moenkopi Formation. Our trail gently climbs up the arroyos of Cottonwood Wash laced through the clusters of Bearclaws. There are a few tricky pitches and the climbing is sustained but you can tell this trail was made by mountain bikers. The nearby bluffs are capped with lava flowing from volcanoes of the late Cenozoic, active around eight million years ago, and we will make our way right up to the base of the steepest part of the bluff. When we top out among this colorful geology we will find a great spot to enjoy a pack lunch. After lunch we have some rolling terrain and a few short climbs and then begin our fast and fun descent back to the trailhead. A quick shuttle will take us to our camp for the night where will have great views of the surrounding geology. TOTAL MILEAGE - 18 miles
Day 2
We will have a hearty breakfast and shuttle out of camp to our ride for the day, the JEM trail. Named after John (known to us as Johnny Concrete, per his formal occupation vs. his love of trail building), Ellen and Mike, this trail offers high speed desert cruising and a cliff side ride along the Virgin River. We will pedal our way along the edge of the Virgin River Canyon and head toward the colorful bluff of Gooseberry Mesa. The climbing continues up a wash and onto some technical singletrack before we top out to have a lunch stop towering over the Virgin River drainage. We climb a couple miles on dirt road to be rewarded by more rolling singletrack; and then the fun really begins! Swooping through the desert on unbelievable singletrack, you might just laugh out loud carving eight miles all the way back to the start. All smiles, we will load up and shuttle to our camp on Gooseberry Mesa. TOTAL MILEAGE - 24 miles
Day 3
We will awaken to sunlight pouring across the mesa top before enjoying our hot coffee and freshly prepared breakfast. The mesa top is a hard layer of Shinarump conglomerate which forms a cap over the underlying red and white striped Moenkopi Formation. Moenkopi is a mudstone so it is deeply eroded along flanks of the mesa. The Shinarump is a prime surface for a tight technical mountain bike trail. The smooth slickrock sections are intermingled with clusters of junipers to dodge and little rock canyons to squeeze through. There is barely a 30 foot section of the trail where you can see exactly where your bike needs to go next. Couple the fun riding with the incredible views off the edge into Zion Canyon and you have the recipe for a memorable day on the bike. We will return to the same camp for the night. TOTAL MILEAGE - 15 miles
Day 4
We will head out this morning to pedal more of the trails that the mesa has to offer. This time the loop is a little more technical, with steep short with steep short climbs onto slickrock knobs and tight switchbacks down off the other side. A little off camber riding adds to the fun and some singletrack through the firm sand lets you relax a little We will return to camp for lunch to power up for the afternoon. Since we haven't quite ridden everything Gooseberry has to offer, we'll head out for the afternoon to fit these in and upon request we can ride some sections over again. It's that fun!!! TOTAL MILEAGE - 18-24 miles
About The Operator:
Western Spirit Cycling
Headquarters:
Moab, Utah
Established:
January 1989
The History of Western Spirit
"Back in the day", as our oldest guides say, Western Spirit Cycling was founded by a charismatic mad bike rider named Lu Warner. It was 1989; Lu couldn't get enough of riding his bike and decided he should impart some of his joy on the masses. He acquired a Suburban, dubbed "the burb” and a couple of guides and started taking people around the White Rim. Now Lu can be found in some semi-state of retirement in Crested Butte, CO, but his vision was just the beginning.
Just for the record, yes, we still have the burb. It's retired. And those "couple of guides" are our finest Rachel & Johnny - no sign of retirement there!
Then the Mid-90s
Ashley Korenblat bought Western Spirit in 1997 and since then has spent many days riding unknown trails (with a headlamp in her backpack, just in case) creating the plethora of trips that Western Spirit now offers. Ashley is a graduate of Dartmouth and Tuck Business School, a former bike racer, former Wall Street captive and possessor of entrepreneurial spirit. She was president of Merlin during the Titanium mountain bike heyday and served as the IMBA President working to sustain trail availability to everyone. Combine all that with the desire for a Moab lifestyle and an alternative view of a fulfilling career path, and you have the perfect recipe for the owner of a cycling tour company. Enter Mark. Mark is our charming, wicked-fit, voice of reason, miraculously lured from his ski town tradition to live in the desert. Ashley and Mark got married in 1999 in Moab and now run the company together.
Well, actually Kip runs the place. Kip is Ashley and Mark's young boy and he has his own bike helmet and chariot. He is also beginning to tear it up on the dirt with his training wheels.
Our office staff is comprised of mostly gals...and Mark. Thank goodness for Mark! Mark is our bike junkie and can be seen pedaling on a daily basis. Ashley makes the best backcountry bacon you will ever have, but definitely burns off those calories towing the little Kipster around town in his trailer. Anne Clare loves riding her road bike and hiking in the mountains. Sheri and Tonya both love the water and do their best to kayak 365 days a year. Emily is pretty "green". She is the founder of a non-profit organization, Community Rebuilds that promotes affordable and eco-friendly housing.
All of us have worked outdoors and are familiar with what you will experience on a Western Spirit trip. At any given time when you call you can talk to someone who has been on any trip that interests you. That's because we love to be out there too!
Our Philosophy
In our busy world, we often don't get to be outside enough. Even if you do, there's some phenomenon that just makes you want more. Nothing like going somewhere to make you realize all the other places you still need to go! Traveling outside makes you see Mars when it's the closest to earth it'll ever be, makes you smell the fragrant lupine covering the mountain slope, makes you feel the wind, see the perfect sunset, catch an eclipse of the moon, experience the herd of elk in the alpine meadow, and start to tell time by the location of the moon in the night sky.
What's that all worth in our busy world? Well, it is our world.
On all of our tours, we strive to protect our fragile mountain and desert environments. Many of our campsites are remote and unimproved, and we seek to leave them better than we found them.
Meals
Food is one thing we take pretty seriously. Our guides are great backcountry chefs and your trip includes all meals from lunch on first day to lunch on last day.
Support Vehicle
Our customized trucks and vans carry all of your gear as well as many camper comforts! We have the coolest custom F-450's in the industry. Our guides have incredible backcountry experience, but the best part is that they are all super friendly and look forward to a week of riding with you.
Campsites
We camp primarily in pristine locations where it's quiet, dark and peaceful. The finest morning view comes with a hot cup of cowboy coffee. All shuttles are included from our meeting place to the start of your ride. At the end of the trip we shuttle back to our meeting place.
Permits
Western Spirit Cycling, Inc. operates under special use permits from the USDA Forest Service in the Boise, Coronado, Dixie, Grand Mesa, Gunnison, Kaibab, Manti La Sal (Moab and Monticello Ranger Districts), San Juan, Sawtooth, Sierra Vista, Uncompahgre, Challis, Clearwater, Beaverhead-Deerlodge, Caribou-Targhee, Black Hills, Mount Hood, Umpqua, Nantahala, White Mountain, Monongahela, and Pisgah National Forests and by Dakota Prairie Grasslands. As well as under permits issued by the Bureau of Land Management in the San Juan Resource Area; Henry Mountain Field Station; Moab, Arizona Strip and Grand Junction Field Offices; Grand Staircase National Monument; and by Bryce, Zion, Capitol Reef, Grand Canyon, Crater Lake and Blue Ridge Parkway National Parks. Western Spirit is a concessionaire in Canyonlands National Park.