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Gooseberry Mesa & Bryce Canyon

Mountain Biking in Utah with Hermosa Bike Tours

Highlights

  • Miles of hoo-doo-lined singletrack and slickrock riding
  • World famous Gooseberry Mesa & Thunder Mountain
  • Excellent fireside meals

Full Description

Ride hard and relax.

The seemingly endless stretches of mesas and sandstone rock formations in the Zion National Park area and the unique orange and red hoodoo formations of Bryce Canyon National Park are like nowhere else on earth. The rides we've chosen for you to explore this gorgeous region range from a twisting maze over the slickrock of Gooseberry Mesa to the downhill, hoodoo slalom of Thunder Mountain within Red Canyon. The weather during May is ideal - plenty warm, but we'll avoid the scorching temps of the summer season.

See the sample day-by-day trip itinerary for a comprehensive breakdown of the trails we expect to hit.

Includes:

  • All lodging and transportation during the tour
  • All meals during the tour
  • Expertly guided rides each day

Excludes:

  • Airfare
  • Meals and lodging before and after the tour
  • Alcoholic beverages (we will haul for you during the tour though)
  • Weather control!

Day by Day Itinerary

Day 1

We’ll get rolling in the Hermosa Tours van around 9am from the Howard Johnson in St George. The start of today’s riding is the Bearclaw Poppy Trail. The Bearclaw Poppy Trail is a rollicking desert singletrack with fast run down into a wash, some very manageable technical obstacles and some hard-packed roller coaster sections. We’ll get in as many shuttle runs as time and the group energy allows. After a healthy, satisfying lunch we’ll spin a few expansive desert singletrack trails also around the St George area. Ride length is between 13 and 19 miles.

Day 2

Our route today is yet another classic: the Gould’s Rim, Hurricane Rim and JEM Trail loop. The Gould’s Rim section is a combination doubletrack and singletrack that snakes through sagebrush to nice outcrop vistas and skirts along the edge of Gould’s Canyon. The JEM Trail section brings much of the same topography, but with the added bonus of a very fast, sustained downhill and spectacular views of the Virgin River. Finally, the Hurricane Rim portion of our route offers up mildly technical singletrack suspended above the Virgin River and some fun traverses over rock slab. As usual, we’ll head back to the lodge to recuperate and refresh, then unwind with a great BBQ dinner around a riverside fire. Today’s ride length is about 22 miles.

Day 3

Gooseberry Mesa. Just the mention of this world-class trail is mountain biker catnip. Gooseberry is the best of technical slickrock and great singletrack. While the riding is incredible, be sure to keep your wits about you – the cliff edge views are unbelievable and vying for your attention. Long views of stone monuments and Zion Canyons are plentiful. The end of the day’s route is Gooseberry Point and the erratic overhead pattern of the Virgin River, as well as pine-laden vistas of the Pine Valley Mountains Wilderness. To say today’s ride has been awe inspiring would short change the experience.

Day 4

We’ll go exploring the desert mesa country yet again on Gooseberry’s sister mesa - Little Creek Mesa. When this singletrack route isn’t winding through juniper, pinyon and manzanita it’s depositing us onto rock outcroppings with eye-popping vistas of neighboring mesas and Zion Canyon. The slickrock portions of this ride are reminiscent of Moab’s Slickrock trail, but without the lung-busting steep climbs. These slickrock sections also lend themselves to playground attitude; our guests always enjoy the little stunts and jumps. Again we will return to the Cliffrose Lodge for recuperation and a tasty dinner that night. Ride length is about 15 miles.

Day 5

Gooseberry Mesa part two. We hit Gooseberry Mesa again this morning and make sure we’ve ridden all it has to offer. After a week of slickrock riding you’ll want to challenge yourself on the obstacles you may have passed on earlier in the week. From our shorter ride at Gooseberry we shuttle the JEM trail by itself for one last swooping singletrack descent.

About The Operator:

Hermosa Bike Tours

Headquarters:

Durango, Colorado

Hermosa Tours was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in beautiful Durango, Colorado. We offer premium, guided mountain bike tours in Durango Colorado, Southwest Utah and California with many destinations on our radar. Our concentration is providing a cycling vacation that includes the best riding in each area led by knowledgeable guides, excellent accommodations, delightful meals, transportation and an array of amenities that leave our guests relaxed and rejuvenated as well as thrilled.

Our tours deliver the best mountain biking destinations and their crown-jewel rides. The relaxing comfort of distinct handpicked accommodations and zero-hassle personalized white glove service. This is not a bike trip. This is your fantasy mountain bike vacation. Ride hard. Relax. Repeat. This is the experience we deliver.

Service and Comfort

For years the benchmark for guided mountain bike tours has been a day one meeting spot, point to point riding, a supported campsite each night and a final drop off back in town. Hermosa Tours offers something different. We pick you up at the airport and shuttle you to your arrival night lodging included in your cost. After each day's guided ride you'll return to a hot shower, some hot tub time, perhaps a massage, definitely a delightful meal and a warm bed. Finally, we THANK our guests with a dinner in town, a final night's lodging and a shuttle to the airport the next day...all included in your cost.

The Best Rides

Abandoning the camp-to-camp routes gives us (and more importantly you) the luxury of providing the best rides in each of our destinations. It also allows us a lot of flexibility. You finished your ride early today and want some more? No problem; let's load up and bite off a little more. Hermosa Tours has scouted our destinations for not only the "classics", but also the hidden gems that you simply will not find in any guidebook.

Why Guided?

To many, "guided" evokes an image of someone holding your hand through a watered-down experience. That's not what we're about. We're not here to get in the way of, or dictate your experience. It's about your TIME. Your time is valuable to you. Don't waste it scouring outdated guidebooks, running two-car shuttles, standing in line at restaurants, searching for a campsite, renting cars or hoping for a good hotel. Step off the plane and worry about the coldness of your beer (we'll make sure it's cold) and if your camera is charged.