Monday, June 14, 2010

Hurricane Utah ( part 1 )

Got to spend a few days playing in the desert last week. Two hours outside Sin City sits this little Oasis or MTB Mecca that sometimes gets overlooked in favor of bigger more hyped locations like Moab or Fruita.

Hurricane & Springdale are relatively small with populations of 8000 and 500 ish.

Two bike stores service this area. Over the Edge Sports in Hurricane and Zion Cycles in Springdale. Springdale also has the Zion National Park and the nicest Best Western I have ever seen.

Day 1 had a few of the local favorites on tap like J.E.M. trail & Gould's Rim trail along with Hurricane Rim. Gooseberry Mesa is probably the most famous followed by Little Creek but time did not allow for a proper introduction.






The trails are amazing and the crowds were nil. I did not get the sense I was in such a large rock playground as you would in Moab but that is kind of what really stuck out to me and I was really happy about the destination.

It was hot ( not as hot as Vegas ) and there is not much in the way of shade but all of that is forgotten as you hit switchbacks like this and buff trail.

Did some recon to source out a couple of good base camp type locations complete with hot tubs and heated pools.

This is also really close to St. George Utah which is a much bigger city than both of these spots complete with all the trappings but other than hitting there to eat you would be better served in the small towns.