When you think of mountain biking and Utah, one’s mind instantly goes to… Moab! But allow me to bring you in on a little secret…just a couple hours outside of Moab… world-class riding exists in abundance!
Our most recent journey brought us to the shredtastic trails of St. George, Utah; a modern mountain bikers paradise of techy chunk and buff desert singletrack. St. George sits just outside of Zion National Park, the purpose built singletrack paradise of Hurricane City and the famous Gooseberry and Little Creek Mesas! It is only about 2 hours East of Las Vegas (or if you pay attention to time zones 3 hours to Las Vegas and 1 hour back).
The St. George and Hurricane area are most famous for hosting Red Bull Rampage (technically in Virgin UT) so if you have ever seen that then you can imagine the immensely beautiful landscape. With that being said the “normal human” mountain bike trails are not nearly as insane as the Rampage trails!
From the highway the city appears to be your typical strip mall mecca, but if you care to look just tad bit deeper, you will easily stumble upon epic singletrack hovering on the boundaries of the St. George city limits.
Our goal was to ride the infamous Zen trail! We had heard about the Zen trail over a year ago from our friends at Moab Cyclery. The Zen trail is the only mtb purpose built singletrack amidst a massive OHV area located just steps away from a significant housing development. Getting to the trailhead was pretty darn easy, except there are quite a few parking lots and if you go to the wrong parking lot you will end up pedaling for a lot longer than you originally planned.
The Zen Trail loop starts off with a relatively mild climb in terms of steepness, but it doesn’t lack in quick, punchy and technical moves. Technical climbing is a great physical and mental test and the Zen Trail has a perfect mixture to keep your full attention.
The climb keeps getting more and more technical as you near the top on the loop. The riding here feels like the secret love child between Moab and Sedona, Slick rock and tacky dirt really do make the heart happy. The features are an awesome place to practice your technical climbing skills!
Oh and I guess the views are ok too…
Once you reach the top the views are spectacular! (if you’re into the sorta thing..)
The only thing left to do from here is drop your seat and point your tires down!
The downhill portion of the ride is the perfect amount of techy slick rock features and fast slightly bermed buff desert!
So if you’ve had enough of the Moab crowds, and are looking for a new fresh zone to shred some bikes in the great state of Utah, look no further than the epic singletrack that St George has to offer!
Escape Adventures Tours in this area: Zion Weekend
Blog written by Eric Newton. Eric is the social media mastermind behind Escape Adventures and Moab Cyclery. He is also the founder of The Bike-It List, a new Youtube Video series that will land here this coming winter. Stay tuned!
