The snow for snowboarding in Colorado has been only mediocre so we decided to get away from the cold weather and meet up with some folks in Tucson to enjoy warm weather and biking...or so we thought.
Cortez, Colorado - Phil's World Trails
On our way south, the first stop was a trail system with the most flow of any trail system we've ridden. This system is very well designed with berms in just the right places and the trails laid out to take you to all the best views in the area. There are very few sustained climbs. With the rolling terrain, you are never far from a fun swooshy downhill. The highlight of all of these trails is the Rib Cage which closely resembles the ups and downs of a roller coaster. We've ridden these trails before, but each time we get back there we just gotta smile and laugh!
We didn't have a set plan for where to stay in the area our first night. The campgrounds we thought we were going to use were closed for the winter season. Fortunately, there were plenty of boondocking opportunities. We checked in with the forest service rangers and they guided us to the LaPlata Canyon area where we found the Bay City campground. It was quiet and scenic. If that was full, we could have continued up the canyon and found several more campgrounds.
Hovenweep National Monument
The Hovenweep National Monument is a small, out of the way park that protects ruins from the 1200s. There is a nice trail that guides you through a prehistoric village. Along the trail, we got a nice view of a long-eared owl taking flight. I was too slow with the camera to get a shot of it. Fortunately, my reflexes are fast enough to capture images of the ruins. We were impressed with the quality of the construction including multiple stories and sharp corners of the buildings. The National Monument has a small but immaculate campground with nice mountain views.
Valley of the Gods
Valley of the Gods is a scenic backcountry area near Monument Valley that is essentially a smaller Monument Valley with fewer visitors. There is a 17 mile unpaved road that takes you from one end to the other. The washboard effect of the road was strong when we were there and it was a punishing trip. This offered incentive to stop and enjoy the surroundings more frequently than we normally would. One of the stops rewarded us with our first time seeing a badger in the wild.
Gooseneck State Park
This tiny state park is perched above the canyons carved by the San Juan River. The views from 1000 feet above the river are spectacular. The park is essentially just a few campsites with overlooks into the canyon. We stayed the night here with plans to do a road ride through Monument Valley in the morning.
Monument Valley
Monument Valley has been on our list of must-see places for a long time. We've been so close with our trips to Moab, but never seemed to get there. We routed this trip to go right through so we couldn't miss it. Our plan was to stop and do an out-and-back road ride along the Bluff Scenic Byway. Unfortunately, a cold weather front was coming through and the winds were topping 40mph sandblasting everything in sight. This turned into a driving day instead. The sights were still amazing, living up to expectations.
Throughout the trip we passed through Monument Valley a few times with a variety of lighting conditions.
Petrified Forest National Park
The Petrified Forest National Park has a variety of landscapes, the most notable being the Painted Desert and the areas abundant with petrified trees. The park has a paved road that runs about 28 miles end to end with gentle rolling hills and amazing National Park scenery. We had a break in the weather and took the opportunity to tour the park by bike.
After the bike ride in the National Park, we camped in Homolovi State Park for the night before setting south for Tucson.
Tucson
Our plan was to spend a little over a week in Tucson for riding. We split our time camping in the Gilbert Ray campground and the Catalina State Park camground, both worked out really well.
We managed to get a couple rides in before the warm, dry desert weather turned cold and rainy. The first was Tucson Mountain Park MTB (Starr Pass) This trail system has an edge to it with lots of loose rock, ups and downs and great desert views. Sue had an opportunity to test the effectiveness of her new knee pads here.
Gates Pass & McCain Loop This is a classic Tucson road ride. The pass itself is a 4/10 mile steep climb to the summit. It is short enough that you can turn around and do intervals until your legs fall off. Just a few miles to the west is McCain Loop road which is a nice roller coaster type road with very little traffic and great desert views. The asphalt on McCain Loop is a bit rough and I destroyed my rear tire. Fortunately, I had some Gu energy gels with me and I was able to use the wrapper to make a tire boot so that I could finish the ride.
After a couple days of steady rain, we were happy to get on the bikes again. We rode several of the bike paths that are part of "The Loop" bike path system in Tucson. We turned around at Sentinel Peak (AKA 'A' Mountain) which was good for a spirited sprint to the summit.
This is a nice trail system that is not very technical but has some good flow to it. Getting your speed up is the best way to maximize the fun here and there is plenty to be had. However, be warned that there is a good amount of Cholla cactus, also known as Jumping Cholla along the trails. They have a way of getting attached to you in a painful way and not wanting to let go. There are some interesting "art" installations throughout the trail system which adds to the entertainment.
We linked up with the Altitude crew and had a wonderful ride with them. We rode the bike trails from the northern end of Tucson to the Sagauro National Park East. We toured the park, riding the Cactus Forest Loop road and then headed back to where we started.
We began to think we broke the desert with all the cold, wet days we were experiencing. Despite the weather, we wanted to tick off another of the classic Tucson climbs. We've done Mt. Lemmon on a previous trip. Kitt peak and Madera Canyon were the climbs we had yet to do. Since the temps were low, the one with the lower elevation of the two was our choice. We did the Madera Canyon climb as an out and back from the town of Green Valley. The 15% grade climb up was a nice challenge, but the 39º temp on the way down was numbing.
Sedona
Sedona, like Monument Valley, is another place that has been on our destination list for a long time. Watching the weather forecast, we saw that we had a 1 day window of good riding weather with more snow approaching the area. We left Tucson a little early to catch this good weather day in Sedona. We really wanted to get at least one ride in there to get a good feel for Sedona. What a ride it was! The scenery in Sedona is breathtaking. We live in and visit places commonly described as majestic. Sedona still blew us away with how beautiful it is. We rode the MTB loop called the West Sedona Tour that covers the famous Chuckwagon and Mezcal trails. Once again, I was saying that I have a new favorite MTB ride. I have so many favorite MTB rides.
Leaving Sedona
The drive north from Sedona and through Flagstaff is very scenic. We did encounter the snow that was forecasted. There is much debate as to whether 4x4 is worthwhile on Sprinter vans. I was glad we had it on ours.
Moki dugway & Muley Point
The most direct route to Natural Bridges National Monument from Monument Valley is via the Moki Dugway. This is a dirt road with multiple switchbacks that essentially take you up the face of a cliff to the top of Cedar Mesa. Once you get to the top of the mesa, there is a dirt road on the left that leads to a couple great overlooks of the canyons below and Monument Valley in the distance. The viewing here is pretty spectacular.
Natural Bridges National Monument
This national monument is home to three large natural stone bridges carved by erosion. There is a 9 mile paved loop road that takes you to overlooks and trailheads for viewing the natural bridges. There is also a really nice campground right by the loop road.
We had planned to ride after our overnight in Natural Bridges National Monument, but the weather set us back. We were not prepared to ride with the temperature hovering around 12ºF.
Just outside of the National Monument is a hike to some more ruins along a canyon. One of the ruins is remarkable in that when the light is right, the color and grain of the rock resembles fire. With just the right post-processing of your photo, it can look a lot like fire.
Where to next....Moab?
Items purchased for this road trip
- Portable collapsible wash basin We don't have running water in the van so this helps with doing dishes. We've had several other collapsible containers that are generally better at collapsing than staying open. This works very well at staying uncollapsed when you want it unlike many other collapsible containers.
- RV leveling kit We've needed this for a while. This makes leveling the van way easier than using firewood or rocks under the tires
- Reliance 2.5 gal water container We've used Waterbricks for a while, they are rugged and stackable which is nice, but the handles and opening are awkward to use. The Reliance is not as rugged, but the ease of use makes it a winner.
- G Form Knee Pads and G Form Elbow Pads. These are to help with confidence on the trail. They are very lightweight and comfortable while still providing a good level of protection.
From our posting about adding Wifi to the van, here are the items we used to get that going.
- Cradlepoint IBR900
- Liquid Tight conduit
- Liquid Tight fittings
- 300W Inverter (not so efficient inverter, but very affordable)
- Morningstar 300W Inverter (efficient inverter)
- Bluesea Systems fuse block
- Wire connectors
- Blade Fuses
- Hole Saws
- Marine grade wire
- Drill
- Wire strippers