Carr-Siegel                                            Biking Adventures

Western Spirit arranged this adventure and had become our main biking tour company.   Our group flew to Las Vegas, rented two cars and drove to St. George, Utah where we transferred our gear to the Western Spirit van and trailer. I brought my camping gear with me but did rent a mountain bike from Western Spirit.  Some of our group did ship their bikes to Western Spirit. We were joined by a father and son from Louisiana at St. George.   

This was a biking and camping adventure.  Western Spirit transported our gear from campsite to campsite, Provided breakfast and dinner at each campsite and met us during the day for snacks and lunch.  Our responsibility was to setup our tents in the evening and pack up in the morning.  We had two guides - one drove the van and trailer and the other biked with us for guidance and, if need, mechanical support,  The last night we stayed at a hotel in Springdale, outside of Zion.  The next day we biked to Zion and then were driven back to St. George for the trip home.        

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Click on a picture below to go that segment of the ride. 

Single Track 

We biked to Bryce Canyon which is located on the southern end of the Paunsaugunt Plateau in southern Utah's high desert, The area features a high-elevation, semi-arid climate with a variety of ecosystems, providing single track trails and spectacular views    {more pictures}   

Bryce Canyon National Park 

Despite its name, Bryce is not a canyon but a collection of giant natural ampitheaters along the eastern side of the Paunsaugunt Plateau.  Bryce is distinctive due to geological structures called hoodoos (a tall thin spire of rock), formed by frost weathering and stream erosion which give the rocks a red, orange, and white colors.  Bryce is much smaller and sits at a much higher elevation than nearby Zion National Park.  The rim at Bryce varies from 8,000 to 9,000 feet.      {more pictures}

Double Track   

Doubletrack trails are normally double the width (or more) of a typical singletrack trail with enough room for two bikes to ride side-by-side. Often double track trails follow abandoned logging roads, fire roads or power-line roads, where the tires of vehicles created two tracks..  {more pictures}

Short Video:  Stuck in the mud   (opens, wait for it, in a new browser tab)

Zion Canyon National Park  

In 1909, President William Howard Taft named the area Mukuntuweap National Monument in order to protect the canyon. In 1918, the acting director of the newly created National Park Service, drafted a proposal to enlarge the existing monument and change the park's name to Zion National Monument, According to historian Hal Rothman: "The name change played to a prevalent bias of the time. Many believed that Spanish and Indian names would deter visitors who, if they could not pronounce the name of a place, might not bother to visit it. The new name, Zion, had greater appeal to an ethnocentric audience." On November 19, 1919, Congress redesignated the monument as Zion National Park, and the act was signed by President Woodrow Wilson. {more pictures}