UTAH MOAB:
ARCHES AND CANYONLANDS

One of our favorite guides, Patty, lives here and designed this new tour. We use the quaint town of Moab as home base on her tour of southeastern Utah. Unpack your bags only once and explore the thousand foot canyons and the soaring sandstone cliffs of this awe-inspiring area. Long known as a mountain bike mecca, this area also boasts some beautiful road cycling. Come explore it with us.

Day 1: We’ll meet in Moab, Utah, for a bike fitting at 3:00pm for those renting bicycles. We stay at the unique Gonzo Inn in the center of Moab. You know an inn is special when it has a bicycle station for washing and repairing bikes in the parking lot. We’ll have an orientation at 5:30pm, followed by a welcome dinner.

Day 2: Our first day of riding takes us along the Colorado River past soaring cliffs, petroglyph panels and dinosaur tracks. Once in the backcountry, we’ll get off our bikes for an easy 3-mile hike to see some spectacular scenery up close. We’ll walk to the Bow Tie – a pothole arch on the edge of a cliff rim, and to Corona – a handle arch seemingly carved from the sandstone. The arches are as spectacular as they are dissimilar. 26 or 63 miles.

Day 3: Our ride today takes us to Arches National Park, a preservation for more than 2000 natural sandstone arches. We’ll bike past the most famous Delicate Arch, as well as by other formations with such intriguing names as Courthouse Tower, Park Avenue, and Balanced Rock. After another short hike for a close-up view of Delicate Arch, we bike back to Moab. 19 or 55 miles.

Day 4: Another day brings another national park, as we bike to Canyonlands National Park. Formed by erosion from the Colorado River and its tributaries, the landscape is filled with colorful canyons, mesas and buttes. We’ll probably also see bighorn sheep, peregrine falcons and collared lizard during our picnic lunch in the park. 32 – 68 miles.

Day 5: We take a day off from cycling today to explore another facet of Moab. You can take the opportunity to hike, or rent a mountain bike or 4-wheeler for some off-road riding. Or you can choose to relax by the pool at our beautiful inn.

Day 6: Now that our legs are all refreshed, we’ll bike out to Castle Valley and have a feast at our guide Patty’s home as our reward. Everyone always raves about her cooking on our tours. You’ll bike along the river and by Red Cliffs Lodge where you can stop to do a wine tasting if you like. 42 or 63 miles.

Day 7: We’ll end the tour with a morning raft trip down the Colorado River. We begin our journey down the river at magnificent Fisher Towers. Calm waters in the beginning will give us time to learn more about the unique geology of Castle Valley. There will be a couple short sets of rapids, but there will be plenty of time to relax in between. We’ll say farewell and end our tour after a picnic lunch, with a shuttle to the Moab airport, arriving by 2:00pm. 0 miles.