White Rim Trail
October, 2003

This was a very fun trip.  6 people went: Chris and Paula, friends I had climbed with in the past, hooked me up with this trip.  Bob was the organizer, and Scott and Linda were friends of Bob's.  We biked from the Shafer trail near the Island in the Sky visitor center 80 miles to the opposite end of the trail at the Mineral Bottom Road.  Here is a map.  We could have biked another 20 miles on the Mineral Bottom road to bring us back to the visitor's center, but we decided to maximize our fun and minimize the low quality grind. Our campgrounds were Airport, White Crack, and Hardscrabble.  That made our riding distances 16 miles the first day, 18 the second, 33 the third, and 10 miles on the fourth day (approx.).  The third day also had two of the three significant climbs of the trip. Those being Murphy Hogback, Hardscrabble Bottom, and the hill out at Mineral Bottom  Road.

The sag truck was my land cruiser.  We split up the food such that each person or couple would provide one breakfast and one dinner for everybody to eat.  All the meals were excellent.  Since I provided the truck, and the group didn't have to rent a van as previously planned, Chris and Paula provided food for me and did my cooking chores -- a fat double bonus.  Only stressful part of the trip was Paula making me wash dishes when I didn't want to, and eating off dishes I knew Paula had washed.

My friend Jim wanted to come on this trip but he had 'hotel reservations'.  I will dedicate this web page to Jim, with 'hotel reservations'.

Here we are packing my truck for the trip.  At first it appears there is no way we will fit everything in. L to R: Paula, Chris, Bob, Linda.

You start at the top layer of the Canyonlands rocks and in the first mile you descend these switchbacks 1400 feet to get to the layer of the white rim sandstone.  The White Rim Sandstone layer is 700 feet above the bottom.

This plaque talks about the Shafer Trail which descends the above switchbacks.

After descending, the road goes straight toward the White Rim.  Near the end of the road in the distance you see a whitish layer of rock which is the White Rim sandstone.  This layer is hard and is often the top layer of rock showing. Most of the 80 miles we rode was on this layer.

Here we are, the truck is packed and we are ready to go.   I'm holding a wheel because my bike is on top of the truck.  My bike is on top of the truck because the group voted that I would drive the switchbacks down the cliff.  We took turns driving the truck.  Each person typically drove half the day which wasn't much.  Near the end of the trip we had more volunteers for the truck.  Sections of the road were really fun 4 wheeling, Scott and Rob got to drive the best 4 wheeling parts.

Chris

Paula

Bob is first to perform maintenance. What a great place to have to work on your bike.

Chris and I with the Colorado River behind us.

Chris riding off to Musselman's Arch.

Musselman's Arch.

Bob and Chris

Our first campground, called airport.  The rock in the background is called Airport Tower. Here we really wish we had 'hotel reservations' instead.

Nearing sunset.

Our camp center.  Around 3 am the winds picked up strongly.  Everything was blowing around.  Nobody could sleep. Bob's tent was damaged so he jumped in the truck to sleep.

Sunset

Moon

Monster Tower on the left, Washer Woman Tower on the right.

Day 2: Scott and Linda on their 40 lb rental hardtail mountain bikes.

Bob and I.

All but Chris. L to R: Me, Paula, Bob, Linda, Scott

Bob and the large quadricep belongs to Paula.

Two arches.

Paula heading up the last sandy slope to our second campsite - White Crack.

Water holes in the rock.  This white rock is the white rim sandstone.

Near our campground at White Crack.  Very beautiful.

Prehistoric looking creatures living in a pool of water in a rock.

Our second campsite -- White Crack. Almost as nice as if we had 'hotel reservations'.

Day 3: Chris and Bob.

Day 3 would include two hard climbs - generally speaking there was little climbing except for three hills.   This one is called Murphy's Hogback.  Technical and steep, a real huff.  Here is Scott driving the sag cruiser up the hill.

Paula topping out on Murphy's hogback.

Paula and I

Linda swimming at our third campsite: Hardscrabble.

Campsite at Hardscrabble. Not as nice as 'hotel reservations' but it was good.

Day 4: A short day - only 10 miles to ride.

The Green River as we head out of the park.

At Mineral Bottom Road you ascend some switchbacks and here is Scott topping out at the end of our ride.  Linda is driving the sag truck.

Chris and Paula coming up the second to last switchback.

Chris wins again.

Here we are at the end of our trip.  A great trip, only thing that could have been better is if we had had 'hotel reservations' instead . . .

Bye!