For Mountain Bike Enthusiasts, Moab Is Where to Make the Grade

Each year, hordes of fat-tire fanatics trek to southeastern Utah to visit Moab, a town with a reputation as an off-road cyclist’s playground.

Jeep roads and trails are carved into the red rock cliffs. And because of the high desert climate, it’s possible to ride almost year-round, though the prime seasons are spring and fall.

Each October, Moab hosts a Fat Tire Festival that draws nearly 2,000 riders. This year the festival takes place Oct. 24-29. It’s considered the largest off-road bicycle rally in the world.

Red stone walls compress Moab into a long narrow strip. The walls tower to the north and south. The canyon and the tiny city both terminate at the Colorado River, flowing lazily beneath the escarpments.

Postwar Boom

Mormon settlers and frontiersmen first settled this valley a century ago, and it remained a sleepy agrarian backwater until the post-World War II era. Then, at the beginning of the Atomic Age, the town flourished as modern prospectors with Geiger counters and Jeeps arrived in search of the abundant deposits of uranium in the cliffs.

After the uranium boom fizzled, the recreational boom began. Moab is sandwiched between Canyonlands National Park and Arches National Monument, and it has long been a hub for tourists, river runners and four-wheel-drive aficionados. It is only in the last four years that Moab has become a magnet to “fat” fans.

“It’s a sturdier machine than a racing bike, and riders can sit upright without hunching over the handlebars,” explained John Groo, owner of Moab’s Rim Tours and an organizer of the Fat Tire Festival. “Mountain bikes are utilitarian--they’re built to travel.”

The country surrounding Moab is a monumental landscape of sandstone canyons and pencil-thin rock towers. In these rocky mazes, fat-tire bicycles provide the ultimate transportation. Noiseless and pollution-free, mountain bikes are built to withstand a pounding on the roughest roads.

The Slickrock Trail (a white dotted line painted across miles of sandstone) is a prime fat-tire destination. It’s laid out only a few minutes from town.

The trail follows an improbable path across rolling sand dunes that are frozen hard as asphalt. The rock is swept clean by winds and rains. But “slick” it is not. Fat tires cling to the rough surfaces as if glued.

Colorado River Gorge

Slick-rock novices often begin with the two-mile practice loop. But the main loop is irresistible. After several tortuous miles, the Slickrock Trail reaches a rim overlooking the Colorado River gorge, the river flowing muddy and slow a thousand feet past the cyclist’s shoe tips. From there, the trail loops back to the main parking area.

In a mountain bike, slick-rock riders have all the finest qualities of an old army Jeep--with less noise and bumps. A good frame is solid as a tractor. Bikes usually have 18 speeds, but some custom machines have more. The additional gears are usually added on the low end for improved hillclimbing.

And the lowest gears are furiously low, extracting enough torque from a human leg to climb a steep canyon trail. The highest gears are high enough to descend the same trail at ear-ripping speeds.

Beefy brakes are installed to bring the beasts under control again. The range of gears makes these bikes suitable for a trip to the Moab supermarket or a tour on the Hurrah Pass Jeep road.

One afternoon, while killing time at Rim Cyclery in Moab, I met three other cyclists--two women and a man--who were looking for riding companions. The staff of the shop pointed out some good routes on a Canyonlands map. We topped off our water bottles in the repair room and started the ride to Hurrah Pass.

The pace was quick through town. We cut through neighborhoods of clapboard and brick houses with neat lawns. But at the town’s edge, we downshifted and began to ascend a twisting dirt road. The precipitous track clung to the burnt red canyon walls high above Kane Creek. Petroglyphs covered some of the boulders next to the road.

Downhill Charge

After a long, slow climb, we passed the road’s apex. In high gear, we charged down the steep trail, leaning hard to keep our bicycles on the switchbacks. At the bottom, the road intersected the creek. A freshwater spring was gushing from beneath maidenhair ferns that grew out of the sandstone wall. We took time to drink and refill our water bottles.

Hurrah Pass, the trip’s midpoint, was the crest of a sandstone rib that rose a thousand feet above two vast valleys. In one valley, Kane Creek was a thin green line. In the other, the mighty Colorado River flowed impudently past the ancient rock walls.

For neophyte mountain bikers, the Fat Tire Festival provides a good introduction to riding in the canyon country. Rides are graded according to difficulty, progressing from easy to moderate to “gonzo/abusive.”

“Last year, one ‘gonzo’ ride demanded throwing your bike on your shoulder and climbing a trail up a 300-foot cliff,” said Groo. “The surprising thing is that one of the riders was 68 years old.”

Pedaling through the center of Moab reveals an unusual characteristic of this town--a virtual lack of fast-food operations. Neighborly cafes and diners--replete with counter seating and revolving stools--are the norm.

Among cyclists, the breakfast of choice is a crispy stack of buckwheat waffle squares prepared fresh daily at Honest Ozzie’s Cafe.

Moab has some of the cleanest motels of any small town I’ve ever visited. But there is an unusual alternative to traditional lodging around Moab, one that I prefer.

The town is surrounded by federally owned Bureau of Land Management properties that provide beautiful yet remote campsites a few minutes from city limits. There are sites along the Colorado River, in side canyons and on mesa tops.

Free Camping

Camping on these lands is free, and campers are urged to leave the sites clean. Stays are limited to 14 days, but time is seldom a problem for campers who “canyon-hop” from campsite to campsite.

My favorite camping area is along Route 128 beside the Colorado River, in a valley rimmed by towering, dun-colored cliffs.

Several hundred yards from where 128 leaves U.S. 191, Matrimony Spring provides a source of fresh drinking water. The spring spouts from a pipe next to the road. The water is cold and clear, almost better than the chilled beer served in Moab’s honky-tonks.

I selected a more challenging trip, the Monitor/Merrimack loop, on my second day in Moab.

The Monitor/Merrimack tour began on a nondescript mesa that belies the improbable geologic formations hidden in nearby canyons. With other cyclists I traveled a flat, hardpack road that dropped abruptly into a dry, rocky creek bottom.

Twin Pillars

After a few miles, the canyon opened up. In the distance was Determination Towers--twin sandstone pillars--a landmark that indicated we were on the right trail. Beyond the towers, the track crossed a mile of slick rock and terminated at the base of two tremendous pinnacles, the Monitor and the Merrimack.

These massive black rock formations were named after the first pair of iron battleships in America. The two ships had short careers, sinking each other during the Civil War. Their strong resemblance to these desert rocks has secured them unsinkable, everlasting monuments.

We rode boisterously on the rock slabs that encircle the bases of the monoliths. Between the formations was a massive slab, flat and large as a parking lot. Though our group included adults and children, it was just another group of kids on a big playground.

It was nearly dark when I returned to my campsite by the Colorado River. At dusk, the canyon wrens sang, their warbling musical scale bouncing from the walls as the stars began to appear. In the high desert night, every constellation was sharp and unwavering against the dark void.

I sat out there alone in the desert night with my bicycle resting against a tree and a scrubwood fire crackling, gazing at a big crescent moon floating from behind the black cliff walls.

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Moab is in southeastern Utah, 30 miles south of Interstate 70 on U.S. 191. The closest major airport is in Grand Junction, Colo., a short hop from Denver. Driving distance from Grand Junction to Moab is 98 miles.

For fat-tire bicycle tours, contact any of the following shops in Moab:

--Rim Tours, 94 W. 1st North, (801) 259-5223;

--Rim Cyclery, 94 W. 1st North, (801) 259-5333;

--Adrift Adventures, 376 N. Main St., (801) 259-8594;

--Red Rock Bike Shoppe, 352 N. Main St., (801) 259-8371.

For information about the 1989 Fat Tire Festival, contact Rim Tours or Rim Cyclery.

Every cyclist should make his or his first stop at the Moab Visitor’s Center, 805 N. Main St., (801) 259-8825, only a mile west of town. The staff is friendly and well informed. They can provide a listing of activities and information on Moab’s motels, restaurants and campgrounds.

Honest Ozzie’s Cafe and Desert Oasis, 60 N. 1st West, offers home-style, organic foods on a sunny patio or by a cozy fireplace. Rolls are made fresh daily. White grapejuice, fresh from the backyard vines, is available when the vines are yielding. Other delicacies are regularly produced by the whimsy of the cook. Just ask.

At the Grand Old Ranch House, (801) 259-5753, fine dining includes Old World German recipes, seafood and Utah-size steaks. There’s Victorian decor and stained glass in an 1896 brick ranch house amidst a grove of cottonwoods.

A fat-tire cyclist’s dream is at Uptown Pizza, 51 N. Main St., (801) 259-6070. All you can eat spaghetti washed down with Slickrock lager beer.

The Outlaw Saloon, 35 W. Center, (801) 259-5207, is where the local cowboys hang out, but they seem to be willing to make room for cyclists. Classic country and Western tunes on the jukebox and pool tables for 25 cents a game.