MOUNTAIN BIKING AND HIKING IN UTAH: TRAIL OF THE ANCIENTS

 

29 June – 2 July 2003

 

 

Prior to our biking trip, we spent 5 days cruising on Lake Powell, most of the time in the Escalante River arm, our favorite region of Lake Powell. It was our 4th houseboat trip on Lake Powell and we are still convinced that this is one of the most scenic places anywhere in the world. The back or our houseboat is visible in the lower right corner.

 

 

 

 

 

The biking trip “Trail of the Ancients” was again with Rim Tours. We started at Bears Ears in the lower left corner and biked an easy ride to our first camp site where we stayed for two nights. From there we biked south to the Cattle Guard where we took the hiking trail to the ancient Indian ruins. Note on the altitude profile on the right that we stayed above 7000 ft for most of the 4-day tour.

 

 

Here are our tents in our first camp site. When we took down the tents at the next camp site we found a little scorpion. We immortalized him on the background for this web page being ever so grateful he left us alone.

 

 

 

 

 

There are bears in the area and we saw these bear tracks between mountain bike tracks.

 

 

These Indian ruins were discovered about 50 years ago. They are located on pretty inaccessible ledges as a defensive measure against other human intruders. Times haven’t changed…

 

 

 

Getting down to the level of the ruins involved some scrambling and being close to pretty sheer cliffs. Here we’re about half way down. The guides are very patient with Yvonne, who is terrified of heights. Here Robi helps her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A closer look of the cliff dwelling that we walked through.

 

 

 

 

Walking along the cliff dwellings wasn’t difficult as long as you were not afraid of heights or didn’t look down.

 

 

 

This is Mike, one of our guides (the other is Robi and we have a picture of him on the “Maze” web page). Mike was also with us at the White Rim and the Maze. He and the rest of the Rim Tour guides are absolutely wonderful.

 

 

 

Juergen’s favorite view at Cathedral Point (our campsite).  He shared the view with everyone but not the beer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had time to pose since it’s a long downhill stretch ahead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Incredible colors and scenery.

 

 

 

 

This is most of our group shortly before the end of the trip. Our support vehicle is also visible.

 

 

 

 

 

We ended our bike tour at Newspaper Rock where artists throughout centuries left a vast collection of pictographs. Our friends Gene and Betsy (on the left of this picture) joined us on this trip.

 

The day after the 4-day tour of the Trail of the Ancients, we took a half-day tour in the Bartlett Wash area just north of Moab. The ride was really interesting and consisted mostly of slick rock. This was a new experience for us and it was a lot of fun, though scary at times. On the left is Yvonne “blazing” over a washboard portion of the terrain.

 

We liked this trip so much that we did another one, just 3 months later in September called “The Maze.”