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Red Mountain Trail
The Red Mountain Loop Trail is just outside of Cedar City. Because it's lower in altitude (6000 feet) than most trails in the area, it's free of snow from May to November. It's a short loop singletrack with some advanced technical riding. Although only 3 miles in length, this isn't a cushy ride. Top to bottom altitude change is only 200 feet, but there are countless quick ups and downs, plus a relatively strenuous half-mile grunt in each direction. |
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Photo above: View up into the riding area. Vertical fins of rock create rockin' rollin' technical riding as the singletrack winds through the area. Photos by Bruce Argyle, July 23, 2001. Updated in November 2010. |
| The trail winds around in a wash, then climbs up onto sharp
fins of dirt and rock. The turns are quick and constant; the sudden (but
brief) uphills are often brutal stand-on-the-pedals-and-grunt; and the
downhills have a definite thrill-factor. This trail is a good workout, and
it's a riot to ride.
We've just climbed out of the wash and are looking back south. A highly technical alternate downhill route is via the fin on the right. It starts pleasant, but gets hairy at the end.
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Since my original ride 10 years ago, ATVs, motos, and DHers
have created many alternate lines. Navigation isn't so easy now. If you
can't follow my GPS track to the golf course, plan to explore a few dead
ends. Most riders just putter around; the classic loop ride (as described
below) is done less often now.
View from the loop fork. Northbound, you'll go west (left) of this little razorback mountain. Southbound, you'll come back along the little valley at mid-right in the photo.
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| Just remember that, in general, you're heading north, and
you're staying as high as you can, as long as you can. That will deliver
you to the little valley south of the golf course. Then you need to sneak
past a tee-off area to get to the gravel road that takes you onto the
other side of the loop. You're going around that sharp little mountain in
the photo above.
In the middle of the ride, the trail rises to its highest point on this fin, before descending sharply. Looking north, we see the farming areas north of Cedar City. |
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The "badlands" over which this trail passes are sedimentary
deposits from the Triassic Period -- the age of reptiles, mammal-like
reptiles, and the first bipedal dinosaurs. The steep tilt of the sediment
planes was caused by "dragging" of blocks of rock by the
Hurricane Fault, a southern version of the Wasatch Fault that separates
the Great Basin from the mountains of eastern Utah.
Rabbitbrush blooms at the trailside. |
| In the summer, you'll want to hit this trail early in the
morning. 8 a.m. temperatures often are in the low 60's, yet by 10 a.m. are
climbing into the 80s. Because you'll be working hard, the cool
temperature is very comfortable.
At the northernmost end of the ride, near the catch-basin reservoir, looking north. |
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You may be a bit timid the first run around the loop. That's
OK. Scout the territory, then "tear it up" on the second loop. I
guarantee, two loops will make you feel like you've had a ride.
A typical trail segment, as the trail plummets and twists into a wash. Note the vertical orientation of the rock strata.
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Riding notes, clockwise loop:
0.0 start up doubletrack in wash, find ST in bottom of wash
follow main path up wash (don't take any side
routes -- they're DH)
0.6 trail forks at top of ridge, turn left N37 40.799 W113 02.721
keep R at next intersections N37 40.730 W113 02.788
0.8 onto razorback ridges, avoid drop-off routes
1.2 descending off ridge, stay northbound
watch for sharp right turn onto dirt road N37 41.222 W113 03.142
1.4 sneak east between golf tee-off area and mountain
1.5 right onto gravel road N37 41.371 W113 02.991, go past the flood reservoir
1.7 Keep right at fork, doubletrack becomes singletrack
2.0 Back at fork on pass, descend into wash vs R to razorback
2.4 back at fork on top of ridge, go left and descend into wash
3.0 back at trailhead
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Getting there: On Cedar City's Main Street, turn east
(towards the mountains) on Center Street, U-14. Travel 0.9 mile from the
turn. Note the dirt doubletrack on the left. Find a place to park (most
bikers use the truck-turnaround 100 yards up the road on the right).
Trailhead GPS is N 37° 40.441' W 113° 02.735'.
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