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Rhythm and Blues Rhythm and Blues is a short mountain biking loop near Quail Creek in southwest Utah. It lies on the skirts of a mesa at the intersection of Highway 9 with the Quail Creek road, with a trailhead about three miles east of I-15. More trail is planned for this area in the future, but it's well worth the side-trip to ride the loop now. At the southern end of the loop, looking north along the skirts of Moenkopi clay and mudstone. Photos and ride description by Bruce on October 12, 2011. |
| The bike trail is only 2.6 miles in length, and is a one-way trail
designed to be ridden clockwise. It can be a fairly
quick ride for a skilled technical rider, or a longish and frustrating
ride for an early-intermediate. Starting at 2900 feet elevation, there's
only 100 feet of absolute elevation change, but lots of short up-and-downs
add to about 300 vertical feet of climbing.
Parking area. The trail exits the parking zone at the far left side. The caprock at the top of the mesa is Shinarump conglomerate, the same rock found at Gooseberry Mesa. Here it tends to be more "chunky" with embedded rock because it lay closer to the mountain source of pebbles. |
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The trail will invite you to do a couple of laps. The
outbound lower (eastern) side of the loop is intermediate
technical. The quick turns and bucking-horse down-ups require good balance
and bike-handling skill. The upper half (the return route) is advanced technical.
It will be sufficient challenge for skilled riders.
There are a few of these thread-the-needle passages between chunks of conglomerate. |
| The ride starts from a spacious gravel parking area 1/2 mile
from US-9 on the road to Quail Creek Reservoir. From the parking area, go
to the left and start uphill on smooth singletrack. (Ignore the smaller
trail heading north from the parking lot -- prominently marked with piles of
rock. It's nasty
and primitive, and in October 2011 didn't appear to have seen a bike tire
in many weeks.)
The trail contours around the small washes on the skirts of the mesa. Here we're looking east shortly after leaving the parking lot. A water treatment facility is on the opposite side of the road. |
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At the first trail fork about 50 yards uphill, keep to the
left for a clockwise ride. (The right fork is the return from the loop.)
You'll head south on an undulating ribbon of hard-packed white clay. The
entire trail lies in the Moenkopi Formation. The Moenkopi was formed on a broad mud-plain in
the early Triassic era when the ocean was to the west along the
Utah-Nevada border. The bands of color depend on the minerals present when
the mud was laid down.
More typical trail surface on the lower (east) half of the loop. |
| The chunks of rock on the surface came from the
uphill Chinle Formation. The yellow rock layer above you is the bottom of the Chinle. During this era (late Triassic, about 210 million years ago),
western Utah changed from ocean into mountains along a dividing line at the Hurricane and Wasatch
faults. The area east of the fault became desert. Nevada and the western
part of
Utah became mountainous highlands. Rivers brought gravel and sand from the
west to form the conglomerate rocks you see scattered around.
The trail joins and leaves the old irrigation structure many times. |
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The trail will periodically drop into the old Leeds Creek
canal as it heads south. The irrigation structure is still visible as a
depression surrounded by rough cement peeking above the desert soil.
The trail will veer to the southwest as it approaches US-9. It will begin to climb uphill through a few turns to reach the red dirt higher on the skirts of the mesa. Handlebar view showing now the trail rocks over the pleats in the clay skirts of the mesa. |
| Now the trail turns northbound, following lines where softer
clay has eroded off a harder layer to form a bench. Because you're now at
the base of the steeper slopes of Moenkopi, rocks that have broken off the
Chinle caprock tend to catch here. So there are more chunks of
conglomerate to contend with.
Heading back north, the trail follows a break in the skirts caused by a harder, more erosion resistant limestone layer within the Moenkopi. The sea reclaimed the mudflats for a while as this layer was laid down. |
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As you head northbound on the clockwise loop, the trail gets
steadily more technical. Intermediates will find a lot of spots to walk.
(If you're forced off your bike, stay on the trail. Don't hike trailside!)
Many of the turns are quite tight. And the shoulder is soft clay that will grab your wheel. Good practice at bike control! Some of the drops are sharp with a sudden upturn at the bottom. Beginners will not do well on these dips. |
| Skilled riders will find it's possible to clean everything.
But you may want to reserve the all-out go-for-it run for your second lap.
There were two spots where a fast-but-wrong entry point to a rock roll-over would
put you into a wheel-trap before you could
stop.
Typical rollover with a surprise waiting on the other side, then a dip and climb, then a steep plunge. |
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A couple of times, you'll descend a bit and think you're
done, only to reverse course and climb up another ridge. Fun stuff.
The trail rejoins the outgoing trail just above the parking lot. Take another lap, and this time, ride it all without putting a foot down. The trail has dropped into a wash for 100 feet. Then it's time to turn back uphill again. |
| When riding Rhythm and Blues, stay on the trail at all
times. The little blackish stalagmites on the dirt are cryptobiotic soil
-- a living crust of symbiotic organisms. Even laying your bike down
off-trail will cause damage that takes many years to heal.
Don't ride this trail when it's wet. After a storm, or in early spring when the clay still holds a lot of water, the trail will not hold up under bike tires. On some of the ridges, piloting the bike over and around the rock obstacles while maintaining uphill momentum can be tricky. |
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Getting there: On I-15 about 10 miles north of St. George, take the Hurricane (US-9) exit eastbound. Drive 2.6 miles. After descending part-way down the hill, turn left toward Quail Creek at the light. Drive another 0.5 miles north and find the broad gravel parking area on the left side of the road. The trail starts on the south (left) side of the parking area. |
| Riding resources for this trail: Single-page riding guide GPS track files (right-click and "Save as..."): GPX course file GPX incl northbound trail Map datum WGS 84 Lodging, camping, shops: Links to St. George area resources |
Copyright 2011 Mad Scientist Software Inc |
