Deadhorse Point State Park- Moab Utah

If you have ever been to Canyonlands National Park in Utah, you probably drove right past another super cool area called Deadhorse Point State Park. This is not a part of the National Parks system so your America the Beautiful pass will not get you into this one. However, at only $10/day, it is totally worth it. This park is a meeting place for mountain bikers of all skill levels and several trails leave directly from the parking lot just inside the entrance. We arrived as gravel bike enthusiasts that had never ridden mountain bikes before, but having been told by some friends that Moab is the Mecca of mountain biking, we had to give it a go.

We had researched ahead of our trip what type of bikes and which rental company may be the best fit for our particular trip and we decided on full suspension mountain bikes from Bighorn Mountain Biking as they have a rental pick up/drop off in the trailhead parking lot so no shuttling around, just show up, grab your bike from the awesome staff at Bighorn and head out. If you are lucky you might get to meet the shop dog, George, for your daily dose of canine sunshine. A couple loops around the parking lot got us familiar with the bikes and we headed out on the beginner course. Starting and ending at the “you are here” point on the map below, we rode “Big Chief,” “Great Pyramid,” and “Raven Roll” together.

The first differences this gravel gal noticed were the squish of the suspension, the hydraulic dropper post (with the push of a thumb lever the seat post could be lowered to get it out of the way when going over features and then rocket launched back up as needed) and the wide straight handlebars. I am used to the various hand positions available on my drop bars, sitting on my saddle in one position meaning no moving up and down, standing up on my pedals only to climb hills and a much more hunched over posture for more road style riding. All this to say, this mountain bike seemed to be a totally different animal than my gravel bike back home but I was eager to try it out none the less.

In true Jo-nado fashion I hooked my shoelace by accident on the BACK of my pedal when trying to get started from a stopped position and immediately fell half tied to the bike landing directly on a rock just below my knee cap. This wasn’t even ten minutes into our full day bike rental. If you have never bonked this particular area of your knee before I can tell you it’s a lot like your funny bone and I would 100% not recommend, it definitely didn’t feel real funny. But after some woosah-ing and allowing a couple of unavoidable tears of frustration and pain to leak out, I got back up to continue on the adventure. Fortunately I didn’t do any permanent damage, I was just sore for a couple days, and in the coming weeks tested out a few new skin tones when the bruising set in. I will say one thing, even though I trip, bonk, and stumble quite frequently I at least have never been seriously injured. Knock on wood that luck continues.

If you have read any of our other posts about the region, you already know that Utah is one of the most spectacularly beautiful places we have been lucky enough to visit, so that really helped a lot to keep me going. I mean seriously, just look at this place! Please note the “stunts” performed in the following video were executed by an untrained, first time mountain bike rider with a fresh knee wound and should only be attempted at your own risk.

I am well aware that I may have misused the word “stunts” and this video just looks like a middle aged gal slowly bumping lightly down a couple rocks on a mountain bike trail (because that’s what it is), but in my head I was evading certain death as I passed over every pebble. Eric on the other hand managed to harken the long forgotten bike handling skills of his youth spent on BMX bikes and thoroughly enjoyed navigating the features that I most certainly considered impassible. I felt like a bit of a silly goose but I was definitely proud to have continued on and tried something new. The next video is from a portion of trail that was EXACTLY what I love to ride, gravel with insane views and was yet another high point of the experience.

Parts of the trail ran over slick rock and were marked with branches along the edges to guide the way which can be seen in the first photo below. It is very important to stay on trail as the desert ecosystem is fragile. In the third photo below you are not looking at dirt, this is actually what locals call the “crust”.

What is the crust you might say, glad you asked. The slightly darker brown looking dirt here is actually a little system of living organisms made by fungi, bacteria and algae that is called cryptobiotic soil crust. This little miracle helps to prevent erosion from wind and water and also absorbs moisture at a faster rate than regular soil. We were instructed to stay on trail so we don’t “bust the crust” by our bike rental providers which was a warning that meant walking or biking over the crust can destroy this naturally occurring wonder. After being disrupted by even a single footstep the “crypto” can take decades to recover. That is why it’s so important to heed the warnings and preserve it. With that little science lesson behind us let’s carry on.

While exploring the trails we came across a wide variety of other riders. We saw kids as young as six I would guess tearing it up, a super bad ass hand pedaled set up, e-bikes ridden by an older couple and full on rock hopping mountain bike extraordinaire’s easily riding over features (that this newb barely dared to walk over) at what I would consider break neck speeds!

We finished the beginner loop that took us to the visitor center and then back to the parking lot where I decided that my mountain biking day was complete. We still had some time left on our rentals though, so Eric was able to head out after a refuel of PB&J’s and complete all the other trails accessible from the parking lot that were a bit more challenging. While he got the most out of our rental, I caught up on some writing, drove down to the visitor center and grabbed some ice for our cooler/my knee and a sticker for our collection. Side note, I love that stickers can be found basically anywhere which provides a lightweight, inexpensive, small souvenir to remember our travels. Now I just need to figure out the best way to display/store them. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

After completing our “bike day” we had to head off towards Green River to make our way closer to our next destination. Having not had enough adventure for the day after checking into our super affordable campsite with showers, Wi-Fi and laundry facilities available (although the active train track directly adjacent wasn’t mentioned among the amenities) we went to check out an abandoned missile base.

There was graffiti, this strange covered conveyor belt, what appeared to be a moveable garage on tracks, downed power poles and a general air of creepy post apocalyptic vibes. It felt like we were on an episode of “The Walking Dead”, just waiting for a zombie to come out of one of these things and bite us!

We may or may not have driven over a very well hidden, very enormous pothole here that could have meant real bad news for our rental vehicle, but luckily it caused no serious damage, just scared the bejesus out of us with a loud noise when we had already gotten it in our heads we were in zombie land. With a stiff knee and a full day of adventure behind us we headed back for a night of broken sleep listening to the sultry sounds of trains passing a couple feet from our tent. Needless to say it was an early morning wake up and get outta town kind of situation. I feel like it’s worth mentioning here that I am not complaining by any means. I just feel like so often we only hear about the sunshine and rainbows and while those abound (scroll up to the views from Deadhorse Point, I mean come on), when traveling there are also unexpected hurdles and hardships to navigate. Things will go wrong and things will go right but we both truly believe in making the best of any situation and always put a focus on gratitude for our ability to be doing anything at all. As you follow along with Eric & Jo on the Go we will always strive to give you the real story, the good, the bad, and the in between every single time. I’ll leave you with the following quote from one of our favorite bands Dawes, “things happen, that’s all they ever do”.