Navajo Lake Ride Navajo Lake is a pristine mountain lake located in a forest of aspen and pine at 10,000 feet above sea level. Zion Ponderosa will shuttle guests of the resort to the lake where they can spend time riding the groomed trails around the lake, as well as fishing, canoeing, or swimming. The 29 mile. 3500 foot descent back to the resort will be a highlight of your vacation.

Year-Round Rides Springdale, UT
(Courtesy of Dean Williamson of Bike Zion)
The Gooseberry Mesa Trail Network; Utah's Best Mountain Bike Ride(s).

From Bike Zion: Travel west 2.75 miles on Highway 9, to Rockville. Turn left onto Bridge Road. Follow Bridge Road 1.6 miles, staying right at the intersection just beyond the bridge. At 1.6 miles, turn left onto the Smithsonian Butte Scenic Backway. Continue on this road for 4.9 miles, then turn right onto the Gooseberry Mesa Road. For an easy 10 mile round trip ride to the Virgin Overlook, park immediately to the left, just inside the fence, and follow the Gooseberry Mesa Road to the overlook and back. For the Left Fork Road the The Point, or the singletrack and slickrock loops, continue driving another 3.6 miles on the Gooseberry Mesa Road, to the Left Fork Road. Most vehicles can continue 1 more mile on the Left Fork Road, to the Main Parking Area, just beyond the cattle gate. For vehicles with very little ground clearance, or for a longer ride, drive just 75 yards down the Left Fork Road, parking on the left.

From Hurricane: Travel east 14.4 miles on Highway 59. Turn left onto the Smithsonian Butte Scenic Backway, continuing another 2.9 miles, to the start of the Gooseberry Mesa Road. See the paragraph above for the continuation of the route.

To Ride(s): We built the trails on Gooseberry Mesa as a series of interconnected loops that allow you to customize the length and technical difficulty of your ride. Most riders prefer to link together the various loops on Gooseberry Mesa into one large clockwise loop, however every inch of every loop is possible to ride in both directions. This format makes it possible to combine the loops in literally hundreds of different ways! Locals and others fortunate enough to visit frequently can do a different ride every time.

The Main Loop: The Cattle Grate Trail starts from the Main Parking Area, just beyond the cattle grate. The connector between the middle of the Cattle Grate Trail, and the Left Fork Road is used mainly for the return trip, and most likely you will never see it from the Cattle Grate Trail. The intersection of the Cattle Grate Trail, and God's Skateboard Park can easily be missed, causing riders to arrive on the Left Fork Road. If this happens, just turn around and in about 30 yards you will come back to the intersection, which is easy to see, coming from this direction.

God's Skateboard Park is the most technically difficult loop on the mesa, and also the most difficult for route-finding, because of the micro-loops. (Those wishing to avoid this, or any other section should refer to the bottom of this page, entitled, "Other Access Points.") If you stay to the left at every intersection, or to the right at every intersection, you should have no problem, provided that you actually see every intersection. If however, you go right at one intersection, then left at the next, or vice-versa, you will find yourself circling back around to where you started. If, despite your best efforts, this still happens, you may find it easier to see the intersection that you missed, by going back around the loop in the other direction..

Upon reaching the far side of God's Skateboard Park, turn right onto the doubletrack jeep trail, and follow it for about 300 yards, as it winds between numerous large slickrock domes, known as "the elephants." After 300 yards, the elephants will end on the left, although they continue for several hundred yards farther, on the right side. Immediately after the elephants end on the left, the Rattlesnake Rim Trail veers off, to the left. This trail takes you 1 mile to the south rim of the mesa, and then follows the rim for 1 1/2 miles back to the Left Fork Road. At the top of the climb shown in the photo on the lower left corner of your map, there is an unmarked connector trail to your right, which links you to the Sand Pit Bypass Trail, for a quick bail-out to the Main Parking Area, via the Left Fork Road.

At the end of the Rattlesnake Rim Trail, turn left onto the Left Fork Road. 150 yards beyond where the Rattlesnake Rim Trail Ends, the Left Fork Road feeds into the Point Trail. At the end of the Point Trail, the mesa, which is almost 3 miles wide at the Eastern end, finally narrows down to only 15 feet wide, with a 300 foot cliff on 3 sides of you, and a 2000 foot talus slope extending from the base of the cliff to the valley floor.

Returning from The Point, follow the Left Fork Road 1/2 mile to where it drops down into the first sand pit. The Sand Pit Bypass Trail cuts off to the right about 30 feet before the Left Fork Road starts dropping into the sand pit. The sand pit is about 180 yards long, and 4-6 inches deep. The Sand Pit Bypass trail is a 1/2 mile long, and although some of the obstacles in God's Skateboard Park are more technical, this section is the most continuously technical, with one obstacle after another.

Whichever way you choose to go, it is only 150 yards from the end of the first sand pit to the start of the second one. The Dam Trail starts on the left, 1/2 way between the two sand pits. At the midway point of the Dam Trail, at the far end of the dam, there is a fork, where you have the choice of going to the right for a quick-return/bailout 100 yards to the Left Fork Road, or continuing to the left for the rest of the Dam Trail.

The intersection of the Dam Trail, and the Slickrock 101 Loop is similar to the one described previously, where the Cattle Grate Trail meets God's Skateboard Park. If you miss this intersection and find yourself on the Left Fork Road, simply turn around and backtrack about 100 yards to the intersection, which is easy to see from this direction. The Slikrock 101 Loop, as the name implies, is the easiest, least technical slickrock & singletrack trail on the entire mesa. At the end of the Slikrok 101 Loop, there is a 75 foot offset to the right, to get to the start of the 200 yard connector for the return trip to the parking area via the eastern half of the Cattle Grate Trail.

The Windmill Loop: The Windmill Loop is a good intermediate loop, just under 4 miles long, and Steve's Rim Job features some of the most spectacular views of Zion. Drive to the Virgin Overlook, at the end of the Gooseberry Mesa Road. Park here, and ride back along this road .4 miles to the start of the doubletrack jeep trail that goes past the windmill. Ride down this jeep trail 1 mile, until it T-bones into another jeep trail. Take the left fork, which zigzags over a few small, flat slickrok patches for .25 miles and then rings you to a big slickrock patch with numerous large bowls and domes. When you get to the large patch of rock, get off the jeep trail, and ride to your right, along the edge of the rock formation. In about 100 feet, you will see the 2 rock cairns shown in the photo on the top center of your map. You will be riding in the direction of the small arrow on the bottom of this photo. This trail, which is marked only with rocks and logs, rather than paint, takes you .2 miles across the rock, to the rim, and then follows the rim back to where you parked.

Other Access Points: The intersection of The Dam Trail & the Slikrok 101 Loop can easily be located by first finding the prominent "S" turns 1.9 miles in on the Left Fork Road. They leave the jeep trail as a single trail, and then split after the first 100 yards. To find the intersection of the Cattle Grate Trail & God's Skateboard Park, backtrack 200 yards from the "S" turns, and look for sage green dots painted on the southeast corner of the large, flat slickrock patch on the south side of the road. To access the east end of the Rattlesnake Rim Trail without riding God's Skateboard Park, take the Left Fork of the Left Fork Road south, riding past the slickrock elephants shown as small, black circles on your map. When you get to the point where the jeep trail passes between 2 of the elephants that are only about 20 feet apart, look behind you, to your right, for the start of the trail. To find the west end of God's Skateboard Park, continue another 300 yards on the Left Fork beyond the east end of the Rattlesnake Rim Trail, and look for tire tracks through the sand that veer off, to the left. The middle of The Dam Trail can be accessed from the Left Fork Road by first locating the cattle stock pond. The west end of the Rattlesnake Rim Trail starts about 50 feet east of where the Left Fork Road comes out to the view point overlooking Highway 59.

A Great 10 Mile Intermediate Ride: Starting at the Main Parking Area, ride to The Point, via the Left Fork Road and the Point trail. Return by way of the Rattlesnake Rim Trail, the Slikrok 101 Loop, and the eastern half of the Cattle Grate Trail.

Grafton Ghost Town: From Bike Zion, ride 2.75 miles west on Highway 9 to Rockville. Turn left onto Bridge Road. (For a shorter, 7.2 mile round-trip, drive to Rockville, and start the ride at the Bridge Road turnoff.) Follow Bridge Road, staying right at the intersection just beyond the bridge. At the intersection shown in the photo in the lower, left corner of your map, bear to the right, again. In about 1 mile, you will ride through Grant Gulch. Just beyond Grant Gulch, on your right, take note of the incredible cutting torch artwork decorating the rusted steel gate. 200 yards farther, also on your right, you will discover more art. This time, it is a sculpture, made from the frame of Andy Green's Cadillac, after he tried to drive it through the bonfire, during the Easter Party several years ago. Ride a little farther, and you arrive at the intersection where the short, side road to the left takes you to the old town cemetery. Here, you can read the tombstones of the original Mormon pioneers, and see who was killed by Native American Indians! (Look out for ghosts!) Continuing another quarter of a mile on the main road, you'll find yourself in downtown Grafton. Several of the original buildings remain, which you are free to explore. (If the buildings look familiar to you, it is possibly because the Hollywood movie about Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, two notorious gangsters from about a century ago, featured scenes shot on location here.) Please do not damage the buildings in any way, take anything from them, or add to the graffiti. Be cautious, as there are boards with protruding nails, holes in some of the floors, etc. Reverse these directions for the return trip.

Logan's Loop: From Rockville, ride south on Bridge Road for 0.3 miles. Continue straight up the Rockville Mesa Road when Bridge Road turns right. Immediately upon cresting the tip of the hill, you will see Logan's Loop starting on the right. This loop trail is ridable in either direction and features spectacular viewpoints, several hundred feet above the valley floor, with panoramic views of the park.

Big Fatty Mesa, Wire Mesa, and Grafton Mesa: From Rockville, follow Bridge Road 1.6 miles, staying right at the intersection just beyond the bridge. After 1.6 miles, turn left onto the Smithsonian Butte Scenic Backway. All mileage measurements shown on your map in red start from this intersection. Big Fatty Mesa is a short, 0.75 mile (1.5 mile round-trip) doubletrack jeep trail that ends with a spectacular, panoramic viewpoint. Wire Mesa has 1.5 miles of doubletrack, for a 3 mile round-trip. Grafton Mesa provides you with a choice between a 4 mile round trip out and back to the best panoramic view of Zion from anywhere, or, for those who don't mind walking their bikes for about 1/2 mile, continue down the old stagecoach road, beyond the viewpoint on the rim, and you can link together a 9.1 mile loop. After walking the top 1/2 mile, from the rim to the switchback, you reach a 1/2 mile of steep, rocky, rutted, but ridable singletrack which brings you to Grafton Wash, a dry and slightly sandy, but completely ridable streambed. After .6 miles of dry streambed, 200 yards of doubletrack brings you to the Grafton Road, a continuation of Bridge Road.