North Rim of the Grand Canyon and Southern Utah, Oct, 2003

Tom Bartlett, Abe Gold, Sandy Cliche, Glen Barnard, Stan Peterson, did a SAMBA trip to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, and to Southern Utah, in October, 2003. We were joined there by Doug Eastcott, from Canmore, BC, and Joe Cruz and Johna Klebenov, both from Massachusetts. We stopped first at Page, AZ, where we rode the Page Rimview Trail. That is a nice singletrack that circles Page, with great views of Lake Powell. We dropped down onto the slickrock, and were able to ride all the way to the lake. The next day we drove to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, camping on Locust Point, and did a ride on the Rainbow Rim trail. The trail was in poor shape from all the horse traffic, but the view from the camp made up for it. On Monday we drove to Red Canyon, outside Panguitch, UT, just west of Bryce Canyon. We rode the Thunder Mountain Trail on Tuesday. That has to be one of the most spectacular trails in North America. The riding is fun, the the scenery is unbelievable. The next day we rode the Red Canyon Trail in to Losee Canyon, and then came out Losee Canyon. That is a beautiful ride as well, although not as spectacular as Thunder Mountain. On Thursday we headed east to Hanksville, by way of Boulder Mountain. The views from the top of Boulder Mountain are unparallelled. To the south you look into the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, and to the east you look into Capital Reef National Park. Once at Hanksville, we hiked in the slot canyons of the San Rafael Swell. Most of the members of the party had never been in a slot canyon, and they were completely blown away by them. Doug commented, "I thought you had to be on a mountain bike to have fun." Feast your eyes on the photographic record of our trip and see what you think. Click on the pictures to get the full album.

Page Rimview Trail 10/11/03	North Rim 10/12/03
Thunder Mountain 10/14/03	Red Canyon and Losee Canyon 10/15/03
Boulder Mountain 10/16/03	San Rafael Swell 10/17-18/03