Bryce Canyon

This week was spent in the Bryce Canyon area with my family. The weather was pretty hit and miss and I was excited about the opportunity to ride some of the Red Canyon area trails.

Tuesday we hiked the amphitheater area of Bryce.

Wednesday despite the 50% chance of rain I was going to ride Thunder Mountain and Losee or Casto Canyon. I started off riding an ATV track on the right of way to the turn-off to head to the trail head of Thunder Mountain.

Thunder Mountain was a blast. The trail to the top was a mix of a few switch backs and some great rollers. The trail was mostly dirt with very little rock and the views were great.



Unfortunately it was at this point that I realized that while avoiding going endo over a pipe trench at the bottom of a ravine while riding to the trailhead I had lost my big air cartridge. I figured that since I was at the half way point there wasn't any reason to head back and I'd just put my faith in the my trusty UST tires. I took the decent a little slow being afraid of getting a flat and also I soon realized that I was running a little too much pressure after washing out on a couple of corners. I highly recommend the Thunder Mountain trail to anyone that gets a chance to ride it. After the rain the trail had no dust a very little rock. It had some fun switchbacks and a straight fast run to lower parking area.

I decided to then head to the Cassidy trail via the bikepath for leg two.


This is where I ran into some problems. I had uploaded the waypoint for the Cassidy and Losee trail heads. As I was heading up the bike path I got just past where the Cassidy trail started and saw a parking lot. I checked it out and sure enough it said Butch Cassidy Wash. I also saw a trail and started up it. Soon the trail ended up disappearing into a wash.


Once in a while I saw tire tracks so I figured this must be the trail. Also the carns(sp?) on the trail just added to my suspicion that this was it.


Finally after riding for one hour I decided to check on where the Losee Canyon trail was since it was supposed to be off the Cassidy trail. As I checked it out I discovered it was 2 miles west of where I was, the only problem was a mountain between me and the trail head. I decided I was in the wrong and went back to the highway. At the highway I assessed my bearings and realized that I was about 100 feet off. I proceeded down the highway and found a very hidden parking area with a clearly marked sign that stated Cassidy trail. I started up and and it was a real trail. I got to the fork where I could either go to the Losee canyon overlook or continue to the trail head. I looked around and saw this.
Lots of dark clouds forming. I decided to check out the overlook. As I got up there I could hear the thunder beginning. Not wanting to get caught in a flash flood I decided to just head back to the main road down the Cassidy trail. As I got to the road I just had enough time to stash my camera in my camelbak before the rain started. It rained all the way up the bike path but then let off as soon as I got to the top of Red Canyon. I rode all the way back to Ruby's Inn and then turned around and went back to our campsite to get in a 4 hour ride. Oh yea, I found my big air cartridge right where I thought it would be by the ravine.