Opinions on the ACA's Utah Cliffs Loop

[mbanzi]

Not sure if my Google-fu has weakened, but I've found it surprisingly hard to get good info on the Utah Cliffs Loop, apart from a few (old-ish) trip reports:
https://www.adventurecycling.org/routes-and-maps/adventure-cycling-route-network/utah-cliffs-loop/

I'm thinking of taking my wife, who's an experienced road endurance cyclist, as an introduction to multi-day bikepacking. She is NOT comfortable on technical trails yet, so I'm trying to limit it to fire roads. Another big reason I'm considering this loop, is that there are multiple hotel options on the route in case she gets tired of camping. 

We're targeting a mid June start date, riding 3-4 days with a stop in Zion. I know there's quite a lot of asphalt on the route, which I don't mind. My question is how technical are the dirt sections? Is traffic as bad as some say, or is it just limited to small sections?

We live in Southern California, so St. George in UT is drivable. Any suggestions for alternatives (mostly non-technical dirt)?

[blanchaa]

I did it in 2014 with my wife, and she also had limited technical mountain biking experience. We were on cross bikes and I pulled a BOB trailer. Most of the dirt sections are fast fire road, with a couple exceptions. There is rough decent after Cedar Breaks national monument that I was able to ride (barely), and she walked.  It is about a mile of technical terrain.

There is another very difficult climb as you leave Zion that neither of us could ride on cross bikes with our gearing, and was very loose and rocky. 

Finally, there were some extended sections of sand washes as you enter St George.  Some of these are ridable depending on your comfort on sand, others forced us to walk for ~0.5 mile because it was so deep (though we were on 33c cross tires).  Other than these sections, everything is very ridable on a cross bike.

I do not remember the road sections having dangerous amounts of traffic.  We had to hitch hike through the Zion tunnel which is a bit awkward.

Overall it was a beautiful route, and I would do it again.  We did it in 4 days, which I think was too aggressive and made it quite hard. I would recommend 5. It could start to get very hot in June. 

I would also recommend you look into riding the Idaho hot springs main loop.  If you did the cut-off the milage would be similar. This route probably has more non-technical dirt, but more climbing and total elevation gain. The hot springs are awesome.  It is also significantly more remote, so bail out and hotel options are difficult.

[mbanzi]

Perfect! This is exactly the information I was looking for. Good to know you thought 4 days was aggressive, I may scale it back to 5 days then so we have more time to see the sights. We are both on steel mountain bikes with plus (29+ & 27.5+) tires, so we're not exactly rolling very fast. May even put regular tires on for the loop.

We initially considered the ID Hot Springs route, but the remoteness as you mention makes me a little nervous (for her). Probably next year as her experience grows.

I did it in 2014 with my wife, and she also had limited technical mountain biking experience.

I would also recommend you look into riding the Idaho hot springs main loop.  If you did the cut-off the milage would be similar. This route probably has more non-technical dirt, but more climbing and total elevation gain. The hot springs are awesome.  It is also significantly more remote, so bail out and hotel options are difficult.

[mbanzi]

I did it in 2014 with my wife

When did you do the Utah Cliffs? I'm looking at the weather forecast (we were looking at starting on June 16th) but it's going to be 100+ and very windy for the entire time. I'm thinking we may delay this trip until September and rather do a few short trips locally.

[blanchaa]

We did it the first week of October. The aspens were peaking in the high country. We had cool nights and warm (80s) degree days. 100+ does not sound as fun.  Time to reconsider Idaho?

[mbanzi]

Time to reconsider Idaho?

Lol, I think so! Considering doing the top half of the loop as I believe the southern part can get scorchy too

[woody]

Anyone know the earliest this route might be doable? Looking for an early spring route in the southwest.
Thanks,
Woody

[mbanzi]

I've seen reports of people doing it in May. Guess it depends on the snowpack that year, plus the dirt roads may be very muddy. Early June would likely be safe before it gets too hot. I'm going to attempt the route in 2 weeks around the end of September. Plan is to do it over 5 days. Camping is REALLY hard to find in Zion at this time of year, my own fault for procrastinating. I'm hoping to find a balance between not too hot at lower elevations & not too cold at night on the mountains.

[mbanzi]

The wife & I did the route over 5 days September 25-29. We managed to follow the ACA route 100% of the time, most people seem to cut parts of the route due to time/conditions. Perfect weather conditions, even managed to dodge rain over the last 2 days. It did rain a little during the night in Zion though. There definitely is a good amount of asphalt connecting the dirt sections, but there were only 2 that had a lot of traffic. Dirt sections are in very good condition for the most part, only 2 short sections that are mildly technical. Amazing scenery along the entire route. Don't underestimate the amount of climbing though! We camped 2 nights & stayed in hotels for the other 2. The nights are cold at elevation this time of year, it went down to the high 30s.

I did a trip report on crazyguyonabike as that is where I found most info on the route when I did my research:

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/utahcliffsfall2016

Typical trail, this one on FR240:



On the Pa'rus trail heading to the campground in Zion NP:



Zion is spectacular on a bike:

[rick miller]

Thanks for the report, and nice work on the bags!

[mbanzi]

Thanks! After making the first set of bags shortly before my first bikepacking race, I realized how much work it takes and why they are expensive - I vowed never again. With 2 kids in college, I had to bit the bullet & make the second set for the wife. Have to say, it was much easier the 2nd time around.

Thanks for the report, and nice work on the bags!