With the weather looking dry(ish) and warm in early March and reports of dry trails, we decided to get a jump-start on our desert season with a trip out to Fruita. After a slow day at work on Thursday, we took the long drive all the way across the state.
4.5 hours later and a few episodes of The Adventure Zone, we arrived at Knowles Overlook Campground in the Rabbit Valley (BLM). With an after dark arrival, we were worried we would have difficulty finding a good camp site. As it turned out, there were only a few other intrepid adventurers out on a Thursday night! It was a beautiful night, with the moon nearly full and a clear enough sky that it was bright enough to see fairly well by moonlight alone.
The next morning we headed off for a quick ride on the Kokopelli Loops. We kept it short for one of our first rides of the season, around 9 miles and +1100 ft of elevation gain. The route we pieced together started with a climb up Mary’s, looped down and around Horsethief Bench, and finished by going further up Mary’s and ripping down Wrangler for a quick and rowdy double-track finish.
After our Friday morning ride, we relaxed for the afternoon and evening, reading books and exploring around camp. We walked down to the cliffs overlooking the Colorado River and the bottom of McDonald Creek Canyon. Moz scared us half to death when she ran over to the edge of the cliff multiple times to take a look down the ~300′ cliffs!
The next morning (Saturday) we packed up camp so we could make it back to Denver for a friend’s b-day bash. Before we left the area, however, we took a detour over to ride Western Rim, Rabbit Valley’s premiere singletrack. And I must say, it was definitely worth it!
The trail itself is around 6 miles one way, and a good 5 miles of it stays on the namesake rim. This means epic views the whole time! Luckily the riding is mostly easy, so you can spend much of your saddle time enjoying these views!
The trailhead for the Western Rim trail technically starts a little ways up a 4×4 road, but we just parked about a mile early and biked the road section, making for a ~10.5 mile/+1390′ ride. Our van wasn’t getting up that road, so we were glad we did. When we got back after our morning ride, Moz had gotten sick while we were riding… poor girl, it was a mess! Luckily she kept the mess on the floor of the van, so it was an easy clean-up. We did have to scrap one of our window covers, though. Oh well! We’ve needed to revamp those anyways.
And that’s a wrap on our trip, a beautiful primer to the upcoming mountain bike season!
-Kyle