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The Intrepid Trail System

At Dead Horse State Park

By Brandon Mathis

GETTING STARTED

WHERE Dead Horse Point State Park is about 32 miles from Moab. Take U.S. Highway 191 nine miles north, turning southwest on SRS 313. Travel 23 miles to Dead Horse Point State Park.

FEES A $10 per day fee is charged for vehicles carrying up to eight passengers. Camping is $20 at developed campsites only. During periods of high visitation, camping reservations are recommended.

HIKING There are 10 miles of hiking trails in the park, and countless spots for breathtaking picnics or just taking it all in. Park rangers present educational programs as well.

CAUTION Even though this is a well-maintained and developed park, areas of extreme exposure require attention. The mountain biking reaches remote parts of the park. Sign in at the trailhead, and take plenty of water.

For rollercoaster trails that drop your belly and give you the willies and startling desert canyon views that will leave you speechless, Dead Horse Point State Park near Moab, Utah, has your ticket. The Intrepid Trails System, built in spring 2009 by the National Park Service, is the most recent addition to the list of amazing trails in southeast Utah. After warming up on the namesake Intrepid Trail, a 1.1-mile green loop for beginners, hit the Great Pyramid Trail, a 4.2-mile intermediate loop that gets exciting. From there, Big Chief Canyon has, well, the stuff that mountain biking dreams are made of - a 9- miler that has you asking if this place is real. Real it is, along with remarkable and inspiring.

Situated at 6,000 feet atop a peninsula-shaped mesa overlooking the Colorado River, Dead Horse Point State Park is four miles from Island in the Sky mesa in Canyonlands National Park. Propped between the mesa and a backdrop of the 12,000-foot La Sal Mountains to the east, a geologic open book reveals millions of years of continental drift, uplifts and erosion. At the mesa's rim, more than 8,000 vertical feet span the highpoints to the Colorado River. The scenery is unforgettable but the story that wraps around this narrow, seemingly floating island has a harsh, unforgiving side.

In the late 19th century herds of wild mustangs lived in the deserts and canyons of Utah, including many that roamed the mesa. In an effort to round up the mesa herds, cowboys used the landscape and rushed the horses onto the narrow point, where skilled lassos picked out the prized stallions and mares. With the selected horses gone, the remaining horses were let alone, holding near the mesa's edge well in view of the flowing Colorado River below. According to legend, the remaining horses never found water and died, giving rise to the name of the park.

When spinning the trails you're unlikely to spy any equine skeletons but you will notice the pygmy forest growing among the seemingly lifeless rock badlands pulling at your eyes, and you may find it hard to not gaze into the abyss. Pay attention - focus on the trail's challenges, especially on the 9-mile Big Chief Canyon loop. The rocky ledges and shelves challenging your wheels will call for your best biking skills. Drops, staircases and natural ramps punctuating the trail can send you flying.

In contrast to many other rides in the Moab area, Intrepid trails are well-marked and -maintained. Families and new riders find comfortable riding by sticking close to the trailhead. In fact, the beginner loop is great for families with kids, and the intermediate loop terrific for the adventurous beginner. The so-called expert loop is an absolute blast. An impressive state park visitor's center sits at the trailhead near overwhelming vistas of the Great Pyramid and the beyond. Inside, near the shirts and postcards for sale, is an educational display of geologic and cultural history, complete with models of the landscape, ecology and informational video shorts and cultural artifacts like pottery.

Out on the trail, it's easy to feel small in a big world because of the massiveness of the canyon terrain. At first glance you might wonder whether you should have stayed at the Slick Rock Trail near Moab, but you'll be glad you came. After taking in the views at the Great Pyramid near the visitor's center and on the green loop, it's time to get busy with the riding. The elevation gain and loss over the course of the entire ride is unbelievably modest at one hundred feet, but overall the trails continually rise and fall as they meander along the mesa's eastern edge before reaching full tilt toward the trailhead.

The Intrepid Trail System is off the typical extreme rider's path, but that's part of the appeal. Kids of all ages can have at it, either sticking to the mellow loops or flirting with the challenges at the edge.

Having ridden nearly everything in the Moab area, I was eager to see what the trails were all about and, while I might say this for every ride, I'll come back for more of Dead Horse State Park.

At this moment Brandon Mathis is clipping in to his pedals, tying into his harness, or zipping into his tent . . . or just asleep at his desk. He pays rent in Durango, Colo.