Our first stop on our fat tire pilgrimage was Fruita which a couple of friends had expressed the view was better than Moab. We picked up trail maps from the local bike shop & headed to Horse Thief canyon doing an easy loop down by the Colorado river with the kids in the late afternoon, which was pleasant and we saw prairie dogs for the first time.We stayed in a local motel without a kitchenette & cooked curry in the van in the carpark. A group of roadworkers were staying at the motel and they were barbequing on the back of a truck. So there were some excellent odours wafting about. The next day we did a long overdue visit to a laundromat & the kids did school work there while our soiled garments were cleansed.
Then it was off to 18 Mile road, about half an hours drive out to the distant hills. It was very windy & we didn't intend staying long but a local put us onto sheltered tracks up the hill & back down a dry creek bed which were very good and we did a couple of runs on them. The topography was not steep but the tracks were well laid out and were smooth and flowy. We started using the van as a shuttle having turn about driving. Max had driving lessons in the van to enable him to have a turn as shuttle bunny. Max & Otie headed off, with a map, on their own on a much longer trail about 6 kms long called zippidy do da, when the wind dropped, while Lotte & Mary did the shorter easier trail. At the bottom I was getting worried about the boys because big black clouds were rolling in fast & I didn't know anything about their trail. Mary arrived & dropped me back at the top & I headed off in pursuit of the boys who were about 45 minutes ahead. What a great trail, flowing thru the juniper trees, running along a knife edge ridge with very steep run offs in compacted smooth sand.
About three quarters of the way around, the rain & wind hit me in sharp needles and about 2 minutes later the track turned to sticky clay which stopped my wheels from turning and gave me high heels as I started carrying my bike whose weight had doubled with wet clay stuck to it. The conditions were unpleasant & it took me about half an hour to make my way to the end of the track. I was relieved to see the boys back at the van who had arrived just as the rain started. But 18 Mile road is well worth a visit bike fans! Back on the road & out of Colorado & into Utah. We took a back road south & there were lots of little frogs on the road after the rain. We camped down by the Colorado putting up the tent in a lightning & rain storm and had dinner in cramped damp conditions in the van.
We woke up to a beautiful day surrounded by red canyon walls and a peacock outside our tent. Then it was down the road beside the river flowing red from the rain past great scenery & into Moab. After a stop at a book shop we got directions from the visitors center & headed up to the Slickrock trail head & set up our camp. Then straight into it, with Mary & the boys heading out on the 16 km slickrock trail with Lotte & I tackling the 3 km practice loop. This place is something else. The Slickrock is petrified sand dunes, with the dunes 1000's of feet deep laid down hundreds of millions of years ago, then being overlain with millions of years of sediments which compacted the dunes & leached in minerals turning it to rock or Navajo sandstone. The overlying layers were eroded away during the last 10 million years as the Colorado plateau uplifted. 
So today the trail goes over this layer of smooth rock which is elevated about 200 meters above the Moab valley & part of it is on the canyon river overlooking the Colorado.The Arches national park is on the other side of the river. The rock has a slightly gritty surface texture giving perfect tyre grip on steep up & down hills.
The trail is marked with a dotted line and there are no flat sections so at all times you are either climbing or descending. It is hot and dry out there and Mary & the boys were out for 3 1/2 hours coming back hot & tired.
Max grabbed an open can of Doctor Pepper, took a swig with a wasp in it which stung him in his mouth. Ouch, but no ill effects though. We headed over to Arches and watched the sun set over spectacular red rock formations. It was a full moon & we went for a moonlit ride on the first part of the Slickrock trail until Lotte crashed when it was time for bed.
The next day we were joined by our buddy Yeller Belly & his daughter Haley who were on our Salmon trip & who drove down from Jackson Hole for a weekend of biking & socializing. YB & I headed out on the Slickrock trail and it was the best biking I've ever had. At last biking as good as we have in Alexandra. Rolling hills of rock with magnificent views, challenging climbs & fun smooth twisting steep descents.
I broke my chain but that was quickly fixed & we got back to camp after a 2 1/2 hours ride.
Mary had gone out with the kids on the practise loop & they had gone off trail exploring out on their own. That afternoon we went back out to Arches hiking out thru the Fiery Furnace area to landscape arch & then we hiked out to delicate arch, the Utah state symbol to watch the sunset.
Then back to Moab for a buffalo burger at Milts diner, an old fashioned establishment in the back streets on the way back to our camp who caters for bikers.
Our plan for the following day was to do the big local ride Porcupine Rim, so YB & I headed off early and left his truck at the bottom of the trail. Back to camp where 7 of us & our bikes clambered into the VW & we headed up a gravel road to the start of the trail way back in the mountains. We set off but Max got a gash in his tyre requiring us to return to the van & fix it with duct tape.
Another biker was there & gave us directions to drive up the road another 8 kms to pick up the single track which avoided the uphill which we were about to ride. So all the bikes & bikers clambered back in the van & up into the middle of nowhere down a muddy dirt track with big puddles splashing red mud over the van which bottomed out in one wet hole.
We picked up the UPS & LPS trail which were part of the "whole enchilada" track and part of the Kokapeli track which came all the way from Fruita.
These are famous trails attracting riders from all over the States and oversees. We headed off on a twisty narrow single track right on the edge of a long vertical cliff about 1000 ft high looking out over Castle valley which looked like a western movie backdrop.
Biking close to that cliff edge bought back feelings I used to get in my hang gliding days. We probably biked for 6 kms along that precipice. The kids all did great and we had a delay with a puncture on Oties bike when we had spread out & Mary only had a repair kit with her & no spare tube.
The next part of the trail for about 8 kms was on a disused very rough 4 wheel drive track down which the bike single track was well worn in snaking down thru the rocky terrain.
There were heaps of riders on the trail and it was a great atmosphere but lots of punctures being repaired. The last 6 kms were on single track along a canyon wall with a long drop off in places and out to the Colorado river. Again it was very spectacular. Lotte was a trooper and used her last ounces of energy & patience just as we got to the end of the 5 hour journey. Our only mishap was Haley falling into a prickle bush.
At the end of the trail parked next to YB's truck was an identical VW van to ours, the same year, colour and upholstery which had been restored and was clean and tidy.
I could sense Mary coveting such a renovation job for ours and I sniffed that the sparkly van probably sat in a garage and wouldn't have had anywhere the family adventures that our VW had in its life. Back to camp & the recovery of our tatty but much loved van took until well after dark. The kids all slept outside on the smooth rocks under a full moon.
We did a short ride on the practice loop the next morning and then our buddies headed back to Wyoming.
We headed south, stopping at Newspaper rock to see great native Indian pictographs, had a quick visit into the Needles district of the Canyonlands national park before camping up in a remote side road late at night.
The next morning we went into Natural Bridges National Monument where Max & I did a rebel climb and walked across a natural bridge called Sipapu (remember the passage to the underworld at Mesa Verde), being a prohibited activity. Lotte came also but there was a steep rock climbing section with handholds which were too far spaced for her.
We then drove all day across Utah, stopping for pizza at Mexican Hat, thru Monument Valley and crossing the Glen canyon dam on the Colorado camping near Kayama.
The next day all 5 of us squeezed into the front of the van and drove thru the spectacular road from the east entrance into Zion National Park but didn't stay there long and were unable to do the stunning looking Angels landing hike in Zion canyon. Maybe next time.
We then did a long drive thru Nevada, managing to drive past Los Vegas without breaking down, into California and all the way to Orange County arriving at Grandma's house at 1 in the morning.
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