“May is one of those months where I would rather wake up underneath the Wingate walls of Canyonlands National Park. The days are long and sometimes my fleece and jeans are enough to keep me warm at camp. You can wake up and rather then immediately shuffling for your puffy jacket and wool hat you can roll out of bed and start the coffee. The air is dry, but the mornings and evenings make up for it with comfortable temps to watch the sunset and the sunrise. 

Last week we road from the Mineral Bottom switchbacks to the top of the Shafer Trail in 4 days and 3 nights. The first night we camped close to the Green River in a riparian area quite unique for the White Rim Trail. Unlike some of the more desert sites and their dry stonewalls, we listened to sounds of insects at night and birds in the morning as we nestled into our home for the night. After we woke up, finished our coffee and ate a proper breakfast, we slowly rode onto the White Rim layer of sandstone that makes up the majority of the 85 mile journey. The riding isn’t difficult, but having a little grit in your back pocket certainly helps climbing up onto Murphy Hogback for the night. We set up camp at Murphy’s, broke out some comfortable chairs, and toasted to a day well spent while we gazed across the roadless expanse of one of the best backcountry views in the park.

I woke up on our final day and greased the chains on some of the bikes and wiped off some of the 100 million year old sand that decided to latch on for the ride. With a little breakfast in our bellys and the rig packed to the brim we left for our last 18 miles of the trip. Moving through the canyons and on the edges of the rim on bike is certainly the best way to travel this road, but it can be difficult to take in every nook and cranny that you want to see. This was my 16th trip around the White Rim, and honestly, the more time that I spend out there the more curious I get about what’s beyond the next bend and what lies in the bottom of every canyon. The sandstone tells a history out there and every trip gives you a little more insight into the big story.”