Utah Cliffs Loop Bicycle Route
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The Adventure Cycling Association Utah Cliffs Loop Bicycle Route is a loop rather than a point-to-point route. Southwestern Utah is known by many as Color Country. Riders will discover how apt this nickname is as they encounter the rich hues of the red rock cliffs and pedal through the cool greens of the sub-alpine forests that the route visits. The route is a total of 288 miles (464 km).
Cliffs are an inescapable part of the view on the Utah Cliffs Loop. Riders will catch their first glimpse of the Hurricane Cliffs in the distance as the route heads northward out of St. George on a bike path winding through Snow Canyon State Park. This beautiful park encompasses white and red sandstone cliffs with an overlay of black lava rock. As the route continues in a clockwise direction, the Hurricane Cliffs loom to the east until just outside of Cedar City, where riders begin to climb up and over them. Later, as the route descends through the timber at the beginning of North Fork Road, there is a great view of the Pink Cliffs to the east.
Riders must use caution as the route approaches Zion National Park on Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway. Traffic will increase and the White Cliffs will tower over the road on the left. Just south of Zion National Park, riders might consider a side trip to the nearby ghost town of Grafton, a filming site for the 1969 blockbuster, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Next up: Smithsonian Butte and Gooseberry Mesa, which lead into the Vermillion Cliffs that begin here and flirt with the Utah-Arizona border to the south. The approach to Hurricane runs along the edge of the Hurricane Cliffs on a rough four-wheel-drive road. Riders then enjoy a slightly downhill ride most of the way back to St. George.
Due to the high elevations of this route, riders must be prepared to deal with extreme temperature differences between morning and mid-day and night. Also, the summer months can bring frequent afternoon thunderstorms. Fall weather is ever-changing and it is not uncommon to have snow flurries at 10,000' (3000 meters) elevation as early as late August. However, these conditions typically pass within hours at that time of year. Wind can occasionally be a problem as weather fronts enter the state. In the summer and fall, most storms come from the south and southwest, and can kick up incredible amounts of dust.
Road surfaces on the Utah Cliffs Route are approximately fifty percent dirt and gravel roads and fifty percent paved roads.
