Bikepacking Cathedral Valley

The Cathedral Valley is a colourful, dusty and beautiful bikepack into one of Southern Utah’s famous National Parks. Before the rough double track begins the decision must be made on where to park as the loop requires some road riding to kick things off. We decided to get it out of the way first up and while the road is amazing, it’s less so on two wheels with traffic ripping by and no shoulder. It certainly proves plenty of incentive to get moving and before we knew it we were on a dusty, if not sandy trail and riding toward Cathedral Valley.

A mile in and we had to double up carrying our bikes across the Fremont River. At the time is was about knee deep and pretty cold but certainly a welcome relief from the sun. At least for a moment. An hour of riding through colourful bentonite hills we reach a plateau and continue on until we ride up on an old truck and some tired, rusted equipment full of bullet holes.

The overnight ride and the decision to road ride first meant day one would be longer than the following day returning to the car. It actually dragged on a little toward the late afternoon and somewhere around mile marker in the mid 40’s we rode up on the camp ground. Given our ability to be a little more flexible on camp site location we moved a little beyond the camp ground and worked our way up to the following spot which had an astoundingly beautiful view of Cathedral Valley below.