Vernal, Utah in NE Utah has quietly been attracting more mountain bikers in the last decade. Derek and I stopped here back in 2015 on our way back to Bend from Steamboat Springs, CO. I think we only spent one night and one day riding here back then. This time we are here for the full 14 day boondocking limit. We are on BLM land and just yards from the trail network. Trailforks shows 54 miles of trails out here which is definitely an increase from 2015.
McCoy Flats has a lot of ride options depending on how far/long you want to ride. After a few days we figured it was time to group all the pics together and do a blog post. Most of the trails are intermediate level, though there are a couple labeled black diamond. That trail rating seems a bit over the top and I wouldn’t really consider anything out here black diamond. A lot of the riding is fast and twisty as you head across the valley and climb up onto different mesas. There is a deceiving amount of climbing on some of the loops. For example, Jackalope Trail is only 6.9 miles with 1111′ of climbing.
Some favorites so far: Jackalope Loop is a steady climb up to a highpoint around 6300′ where you can see the city of Vernal. Festicle is a fun challenging trail with technical sections of rock ledges and rim overlooks. Put that together with More Hoes and you have a great ride. This trail is one of the rougher trails with lots of up and downs and several loose rocky sections. Slippery When Wet is a really tight singletrack that winds around a mesa and affords expansive views of the area. This seems to be a lesser ridden trail.’
Whatever you choose out here, you can’t go wrong!
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