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Grafton Mesa
4 reviews
4.75 of 5
Great rocky technical single track at the top - RAW, secret trails feel, almost new england esque.. Fire road section was fun, kind of similar to porc rim, some rock, small airtime.. Killer views, unreall.. Last section started out exposed rocky slab, to boney off camber 1.5 track downhill.. Great technical skillz required, on the edge. really crazy at the end, then smooth double track red dirt off camber, fast with some techs - watch your speed.. At the bottom, look around, some cool crazy lines, then picture frame jump was right on the main road, just keep following tracks downhill through a couple wash's till you get to grafton cemetery.. Take a right, 1 mile dirt road ride back to car..
Loops- Its a shuttle, unless you like climbing loose dirt fire roads with moderate vehicle traffic
From Springdale, go west on 9 to rockville exactly 4 miles from flanigans and take left on bridge road (clear Odometer at this point) , after driving over virgin river, take right on grafton road, at road fork go left and park shuttle car on small opening by tree.. Continue traveling uphill at about 5.2 miles +/- you will see a right thats a dirt road, this leads to grafton mesa but DONT take it!! continue to mile 5.4 and take a right where you will see a 10 ' high dirt bank, see pictures.. On your bike travel up dirt road, it splits, go right and look for right on single track, hard to see.. If you kept going straight on FR, you will see open view.. Once on Single its easy to follow, there was a major right where a glimpse of trail goes straight (shown on map), work in progress?? GO right, immediate 2.85 foot drop, you hit the fire road and go left down to clearing, where trail skirts the edge..
Summary: great trail just road it. 2 runs down and we cleared every thing. Nice double and some smaller hucks at the end of the trail, on ya it ends at a cementery how cool is that!!
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Summary: This was by far the most technical trail I rode while I was in UT, and I rode a bunch.Grafton will keep you on your toes.I found the trick was to keep your momentuem up,but not to ride overly fast as you'll need to adjust continually for all the tech stuff coming at you. Some of the exposure is downright scary and riding alone I took the better judgement route and walked more then I typically would have.Even though quite technical this ride can be done by a medium intermediate rider.You just won't be able to ride it all.I rode up from the cemetary myself and it made for a longer ride.If you got the time I'd do it this way. I did see some other guys out there who said they were from OR and WA.They were on FR bikes, but they weren't doing to well. I think a lighter bike works better here with all the twists and turns. Maybe a 5 spot or something around 29 pounds or less.
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Summary: Killer Trail!! The single track on top of the mesa is narrow, exposed, and hasn't been had natural obstacles 'filled in' and 'smoothed out' like- say the xc trails at Bootleg Canyon. This keeps you on your toes and much of the time you need to anticipate 2-3 technical moves in advance to clear sections. Example thought process: right after you launch off of a two-foot drop, shift your weight backward, pop you're front wheel up to mount an inclined slickrock ramp and a second later shoot the gap between two watermelon-sized boulders... This trail will make you reassess how good of a technical trailrider you really are. The double track is fast with small boulders and ledges to launch off. The last section of singletrack that descends off of the mesa is super-sketchy and is the most challenging section of trail I've ridden anywhere- I walked probably 1/4 of this section. There are some steep "mini-Red Bull Rampage" drop-ins on soft red dirt slopes at the bottom.
Beginners can expect to walk alot. And even experienced trail riders will likely opt to walk some of the sketchier sections... Oh, and I fogot to mention that the views of Zion Canyon from the mesa are among the best! And check out the ghost town of Grafton while you're there- you might recognize some of the scenes from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Recommended Route: Being alone, I rode it as a loop (thus the higher aerobic difficulty rating), parking just south of the cemetery. The first 1.5 miles of the climb is steep but not bad (on my xc-dressed SC Heckler- those riding heavy trailbikes and downhillers will definantly want to shuttle to the top). Using the map and trail description from bikerag.com, I had no problems finding the trail. In a hurry, I rode the loop in about 1 hr 45 min.
Other recommended trails in the same area: Gooseberry Mesa if you haven't rode it yet. Little Creek Mesa if you are good at route-finding or have a guide. Green Valley Loop is short and sweet. If you can clean the established routes at Gooseberry and you wan't more of a challenge, ride Grafton Mesa!
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