Bikepacking in Canyonlands

Sitting on my friend’s couch planning out my week in Salt Lake City when I saw Canyonlands had some open backcountry overnight permits and thought this could be cool!

The most popular place is the White Rim Trail. This excursion requires a 4 wheel drive high clearance vehicle which my little Subaru Impreza doesn’t fit the bill. However you could also bike this route so, I decided to book my permit and go for it.

When I booked the permit I had to choose which backcountry campsite(s) I would be staying at. The one I chose was about 25 miles from the starting point which in my mind would’ve be a solid day not knowing how difficult the roads would be or how my legs would hold up coming off the 100 miler less than 10 days ago.

I chose to only spend one night in Canyonlands for this bike packing trip. I wish there was the possibility of doing this whole route which is about 100 miles total in length in the conditions I had to work within. There is no potable water on the route or anything to filter from. Not like the east! So this makes things really difficult after that first night. It would be a ton of water to carry on the bike along with 3 days worth of food. So this would be the reason that I only went with one night. Unfortunately what I had planned was an out and back route since there are only two entrances/exits 100 miles apart. I could’ve probably done it in two days but there wasn’t any permits available for the 2nd night. When bike packers do this route they usually have a support crew with them carrying the water and extra supplies. You for sure could do it solo if you wanted to torture yourself but I did not need that kind of pain. They also plan a year in advance so that makes things a bit easier too.

I secured my permit early Tuesday morning at the visitor center and packed up my gear on the bike and started out around 9:45am on Tuesday morning. The first 12 miles were a breeze, which was a little disappointing but I knew that going in. Down a long access road to the canyon switchbacks before entering the park around mile 18.

First day was 26 miles, 800’ of climbing and 2300’ of descent. If there were permits available for something in the 30-35 mile range I would’ve gone for that but nothing was unfortunately. So 3.5 hours later I arrived at my campsite which is positioned perfectly in the direct sunlight. There is no such thing as shade around this place unless it’s early morning and late evening when the sun is low casting massive shadows from the canyon walls. I spent most of the afternoon just hanging out in the one piece of shade I could find next to the toilet.

On the way to camp I noticed my rear tire slowly losing pressure which was not a good sign. A little while later it wasn’t even holding enough pressure to ride. I stopped, pumped it up and continued into camp. After sitting at camp for 2 hours I noticed the tire was really flat so I took the time and replaced the tube. Praying that would hold until I get back to the car the next day!

Dinner was cold soaked ramen with some pan fried chicken I had cooked up the night before to add into the ramen to have some protein. Pretty much lukewarm chicken noodle soup when it was done baking in the heat after an hour. This would suffice for the night but definitely wanted some more real food. All I had was a muffin, peanut butter sandwich, peanut butter crackers and fig bars left for food. I ate a couple more snacks as I had plenty for the next day.

I found some rocks and spent some time just sitting, listening, and watching the sun cast its glow on the red rocks behind the tent as it set for the night. It was super cool to watch the shadows creep up the canyon walls eating away at the light little by little. Once it was gone the stars slowly started to appear.

I really wanted to shoot a milky way time lapse in the canyon so I brought some extra batteries but no tripod. Instead propped my camera up with some rocks above my tent to where the tent was in the foreground and the milky way in behind it rising above the steep canyon walls. It was still super bright out at this point for long exposure photos but feeling super tired I wanted to head to bed early, so set it up and left it out. I captured 650 photos over the next 5 hours or so. I believe it was one shot every 26 seconds so, I should end up with about a 25 second time lapse.

I slept so good. I woke up a few times and looked outside to see some of the most amazing stars I’ve ever seen in my life. It was unreal. Nothing like living back east where the light pollution is so detrimental to the night sky viewing. I slept like a rock and definitely didn’t really want to crawl out of bed super early. I caught the sunrise as I was waking with the moon above a giant spire in a clean golden gradient sky. Gorgeous.

As much as I wanted to wait for the sun to fully rise at camp I knew it would be a while. Trying to beat the heat I packed up my bike and ate my squished muffin and headed out towards the main road. Back through the soft sandy wash again, walking the bike is never fun. Made it through to the main road where I was riding this burst of energy and joyfulness with the golden glow of the sun making the red rock pop with bright colors on the walls of the canyon. It was a magical ride out for the first hour or so before it heated up and became a little oppressive. Ahead of me I knew I had this big 2,300’ climb back to the car which was daunting. A lot of switchbacks up the canyon wall to Mineral Bottom Road which in itself was a good climb. Definitely did not realize it when I was biking in the day before. After a good push up the climb I took a nice break at the top had some food and water and a break in the shade before continuing on. It took me just as long to get out as it did to get in which I thought would’ve been a lot longer on the way out with the climb but pretty equal. Not as many photo stops I guess! I was quite happy to see the car after nearly 4 hours of peddling half of which was up hill.

Overall this was a super fun experience and definitely need to try it again but make it more of an adventure rather than just an out and back. Having never done it before I had always been very interested in it but never really had the ambition to pedal all that way or long and sit on my butt all day long. I was quite sore after it to the point that sitting hurt for the rest of the day, I was super happy to hike again!

If I could say one thing about this bike packing thing is that it is truly a super cool way to experience a place that is super remote.

Thanks for reading and following along!