How Moab Built 150 Miles of Singletrack in Just 10 Years

Today, Moab singletrack is abundant — mountain bikers visiting Moab have so many singletrack trails to choose from, they could conceivably ride a different area each day for an entire week without repeating a thing. !Moab's first singletrack - Baby Steps Moab's first singletrack - Baby Steps But that was not always the case. Prior to the completion in May 2007 of the Baby Steps mountain bike trail in the area now known as North Klondike, mountain bikers in Moab mainly rode two-track jeep roads. There were a few exceptions — the bottom of Porcupine Rim Trail through Jackass Canyon, The Portal Trail off Poison Spider Mesa — but for the most part, Moab's early fame in the 90's as a Mountain Bike Mecca was largely due to The Slickrock Trail (originally pioneered in the '60s for motorcycles) and Moab's plethora of insanely rugged two-track jeep roads left over from the Uranium Boom that ended in the early 1980's. By the early 2000's, other mountain bike destinations, like neighboring Fruita, CO, had become famous for their newly developed singletrack trails, and leaders of Moab's mountain bike community knew they had to do something to keep up. But doing so would not be easy because, at that time, Moab was at the center of a Perfect Storm of conflict over competing uses for public land, especially regarding recreation. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) administers much of the public land around Moab. In the early 2000's, BLM's Moab Field Office was just beginning a process to update its Resource Management Plan, which had not been revised since long before Moab's resurgence as a recreational hot spot. Previously, BLM's primary concerns involved regulating oil and gas development and cattle ranching. Unlike the National Park Service and US Forest Service, the BLM was relatively new to managing recreation. That fact, combined with the sagebrush rebellion-inspired debate over the fate of Utah's federal lands, made any thought of creating brand new trails, or converting motorized routes into non-motorized routes, difficult, to say the least. Previous community discussions on the subject were known to get heated. Happily for Moab and the mountain biking world, cooler heads prevailed. In December of 1999, with leadership from the Grand County Council and the City of Moab, and representation from all the relevant public land agencies and recreational user groups (motorized and non-motorized,) a new committee was created and started holding meetings open to the public. It was called Trail Mix. Though many groups and individuals have taken the lead on different trails over the years, it's a safe bet that without Trail Mix acting as a moderating influence, facilitating compromise between the many different factions and coordinating the many moving parts, Moab would not have the world-class system of singletrack trails it does today. !Rodeo: Moab's newest singletrack was completed May 11, 2017 Rodeo: Moab's newest singletrack was completed May 11, 2017 With the completion May 11 of Rodeo, a new singletrack loop south of the Horsethief Campground near Canyonlands National Park, Trail Mix celebrated the completion of over 150 miles of singletrack trails in the Moab area, fulfilling one of its original goals. In 1999, Kim Schappert was a newly elected member of the Grand County Council and one of a number of people who helped get Trail Mix off the ground. She said Trail Mix owes its success to patience and persistence. In the beginning, she said, the mountain bike community had to build trust with the agencies. "We were the new kids on the block," she said. "We had to prove ourselves." And building that trust took a lot of time. In fact, after its inception, Trail Mix would go on to hold its regular public meetings for _seven years_ (working on a variety of mixed-use and paved bike path projects, and developing a county-wide master trail plan) before its first mountain bike singletrack trail came ever into existence. That first trail, appropriately named Baby Steps (in the North Klondike area) was completed in May 2007. Schappert said Baby Steps came about due to a call she got one day from then BLM Realty Specialist Russ Von Koch, one of the early supporters of Trail Mix. "Russ had all the maps in his office," she recalled, "and he said, 'Hey, let's go check this out.' Russ and I went out and rode it." And together, they led the effort to get it built. 2007 was a watershed year for Trail Mix. It included the submission for public comment of the Non-Motorized Trail Mix Master Plan (approved in April 2008,) completion of phase one of the Moab Brands Trail Area with the opening of Bar-M Loop, followed closely by development of Circle-O, Rockin'-A and Bar-B trails. After that, it was as if the singletrack "flood gates" were opened. "That was kind of the start of the 'Bridge of Trust' with the BLM," said Scott Escott, current Trail Coordinator for Trail Mix. In 2008, the BLM released its updated Resource Management Plan (RMP,) which authorized the development of 150 miles of non-motorized singletrack. "When the RMP came out, it said, 'Here's 150 miles of mountain bike trails, and we'll be your partners,' " Escott said. With that partnership came a lot of hands-on, material support. "I think what a lot of people don't realize," Escott said, the BLM "supply for us archaeology, paleontology, they write the EAs, if we have wildlife issues, soil issues, they build us parking lots. If I need a bobcat or a bulldozer or whatever, they're there for us. They are our partner because we are fulfilling that RMP." !Trail Mix Crew working on Pipe Dream singletrack Trail Mix Crew working on Pipe Dream singletrack Escott's involvement in Moab trail development dates back to 2009 and his work with then City of Moab Community Development Director David Olsen, on the Pipe Dream Trail. For much of the past 8 years, Escott has worked for Trail Mix designing, building and coordinating volunteers on many of Moab's singletrack trails. He estimates that if Grand County had had to pay 100% of the cost of all its trail development work, it would have cost $5.5 million dollars. As it was, they got it for around $400,000, he said. Now, after 10 years of working together with Trail Mix, Moab BLM is recognized as "the gold standard for recreation management," Escott said. Another major factor contributing to Trail Mix's success was the City of Moab — much of that through Olsen. As a mountain bike enthusiast and community planner for the city he was in the perfect position to spearhead many of Moab's trail projects, often acting as planner and fundraiser. He first became involved with Trail Mix while being interviewed on a local radio show hosted by a local mountain biker. He recalls doing the initial scouting work on the Circle-O and Rockin' A routes, which largely traverse open sandstone "slickrock." "I marked it with Gorilla Tape," he said. "They said to mark it with rocks, but there weren't any. I also tried chalk, but it washed away in the rain." Soon, his trail marking method evolved, and by the time the route was officially approved and was ready for permanent markings, he had configured a small paint roller to leave mountain bike "tire marks" by taping strips of gorilla tape over it like a stencil. Olsen, too, recalls that soon after the opening of the first three or four trails, BLM's attitude toward mountain bike trails seemed to take a 180 degree turn. "I think they started getting a lot of good feedback from a lot of different sources." !Navajo Rocks Singletrack Trail Navajo Rocks Singletrack Trail Even so, some trail ideas took much longer than others. Olsen recalls one of his biggest passions was an area now known as Navajo Rocks, but back then he was calling it Round Mounds. He says he fought for Round Mounds for 5 years, and got pushback even from within Trail Mix itself. But eventually, Trail Mix and the BLM relented, and Navajo Rocks (named for the geologic layer prominent in the area) was developed in 2014 and completed in 2015. Olsen agrees with Schappert that patience and persistence were the key factors in Trail Mix's success. There was a steep learning curve for everyone involved, and at each phase of Moab's singletrack development, they had to take baby steps before they could take Mega Steps. END ORIGINAL CONTENT -->

Baby Steps Before Mega Steps

Moab built over 150 miles of world-class mountain bike singletrack in just 10 years, transforming from a destination known primarily for jeep roads and the Slickrock Trail into one of the most diverse trail systems on earth. This did not happen by accident — it was the result of a collaborative community effort called Trail Mix, which spent seven years building trust with federal land agencies before a single foot of singletrack was ever constructed. The story of how Moab got its trails is a masterclass in patience, persistence, and partnership.

Before Singletrack: Moab’s Jeep Road Era

Prior to 2007, mountain bikers visiting Moab rode primarily on two-track jeep roads. Moab’s early fame as a mountain biking mecca in the 1990s was built on two things: the Slickrock Trail (originally pioneered for motorcycles in the 1960s) and the insanely rugged network of jeep roads left over from the Uranium Boom that ended in the early 1980s. There were a few singletrack exceptions — the bottom of Porcupine Rim through Jackass Canyon, the Portal Trail off Poison Spider Mesa — but they were outliers.

By the early 2000s, neighboring Fruita, Colorado had become famous for its newly developed singletrack trails, and Moab’s mountain bike community knew they had to evolve. But the path forward was complicated by a perfect storm of public land conflicts.

The Trail Mix Story

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) administers most public land around Moab, and in the early 2000s their Resource Management Plan had not been updated since before Moab’s recreation boom. The BLM was relatively new to managing recreation — their traditional concerns were oil and gas development and cattle ranching. Combined with Utah’s contentious debate over federal land use, proposing new trails or converting motorized routes to non-motorized use was politically fraught.

In December 1999, the Grand County Council and City of Moab convened a new committee called Trail Mix, with representation from all relevant public land agencies and recreational user groups — both motorized and non-motorized. Kim Schappert, a newly elected Grand County Council member at the time, was one of the people who helped get Trail Mix off the ground. She credits its success to patience and persistence: “We were the new kids on the block. We had to prove ourselves.”

Trail Mix held regular public meetings for seven years — working on mixed-use projects, paved bike paths, and a county-wide master trail plan — before its first mountain bike singletrack trail was ever built. That trail, appropriately named Baby Steps, opened in May 2007 in what is now the North Klondike area.

The Floodgates Open: 2007-2017

2007 was the watershed year. It brought the Baby Steps trail, submission of the Non-Motorized Trail Mix Master Plan (approved April 2008), and the first phase of the Moab Brands Trail Area with the opening of Bar-M Loop, followed quickly by Circle-O, Rockin’-A, and Bar-B trails.

In 2008, the BLM released its updated Resource Management Plan, which authorized 150 miles of non-motorized singletrack. As Scott Escott, Trail Mix’s trail coordinator, described it: “When the RMP came out, it said, ‘Here’s 150 miles of mountain bike trails, and we’ll be your partners.’” That partnership was substantive — the BLM provided archaeology and paleontology clearances, environmental assessments, parking lots, heavy equipment, and material support. Escott estimates the full cost of Moab’s trail development would have been $5.5 million if Grand County had paid 100% — they got it done for around $400,000.

City of Moab Community Development Director David Olsen was another pivotal figure. He did the initial scouting for Circle-O and Rockin’-A routes, marking them with Gorilla Tape on open slickrock where there were no rocks to use as markers. He later invented a trail marking method using a small paint roller with Gorilla Tape strips taped over it like a stencil, leaving mountain bike “tire marks” on the rock.

Some trails came faster than others. Olsen fought for five years to get Navajo Rocks approved, facing pushback even from within Trail Mix itself. But persistence paid off — Navajo Rocks was developed in 2014 and completed in 2015, becoming one of Moab’s most popular trail systems.

The Trail System Today

With the May 2017 completion of Rodeo, a new singletrack loop south of Horsethief Campground near Canyonlands National Park, Trail Mix celebrated the fulfillment of its original goal: 150+ miles of singletrack. Today, a mountain biker visiting Moab could ride a different trail area each day for an entire week without repeating:

North Klondike — Where it all started, with undulating singletrack across sandstone bluffs
Moab Brands — The most accessible system, just minutes from town
Navajo Rocks — Flowing singletrack across Navajo sandstone with canyon rim views
Klonzo — Desert singletrack near Arches National Park
Magnificent 7 — A classic point-to-point across multiple trail systems
Dead Horse Point and Intrepid trails — High-mesa riding above the Colorado River
And dozens more

Moab BLM is now recognized as “the gold standard for recreation management,” according to Escott. The partnership model pioneered by Trail Mix has influenced trail development across the West.

What This Means for Visiting Riders

The depth and variety of Moab’s trail system means there is genuinely something for every skill level. Beginners can ride the smooth loops at Moab Brands. Intermediate riders can tackle Navajo Rocks or Klonzo. Advanced riders can link up systems for 40+ mile days or tackle iconic descents like Porcupine Rim. And Rim Tours has been here guiding riders through all of it since before any of this singletrack existed — we know these trails as well as anyone.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many miles of mountain bike trails does Moab have?

Moab has over 150 miles of dedicated non-motorized singletrack, plus hundreds of miles of additional jeep roads and doubletrack routes that are also popular for mountain biking. Combined, it is one of the largest and most diverse mountain bike trail systems in the world.

When were Moab’s singletrack trails built?

The first purpose-built mountain bike singletrack in Moab (Baby Steps, in the North Klondike area) opened in May 2007. The majority of the 150-mile system was built between 2007 and 2017, with ongoing additions and improvements continuing.

What is the best singletrack trail in Moab for beginners?

The Bar-M Loop at Moab Brands is the most popular beginner singletrack — it is smooth, well-marked, and only minutes from downtown Moab. Rim Tours runs guided tours on these trails daily during season.

Can I ride these trails without a guide?

Absolutely. Moab’s trail system is well-marked with signage and maps. However, a guided tour adds expert trail knowledge, bike rental, navigation confidence, safety support, and local insight that you cannot get from a trail map. For first-time Moab visitors, a guided half-day tour is a great way to get oriented.

Who maintains Moab’s mountain bike trails?

Trail Mix (coordinated by Grand County) manages trail development and maintenance in partnership with the BLM. Volunteer trail days are held regularly, and local outfitters including Rim Tours contribute resources and support to trail maintenance efforts.