For the fourth year in a row we signed up for a Holiday River Expeditions trip and were excited to spend four days mountain biking in the southern end of the San Rafael Swell. This was an area that we had never explored so everything would be new!

We arrived in Green River the evening before to do a quick bike check and review our itinerary. We met two other guests, Beatrice and Dan. Dan, a good friend of Joel’s from New Ulm had driven in from MN – we were really excited to have him join us – we had tried for many years but his busy schedule wouldn’t allow him to venture westward until now.

We gathered all the gear and loaded up the vans for a short, 45 minute drive west on I-70. Then a few more miles on the frontage road and we were off! Our first stop was at the historical Swasey Cabin and then a “chunky” descent down to Eagle Arch and Eagle Arch Canyon.

Once in Eagle Canyon, we had to get out! It was just as steep and rocky going up – warranted hopping off the bike a few times. Back at the top it was lunch time and then off to find a campsite for the evening.

I had 26.85 miles on my tracker which included a short hike up to Eagle Arch.

I think the most important thing we learned on this day was to avoid the Swell on a Saturday! Wow … in all the MTB adventures we have been on in the last 3 – 4 years, we had never seen so many dirt bikes, 4 wheel drives and side by side off-road vehicles. Although bicyclists have the right of way in these situations, it seemed the path of least resistance just to get out of their way. Yuck … I hope that we never get to the point that we think that would ever be an alternate way to enjoy the outdoors.

Note to Self!