Fruita Singletrack Rules! Fruita Trails

SPRING 2010 - the 16th year of Fruita mountainbiking...

What a year behind us; big changes and big news followed by the longest winter in Fruita Grand Junction history. But now it's finally back to the mild mannered HIgh Desert we know and Love; its time to get back to the sweet Singletrack we crave. Come join us, we're happy to help you find whats good and whats new; and there is a bit of new in 2010, come ride with us...                

Can we ask your help in keeping Fruita trails in perfect shape? Check out our advocacy page and read a few tips to help make our and all MTB trails better! We love the phrase "Keep Singletrack Single"

CURRENT TRAIL CONDITIONS -Things are looking good, dry and SKINNY, help us keep them skinny again, Lets Ride! ; please ride the middle of the trail and help us keep it skinny even if theres a muddy spot or a puddle, if it gets really bad, turn around and get out; save the bike and your day and the trail... more at our advocacy page and KEEP SINGLE TRACK SINGLE!  Single track is what we love and why we love to ride Fruita.  It is up to you to protect this endangered terrain.

Kokopelli's Area -   All good ...

Grand Junction / Tabeguache Area -  So good...

Bookcliffs / Fruita North -   Awesome as ever!  Please, help us keep this skinny, winter has been good for these trails and many are 12" wide - keep in Single and have fun!

Rabbit Valley Area - Great!

Moab Utah Area - Moab is good to go except the really high stuff!

Conditions Updated - May 17,  2010

We are just over 1 hour from Moab Utah and 142 miles by dirt between us and Moab. The Kokopelli's Trail will get you from the two most sought after MTB destinations in the desert southwest. It's not all singletrack; most of that lies on the Fruita end but if you want a great camp MTB trip, its a good one and is easily supported by vehicle.

We highly recomend the Fruita Fat Tire Guide as it is the only local resource for the Mountain Bike enthusiast. All other books are mere copies of this book and did such a deed some 5-8 years ago. If you want the goods; get this book!If you need more, ask at Over the Edge

Here's an Overview of what Fruita Trails are all about:

Kokopelli's Trail system  -  at the start of the 142 mile track from Fruita to Moab there are several singletrack loops that make up the Fruita end of the Kokopelli system. Rustlers Loop, Mary's Loop, Horsethief Bench, Moore Fun, Mack Ridge, Lions Loop, Steves/Handcuffs and Troy Bilt loops all add up to 40 some miles of desert mountainbiking within the Colorado River Canyons known as Ruby Canyon and Horsetheif Canyon. The Trailhead is the easiest to reach and thus the perfect starting point. With the trails lying in the river canyon you will quickly leave civilization and find yourself in a pure sandstone and desert MTB world.

(Link to More Kokopelli's Pictures)

The Bookcliffs / 18 Road  -  100% Singletrack; all built by mounatin bikers and built for the sole interest of a flowing mountain bike experience. The Trails north of Fruita are the heart and soul of what Fruita Mountain biking is all about. Back in 1994-95 the rag tag bunch from Over the Edge drove north and found this rolling terrain with a few 500 year old trees and started creating a trail system that has been proclaimed as a personal favorite of some of the best riders in the world. No real big technical features and certainly not a free-ride area; this is mountain biking in it's pure and perfect feel. The word FLOW cannot be bold enough to describe what awaits in the bookcliffs. The fun here is in the narrow flowing singletrack and the rythym of the jumps and undulations. Fruita has long been known for the effort to keep singletrack skinny and preserved; join us in ”keeping singletrack single” - avoid making off trail tracks and stop & step aside to yield. Keeping these trails narrow is preserving what we love about riding mountain bikes. Let the ATV's make 4 foot wide trails, not us! The Bookcliffs host; the Edge Loop, Prime Cut, Chutes & Ladders, Frontside, Giggles, Zippety Doo Da and Kessel Run plus tons more in the area surrounding these...

(Bookcliffs Photo Link)

Tabeguache / ”Lunch Loop” - Grand Junction Area  -  Grand Junction is the bigger town just a few minutes from Fruita. It's local trail system just minutes from downtown is a the treasure trove of local riding and a must see for the Fruita visitor. World class rocky technical riding makes this the contrast and compliment to the flow of the Bookcliffs. Here you'll find flow among a multiplex of sandstone boulders. Some of the biggest free-ride moves and miles of sweet slickrock and soil stunning rides. Rides in the ”Lunch Loops” (a local term for the first jeep road loop here)  have become trails of legend; The Ribbon, Holy Cross, FREE Lunch, Pet-e-kes, Eagles Wing and Eagles Tail, Gunny Loop and a whole slew of connectors and such. Not to mention that you can connect this from here to Telluride/Montrose on the 130plus mile Tabeguache Trail system. Take a day to explore this area for sure; unless the Kokopelli's was techncially ”hard” and then you might not like this area too much, think rocks... plenty of rocks!

Rabbit Valley  -  West of Fruita and even into eastern Utah; Rabbit Valley is a paradise of long desert rides with plenty of variety and scenery to wow even the regular local. Rides that can loop you in a 50 mile singletrack epic or the 20 mile ride that will have you posting your own pictures on the web. Must try the Western Rim and Zions Curtain as well as the Westwater Mesa and the connection of them all in some huge variation off the Kokopelli's Trail. BLM info here is Motorcycle focused but you'll find plenty of lacal knowledge at Over the Edge or in the Fruita Fat Tire Guide. We love it here; I rode here yesterday...

(Rabbit Valley Images)

The Fruita Story on You Tube

What's New in Fruita / GJ:

Free Lunch Trail in the Tabeguache area near GJ (10 minutes from Fruita) is a challenging trail with many rocks and big drops. It's well laid out and thus fun for most who love tech riding. It is called ”free-ride” by many and yet it is a ”Singletrack” (thus not OFF TRAIL nonsense-which would lead to the trails demise) and there is no ”constructed”  features and thus not that kind of ”hucker” FR trail. It is a technical MTB Trail and I'm not one for  ”catagorizing” since I'm just a ”Cyclist”. But it's cool and I can ride it all (not all the options but can thouroughly enjoy the trail as a very hard ride). It is now made even better by the addition of the Lunch Line which gets you there from the top of Little Park Road right where the Tabeguache hits the road. This making a sweet short loop back to this spot with little climbing or a shuttle with ironically the same amount of climbing pretty much but much more descending back to Monument Road.

Future Trails: Kevin Foote has laid out a really sweet line in addition to the Troy Bilt / Mack Ridge loop. It would allow an all singletrack and continued technical connection between Mack Ridge and the top of the Troy Bilt climb (this climb will be re-routed as it needs to be to meet this new line). The already approved (not yet built though and is not there at all) line will climb through a beautiful rock cliff band and then run the edge of the Colorado River canyon with the best views in the area. (only in contest with Mack Rifge which you would also ride on this trail).

 New Loops in the Bookcliffs; info at OTE or coming to the guide book in 2010

 Fruita Singletrack Ethics

Please help us and all Singletracks we ride by adopting the following code of riding. Thanks for joining us in protecting narrow and challenging Singletrack Trails. Please spread the word as our sport is not entirely united around the concepts that keep trails the way we all know and Love them.

• Learn the Singletrack Yield; the rule of ”Yield to everyone” isnt right! Too often riders who meet just ride OFF TRAIL around each other. That is NOT a Yield at all; that's ”Im too much in a hurry to be slowed by you”. The rule is most always; allow the uphill rider to pass. How? STOP your bike... steo a foot out of the trail off to the side (without crushing that palnt or cactus) and LEAN your bike and/or slide it a bit to the side. The rider youa re YEILDING TOO then can pass without leaving the track. AWESOME!      If we pass each other; thats 2 bikes wide and thus is NOT SINGLETRACK after we do. (Trails wide enough for this are called ”roads”) Keep Singletrack Single is our rule... Thanks for being a part of that passion for narrow beautiful trails.
• NO Shortcuts! - we all know that we dont cut switchbacks (I think we do) but we also need to spread the word that just because we ”see a trail over there” doesnt mean we need to ”ride over there right now”. Trails all have a start/entrance and and end/exit; they may have several but they do not need an entrance and exit every few yards. Please don't ”cut over” to the trail from your camp site or from that road you parked on or from anywhere except the Trailhead. I cantr promise you if you ride up the raod you will find the entrance; then you can roll DOWN the sweet singletracka nd not mess up a beatiful trail or the experience of those who are on track.
• Cheaters never prosper / No new TrAXES! - we all run across things we can't or don't feel like riding. If we didn't then we would be the single greatest rider in the sport. Never ”lower” the trail to your skill level by altering the line or stacking rocks or cutting down trees or plants. Someone can ride it; I know it seems like too much but it's not. Ask your friend to spot you and give it a try maybe, or just walk around, NEVER re-design a trail that you didn't help design and build in the first place. If you really think it needs fixing? Stop in the local trail advocate shop and mention it. That will be appreciated; kicking out off trail tracks will be appreciated, creating a new ”by pass” or ”ramp” on someones favorite rock move will be despised and be re-built back to normal and thus wastes everyones time. Cutting down or back a tree is just vandelism of nature; NEVER kill plants for your own convenience, Please spread the word.
• Burn Baby Burn - But NOT that! - We all camp and we all LOVE to camp near our beloved trails. The better the trails the more campers and riders they see a season. As in Fruita where we see 20,000 campers a year the ”gathering” of fire wood is a huge negative impact. Live trees should be allowed to remain thus and dead limbs still belong to the tree. Old decaying trees are the source of fertilizing the soil for the next generation. BYOWOOD (buy a bundle) and save the nature that we came here to enjoy. Spread the word on this; it's a little known idea, Thanks
• When in doubt... RESPECT it... all of it. We love here and you came here because it's awesome. I travel becasue I want to see more awesome places. To be the one who comes to ”awesome” and leaves it ”less awesome” says something about me that I would never want to hear said.    Leave it as good or better than you found it...

These are the Trails and the Places we Love! I'm glad you love them as I do. Thanks for the help - Keep Singletrack Single - Love Life - Share the Love - Enjoy the ride

Why is Fruita so talked about?

Is it really that good? I've heard you have a lot of singletrack, which ones are the good rides?

These are questions we hear all the time and thought maybe we could offer some answers as you ponder whether or not to come ride here. If you already ride here, well, you already know.

Read about our Trail Advocacy

The #1 reason Fruita is special is ”Singletrack”. We don't send you on 30 mile fire road cruises or sandy 2-tracks. We have lots of dirt road that can be used to make rides very long and the Edge loop uses a section of road to get to the top of the 30 mile loop. But the kicker of all our famous rides is the narrow singletrack often made by and for mountainbikers. We have options here to ride 45 mile loops of 90% high quality singletrack.

It's why they say- ”Fruita Singletrack Rules!”

It's Fruita Singletrack. Why do people come to Fruita and keep coming back? It's the trails that are 12-24” wide. The feeling of riding a bobsled through the pinion juniper on a thread of dirt no wider than your handlebars. It's the view from the ridge tops all the way to Telluride and Moab... yeah, from the same ridge!

Fruita, it's been said many times, has magic. The feeling of the rides and the feeling of the town. It all adds up to a place where the mountain biker feels at home. It's the kind of place where bikes themselves feel at home. If you're into road riding. We have that too. The combo is what made Bicycling magazine call us one of the top 10 cycling towns in the USA. The old Coors Classic ”Tour of the Moon” stage runs through the colorado national monumnet just outside Fruita. Fruita is famous for it's singletrack and this funky little bike shop. But we hope once you come you'll come back for the town and the scenery as well.

What makes it so unique?

Singletrack in the high desert. Rocks are the norm, dramatic scenery is as well. The desert was made for mountainbiking, especially the ”high desert” we are located right where the desert meets the mountains in western Colorado. It means no sand, lots of blue skies and a few trees to color the view. We sit so close to the transition that we can even ride above 8000 feet whenever it's too hot down here.

So which rides are good? The truth is we have thousands of miles you can ride a mountainbike on. Most of which would make the guide book in most places. Here, we don't list all those as rides although the locals or seasoned visitors will use them to make a long ride. But the 36 rides that make up the Fruita Fat Tire Guide book are simply the ”best of the best” every one of which is a ”must do”. In Fruita part of our plan to keep from being ”crowded” is to have so much good stuff that no single trail is over run with riders. So far it's working perfectly and we keep trying to find new rides to insure it stays that way.

We also teach good MTB ethics and user habits. Messages like ”Keep Singletrack Single” and ”Learn to ride - 12 inches wide” are spreading the message internationally that good ethics preserve narrow trails. Our tires never leave the track... ever! We are proud of our ten year old and still narrow trails. The picture on the right is Joes ridge from 1995...

So come check it out for yourself; I promise Fruita won't dissapoint. You might already know that and think ”but I bet it's crowded”. I am always amazed by the fact that we never meet other groups on the trail, certainly not very often. There is too much good stuff, good planning and new places to go. Fruita is an enthusiast destination, it keeps us from having the masses of Moab and we prefer to keep it that way. It's not for everyone but if you passionate about Mountainbikes, Singletrack and the Lifestyle of MTB folk? You will find out why Fruita Colorado is becoming the ”homeland” of MTB legends.

Come see for yourself... we'll be glad to help.

A Little about the trails in the area...

Kokopelli's Trail Area, just west of Fruita - nearly 50 miles of MTB rides. Killer loops, technical trails like Moore Fun and even novice rides such as Rustlers Loop. Popular favorites like Mary's Loop, Horsethief Bench, Lion's Loop, Troy Built, etc.

Rabbit Valley, Spanning the Colorado Utah Border - this shared moto trail system is really filled with some awesome opportunities if you get a bit away from the 'destruction zone' close to I-70.
Status: really good right now, look for the new ride ”Zion Curtain” in the new Fruit Fat Tire Guide! Another a must do is the Western Rim... why not loop both for a true epic!  When 18rd and Koko are too wet, sometimes Rabbit Valley is a life saver!

Bookcliffs/18 Road - Awesome smooth, hard packed singletrack north of Fruita. The trail network is not super technical (with the exception of Zippety Do Da) so it is a perfect place for novice to intermediate riders to have fun without getting in over their heads.

Tabeguache / Lunch Loop Area near Grand Junction - really good techy rocky trails right near downtown GJ. Well worth seeking out and trying some cool ”on trail moves”

Just re-opened: The Holy Cross trail, a great techy trail designed by the guy who brought us Moore Fun.
Holy Cross Trail under re-construction; Kevin Foote is leading a COPMOBA crew of volunteers and re-routing the Holy Cross Trail into a really cool technical masterpiece. It's nice to see something becoming better and re-opened! Cudo's to BLM, COPMOBA, Kevin and all the crew!

Douglas Pass area: The legendary quality ride here is the ”Flight of Icarus”. Climbing to 9,000 feet before it plumets to the valley below. The ”Flight” has been called ”a must do before you die” in a Nissan X-Terra TV ad. It is a favorite of any who venture here. It's a drive and has some ”politics” surrounding it but is absolutely stunning in it's scenic and ride quality.

Come ride with us. Drop us an email if we can help in planning and when your here, consider us your home. We are here because of you and you are the reason we have been so acclaimed for ten years.

Thanks and we'll see you in Fruita!

Flowing Park Trail on the Grand Mesa: