While doing some volunteer trail maintenance work last winter for the Forest Service, I talked with an ATV rider who had nothing but good words for the Paiute Trail in Utah. I didn't get any particulars as to where the trail was, but there was no forgetting his enthusiasm for the area. So when my brother and I were planning our annual motorcycle outing I started digging around for specifics on the Internet, but could find none. Fred Hink at Arrowhead Motorsports came to my rescue though, and gave me the number (800-662-8898) of the Sevier County Travel Council (who, as far as I know, is a very pleasant lady named Carma Thomas).
When I talked to Carma, she sent me (for $11.00) a terrific topographic map, #708, Paiute ATV Trail, put out by National Geographic Maps which is waterproof and tearproof along with a complimentary "Guide To The PAIUTE ATV TRAIL", a 26 page booklet that describes the five major segments of the main 250 mile loop and five of the major spurs or alternate loops. All in all, there are some 1200 miles of interconnected trails and roads. I would guess that 80% of this network are Forest Service roads, 10% are private roads and 10% are true ATV trails (48" wide with two tracks and a generally soft ridge between the tracks). The elevations on the main loop range from 5160' to 11,500'.
The map has a coding of green for easiest, blue for more difficult, and dark gray for most difficult - somewhat similar to the gradings on ski runs. What we found was that these codes overstated the difficulty on the roads, whether public or private; and understated the difficulty on the true ATV trails. Said another way, I think any of the roads could be ridden with a really heavy dual sport bike such as a BMW G/S, but the blue coded ATV trails were quite sporting for a KLR650 or DS650 (my brother's ride) when loaded down with a full complement of camping gear.
At any rate we met a week ago Sunday night in Richfield, UT., more or less in the center of the trail system and easily the largest town. We stayed the night in the Luxury Inn, the newest motel in town. Can't recommend it very much because it wasn't very sound proof and they reneged on the price we had agreed to while making the reservation. On Monday morning we went to a place called White's Meats that is a butcher shop in the old fashioned sense of the word and it also had a fenced in lot where we stored our cars and trailers. I know, not much of an adventure tourer, but I had ridden to the Moab Dual Sport Rally the first of June from Tucson to Moab in 100F degree heat (565 miles) and this distance was about 615 miles and it was even hotter (101F going through Phoenix at 8:15 a.m.) - so I chickened out and took the trailer.
We left Richfield about 11:00 a.m. and took the western spur from Richfield to the main loop. When we intersected the main loop we decided to head north because the elevations were less in that direction than heading south. My brother, Bob, is from Minneapolis (elevation about 1,000') and we wanted to make as smooth a transition to riding at the higher elevations as possible. We ran our loop in a clockwise direction, first ascending to 9,600' and then descending to 5160' into the town of Salina. We had to stop at the local NAPA store in Salina to buy some nuts and bolts so that Bob could put his chain guard back on, then we were off again ascending to 7650' before descending to 6950' in the town of Koosharem. It was now close to 4:00 p.m., and we stopped for an early dinner at the Koosharem Cafe where we had everything that was on special - homemade chicken soup, a patty melt and apple pie ala mode. We decided to head back up into the mountains to try and find a cool spot to camp (it got to the mid-90's that day in Richfield - elevation 5,400'). We rode up to about 8,000' and stopped at a place called Milo's Kitchen, noteworthy for its official Forest Service outhouse and a bunch of cattle who seemed to enjoy watching us pitch our tent (a "5" person Eureka Timberline that hasn't owed me a thing for a long time). Miles for the day - 120.
Got up Tuesday morning, had a wonderful breakfast of instant oat meal and pineapple juice, packed up and rode a little ways up to the 10,000' level and stayed pretty much at that level for the next 35 miles before descending to 6,170' in Kingston Canyon where the trail intersects UT 62. We crossed the highway and got our first real taste of a true ATV trail, two parallel ruts separated by a mound of loose sand. The trail was setup to allow ATV's to get to the next "major" town, Circleville without having to ride out on the highway. The trail went for at least a mile or so up a dried up creek or wash and was just plain miserable going (particularly in the heat at this elevation) with our top-heavy clunkers. We finally turned around and headed back to take the highway into Circleville. Our ride this morning was 70+ miles. We gassed up in Circleville and decided to look for a motel. We rode north to a town called Maryvale on US 89, and checked out a block structure run and owned by a 90 year old lady who after we declined the room because it did not have a/c proceeded to recommend two or three other places we might like better. We ended up riding back on US 89 to the town of Junction where we went to the Junction Motel which also didn't have a/c. The owner of this motel informed us we wouldn't find any non-chain motel in the Sevier Valley with a/c because 99% of the time its not needed. The town of Junction doesn't have any cafes and only the one motel, but it did have an old fashioned general store where we went and bought some milk and Dinty Moore Stew along with some great homemade muffins. Went back to our motel suite (2 bedrooms 2 TV's, 2 fans, a bath, and a combination kitchen-living room-dining room all for $33/night) and made supper.
Next morning, Wednesday, we headed back up into the mountains to take the portion of main trail that goes from Circleville to the Fremont Indian State Park. This is the part of the trail with the highest elevation - 11,500' - and I think, the best scenery. I'm sure there were places where we could see well over a hundred miles in either/any direction. We went from forests to above the timberline, we saw hues of gray, tan and clay colors that sometimes changed from one color to another within five feet.
As you descend down to I-70, you come to an area where there are quite a few people camping along a creek with a nice amount of water running. It was tempting to stop there, but we decided to go about five miles further to a US Forest Campground (Castle Rock) that was closer to the next town. This campground was about a half mile southeast of I-70, quiet, also next to a creek with running water and in a little canyon where wind erosion had done a beautiful job of sculpting the cliff walls. The cost was $10, they wouldn't give me a discount for my Golden Age Passport, but what was included in the price of the tentsite was free admission to the Fremont Indian State Park and Museum. We dined elegantly that night on tortilla's and deviled ham with granola bars for dessert.
Next morning, Thursday, we were packed and over to the Museum by 9:00 a.m. This place is definitely worth a stop if you have any interest in prehistoric cultures. The Fremont Indians are so named because the first site was found along the Fremont River near Capital Reef National Park. Their structures and artifacts are different from those found at Anasazi sites to the south. The reason that this park is located here is that the largest known village (200 - 300 people, 100 structures) was discovered at this location during the construction of I-70 through Clear Creek Canyon in 1983. The museum, in addition to having utensils, pottery, woven baskets, and arrowheads recovered from the site; has a full scale cutaway model of a pithouse. Immediately behind the museum is a walking path (wheelchair accessible) that goes past various petroglyphs. There are other hiking trails within the park.
From our elevation of 5,800' at Fremont Indian Park we ascended to an elevation of a little over 8,000 feet before descending rather steeply for a time on the last leg of our loop back to Richfield. While the scenery was still good, it couldn't match the variety and views that we had yesterday. The steepness of the descent proved to be real challenging for Bob on the DR650. There is no question that the front brakes are better on the DR than on the KLR, but this being Bob's first extensive dirt riding on the DR (after owning a KLR for five years) he had trouble keeping the front brakes from locking up on the real steep, tight downhill sections - thus two dumps that day, ah well, they can't look good forever. I began thinking that there was some merit to the lousy front brakes on the KLR after all. We made it back to Richfield about 1:30 p.m. and made the shady park on Main St. our first stop. Rather than load up in the parking lot where our cars and trailers were stored, we walked over to pickup the cars, brought them back to the park where we could load in the shade. On the way out of town that p.m., we stopped at the Little Wonder Cafe and had their early bird special, soup, salad, and spaghetti w/meatballs - $4.49. And was it good!!! Of course, we had to puff up the bill by having apple cobbler and whipped cream.
Final thoughts. We could have easily ridden for four more days and never covered any of the same ground. We did ride about 350 miles the four days we were there. The people throughout the Sevier Valley were very friendly and genuinely concerned with whether or not we were having a good time. The scenery was nearly as good as the area up behind Marble, CO and I have never had longer views in so many directions at once. Neither one of the bikes seemed to be particularly effected by the altitude. Other than the chainguard falling off the DR650, no mechanical problems of any kind. We both got around 50 mpg. When I went to Moab traveling 70+ with my full load of camping gear I got 43 mpg.
Richard in Tucson
94 KLR650
86 VFR750