In-Between Cedar Mesa & The San Juan River
Friday – Sunday, March 19-21, 2021
This bikepacking trip has been a long time coming for us. Over the past couple of years Diane and I have talked about and planned this bikepacking trip for the early spring but something has always come up or the weather didn’t cooperate with our plans. This year we were determined to finally make this trip happen, especially since we both got new mountain bikes that we like riding and Diane had biked the White Rim Trail for her birthday in October. Diane has been pretty busy with school since the beginning of the year, but she finally had a Friday off and wanted to get away for a three day weekend, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to go on our very first bikepacking trip together, and we were looking forward to it!
We left home on Friday morning and made our way to Cedar Mesa where I had hoped to buy an annual hiking pass and get in a little hiking. Unfortunately, not only could I not buy an annual pass in person (Even though you still need to pick up the permit in person or have it mailed to you, but that’s another story!), but muddy snow-covered roads prevented us from getting in the short hike I had hoped to do today. But no matter, we spent a relaxing evening in camp and got our bikes prepared for the following morning.
Getting my bike prepared for our first bikepacking trip.
Things may not have gone as planned today, but we still made time to visit a few small petroglyph panels along the way.
Duck Head
Even though Diane didn’t have school today, she still had to spend some time studying at camp.
It was a beautiful evening at camp just before sunset.
We woke up with the sunrise on Saturday morning, finished packing up our bikes and then started riding down an old road. We would stop and see a lot of petroglyphs throughout the day, but the further we rode the softer and sandier the road got. This route might have been better suited for a fat bike! Early in the ride both Diane and I went over the handlebars once each on downhill sections of the road and I scraped up my leg pretty good. Not only are we novice riders, but the additional weight on the handlebars made the bikes handle differently (especially on the soft road surface) and we were not used to it. Thankfully neither of us got injured too badly and we were able to carry on with the trip.
Diane rides ahead of me as we started our journey down the old road.
A shot of my outfitted bike at the beginning of our ride.
Footprints Boulder
Below the rim of Cedar Mesa.
Lone Sheep
Specialized Rockhopper
Specialized Stumpjumper
Diane stops to check out a panel of petroglyphs on this large boulder.
Here’s a closer look at the petroglyphs.
Can you find Diane riding below those massive boulders?
Atlatl Boulder
Three Sized Sheep
Along The Edge
Busy Panel
We stopped for a lunch break among these large boulders.
This large boulder was definitely a highlight of the trip for us. I know the scale is not conveyed in this photo very well, but the atlatls on the right side were taller than me, which makes them over 6’5″ tall!
Here’s a closer look at the main panel on this boulder.
The rest of the large boulder was covered with plenty of other atlatl petroglyphs, too! I’m not sure I’ve seen so many in one place before?
Atlatls & Birds
This other boulder nearby had some really nice petroglyphs on it, too.
These large spirals were very nice!
The Broken Boulder
A closer look at the petroglyphs at the bottom of the broken boulder.
This seemed like a good place to stop for the day and set up camp.
I had hoped to find water up this side canyon, as I had read there was a small spring located here, but no water was to be found today. We would have to ration the rest of our water for the ride back tomorrow. We would just barely have enough…
This was the last panel I visited before heading back to camp for the evening.
This anthropomorph that incorporates a natural feature of the rock as a belly button reminds me of the petroglyphs we visited last Thanksgiving weekend.
This was our original chosen campsite since the wind was supposed to die down with the sunset in the evening. Unfortunately, the wind stayed very strong and it even started to rain a little bit, so we made a last minute decision to re-locate camp further back along the road where we were able to find a little spot that were were able to stake down the tent next to a large boulder that blocked some of the wind and provided a little bit of shelter.
Dark clouds and light at sunset as we searched for a new sheltered campsite.
Moving camp after sunset turned out to be a really good decision since it stayed windy for most of the night and it rained on and off a few more times. Even though the large boulder we were camped next to didn’t provide as much reprieve from the wind as I had hoped, it was a much better spot than our original location that was wide open with no way to stake down the tent. Still, I don’t think either of us slept very well overnight because the wind was pretty loud even when it wasn’t striking our tent.
We got an early start on Sunday morning so we could make it back to the Jeep before it started to get warm out, especially since we were running low on water.
A morning view across the San Juan River canyon to Douglas Mesa.
Diane coming around a bend in the road.
Big Headdress
Almost back to the Jeep…
After this trip I’m not entirely sure that bikepacking is for us. I think that I would have preferred to have just hiked this route with a backpack and not have had to deal with the bike part, and I’m pretty sure Diane enjoyed her White Rim ride better since she had me in the Jeep for support and didn’t have to carry much gear on her bike or back. Maybe it’s because the old road was too sandy and soft, but perhaps we would have enjoyed it a bit more if the road surface were more hard-packed and easier to ride? Maybe we will still give that a try in the future? Still, I’m still glad we were finally able to give bikepacking a try, and we did see some amazing petroglyphs along the way!
Nice post. Interesting to see what’s up top as I have only seen the river area from the river.
Amazing glyphs. So old!! When we think of how old the Earth is, these photos remind us
of tortuous times to leave rock that jagged and rough. Just amazing territory. No wonder geologist love to go there, too. Thanks for the amazing share.
Although I have bikepacked in order to expedite access to fishing spots via logging or mining roads that were closed to vehicles, as a dedicated mountain biker I prefer to keep biking and camping separate. Loading up a bike with all that gear sucks the joy out of fast and fun travel on 2 wheels! Only my opinion of course, and the current popularity of bikepacking says that many would disagree. Your images show a loose surface with obvious tire tracks- you are correct that a harder surface would have made things much easier.
As always, I’m enjoying the latest dump of trip reports!