White Rim Trail
Canyonlands National Park, Utah

Tuesday April 24: Airport Camp to Gooseberry Camp

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Tuesday was a short day, with lots of time in the afternoon for lounging, hiking, or getting psyched for the long day on Wednesday. We got pretty well getting acclimated to the bikes and the trail surfaces sometime Tuesday, which made the riding as much fun as the views.

Someone asked us "is it like the Grand Canyon?", and we replied that it's a bit like being on the top of the Grand Canyon as you look to the left and the bottom of the Grand Canyon as you look to the right, though it's at a more human scale. The top at Island in the Sky is at about 6000', and the bottom of the Shafer switchbacks is about 47-4800'. From there we worked our way down to about 4000' at Mineral Bottom (then climbed 1000' to the top of the Mineral Bottom switchbacks). In between there were two big 500' climbs and descents, and the rest was rolling with occasional short steep hills. Absolutely fantastic!

Riding, often on the edge


Riding ...		... beside the cliffs

Frank and Laurie sometimes seemed to be having twice as much fun as the rest of us


Riding on the edge ...		... very close to the edge


... very, very close to the edge		Truck on the ledges


Resting		Washerwoman arch


Riding		Appreciating dual suspension

Looking down Buck Canyon

Flowers


Cactus (fishhook?)		Cactus - claret cup


(penstemmon?)		(phlox?)

Indian Paintbrush


Mormon tea		Evening (morning?) primrose

Hanging out in camp


Gooseberry camp		Jeff, Laurie, Frank checking out the guidebooks


Relaxing in camp		Jeff, Laurie, Frank, Anne exchanging notes over lunch

On to Wednesday's Photos!!

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