By Charles Pekow
If you want to ride a mountain bike – you should feel glad if you live in the Mountain West area. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) recently developed a website showcasing the nation’s top 20 mountain bike areas. Nineteen lie in or west of the Rockies. (The 20th can be found in Northern Virginia.)
BLM developed the map (http://www.blm.gov/mountainbike/) in conjunction with the International Mounting Bicycling Association and the MTB Project. It doesn’t list the sites in any particular order of quality.
In Utah, the list includes Moab, Red Fleet & McCoy Flats, and Gooseberry Mesa & Hurricane Cliffs. “The possibilities are nearly endless in Moab with over 120 miles of single track trails mountain bike trails (sic),” the site reads. Idaho includes Croy Creek and Discovery Hill. “Discovery Hill has some exceptional singletrack riding opportunities only two miles north of downtown Salmon, ID and provides riders with smooth riding opportunities through rolling sage hills set against the equally stunning backdrops of the Continental Divide and Salmon River Valley,” says the site.
Five sites in Colorado make the list as does Johnny Behind the Rocks in Wyoming, Cottonwood Valley in Nevada and Black Canyon in Arizona. Each featured page includes maps, descriptions and other info you need to know when planning a trip.
BLM doesn’t pretend to list all the best sites, saying in a release that it has featured “20 of the nation’s most popular trails on public lands.”
