salt lake city 411?

[Climb01742]

in a few weeks, i'll be visiting salt lake city for a few days. i'll be staying downtown. is there good riding reasonably close to the city? any help very appreciated.

[chuckred]

The short answer is of course, yes!

I moved away in '95, so this is based on memory and you should get more current information...

The downtown itself is pretty flat and you can get to some of the closer canyons pretty easily - Immigration Canyon has a nice loop. Mill Creek Canyon is a beautiful climb and descent. Big and Little Cottonwood have a lot of traffic - but if you go early, can be nice.

Wasatch Crest trail (starts at top of Big Cottonwood, follows ridge line and comes down into Mill Creek) is spectacular mountain biking.

SNowbird, Park City and Deer Valley have great mountain biking as well... A ride to the top of the Tram at Snowbird is a nice way to earn some turns and brews when you get back down!

This isn't meant to be a definitive list, just a way to say, if you're going to have time to ride, you won't regret it!

[Serotta_Andrew]

in a few weeks, i'm headed to salt lake city. i'll be staying downtown. is there good riding reasonably close to the city? any help very appreciated.


Climb...ask "FATBOY" he works at one of our dealers in Salt Lake..Bingham's or give Contender a ring and ask for Ryan.

[Bittersweet]

I lived there for about three years on and off and left in '94. I go back at least once a year for a short bit. There is good road riding but I always thought the mtb was much better. The road riding is very different than riding in New England and while there is phenomenal climbing I don't like it as much because I always found it hard to put together a nice, low traffic loop. If you don't feel like climbing there is a lot of wide open windy riding on straight roads. A lot of out and back type of riding and every year there is more and more traffic. SLC has terrible sprawl and it can be a little annoying to get through. You'll appreciate the zoning laws of Concord once you live it. With the negatives stated, for a short trip the advice in the previous post stands. In downtown SLC pick a canyon to the east and start riding toward it: Little Cottonwood (finish of Tour of UT stage), Big Cottonwood, Mill Creek (Dave Z hit by car here), Immigration. Beautiful climbs out and back. A lot of super strong riders in SLC and if you stop by any store you'll get a lay of the land and a good route. Have fun, bring oxygen.

[SadieKate]

Greg Bromka has a brand new book out just on SLC. My friend particularly likes climbing City Creek.

http://www.amazon.com/Bicycling-Salt-Lake-City-Mountain/dp/0762740965

Be sure to check because some of the canyons are now closed to cars or bikes or whatever every other day. I wouldn't want to state specifics because I'm sure to get it wrong not living there.

[flydhest]

Biking in SLC is great. Read what others have said and enjoy. I had a great ride up Little Cottonwood years ago, although it did hurt 'cause it was my first time riding in real mountains.

slightly OT: anybody seen the movie SLC Punk?

[Lincoln]

PM sent.

I have only seen bit of SLC Punk, but I'm looking forward to this (check out the trailer): Pirates of The Great Salt Lake (http://www.piratesofthegreatsaltlake.com/)

[Bittersweet]

The ultimate SLC film treasure: Rubin & Ed.

While my post sounds negative, be clear that I have a love affair with SLC and think it is a great spot. So much of Boulder but everything is closer and the mountains get a ton more snow. I whine about the change but contemplate moving back all the time.

[JohnS]

Watch out for the guys on mtbs wearing white shirts. I hear they can be kinda wild... :D

[michael white]

I went to grad school there.

Riding in SLC is excellent, both road and mtn. City Creek is a must, as is Emigration, those are the two main routes for most cyclists around downtown and the U. In other words, it's mostly up or down. You can also go out to the Salt Lake, which is a neat ride, or up north toward Ogden. Some riders loop out west on the other side of the valley. The Cottonwood canyons are challenging. MillCreek is idyllic, but like most of the other canyons, I'd plan your ride time fairly carefully. It has been a few years since I was there. I miss it.

[FATBOY]

Fire me a PM to let me know what you are looking to do and I can get you started in the right directions. Most of the trails within easy reach of town are dry and in prime condition and the roads are in their usual state of repair. Dining recommendations etc... available upon request :beer:

[rounder]

I worked on a job there a few years ago. Salt Lake City is just a nice small city which by itself did not look that great for riding bikes. But SLC is at the base of the Wasatch mountains (about 14,000 ft elevation) and Park City is about 30 miles away. I drove up to Park City several times (it was beautiful there) and saw people riding road bikes...it looked fun but challenging because you were either going uphill or downhill. Dave Zabrisky from team CSC is from there I believe. Right in the town of Park City was a chair lift that went up the mountain and had hooks on the backs of the chairs that people were loading their mountain bikes on. They would get up to the top and then ride down the trails. From what i saw it looked like intermediate++...fun but not dangerous. Plus...some of the shops there rent bikes. Even if you don't ride your bike there, Park City is worth checking out. Itsa cool town and the winter olympic team still practices there. Oh yeah...the people in both SLC and PC were friendly and great.