Trip Report: Gravel Bike/Mountain Bike - St. George
|
Gravel Bike/Mountain Bike - St. George By Craig* Williams |
||
| BIKE | 01/23/2026 | MOD |
| An intriguing wmc-bike email sent by Frank Bouchard (WMC Hiking Co-Director) hit my inbox in early January, indicating he was going to organize a ride in the St George area later in the month. Frank said he wanted to do a gravel ride from Leeds, Utah (the Southern Utah Silver Reef Mining District where 10 Million Dollars of silver was extracted from the Springdale Sandstone formation, the only sandstone silver strike in the USA) through the Pineview Mountain & Cottonwood Canyon Wilderness, which overlook the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area (RCNCA). With the newly 'Re-Approved' Northern Corridor (NC) 4 lane bypass highway to run through the RCNCA, I wanted a 1st hand look. Let me bring you up to date. IF this Northern Corridor (NC) was NOT going to be built, then SITLA (School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, created upon Utah Statehood to provide land to be sold to pay for schools & miners hospitals & other socially beneficial programs) who owns 7000 acres of land in Zone 6 west of St George (home to the iconic Zen Mountain Bike Trails, iconic Moe's Valley climbing area, 900+ desert tortoises and 17,000 Dwarf Bear Claw Poppies (DBCP)) would be sold to developers. Unfortunately, 'SITLA' does not give a 'SITLA' about conservation or preservation!!! WHAT you say? Allow this NC through the RCNCA? You can't be serious!! Oh, but I am!! The NC would only be 5 miles long, only 150-200 acres of land needed, the 30-40 desert tortoises residing there would be relocated away from the highway, fencing would be provided to keep them from migrating back onto the road, no DBCP's are even there, and no red cliffs would be bulldozed (as my photo album shows). A 3rd grader can do the math and deduce that the NC for Zone 6 tradeoff is a win-win for conservation and preservation and that the conservation groups SUWA (Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance) and CSU (Conserve Southwest Utah) who I have always been in support of in the past, have it wrong this time. Craig Williams WMC Biking Director |
||
| View Photo Album |
||