Ebikes Allowed in Canyonlands National Park

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levity

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Until recently Canyonlands did not allow ebikes, even on dirt roads where cars, trucks, motorcycles and bicycles were allowed. That’s now changed! Since we were in the area I called the Park yesterday and was told that ebikes are now fine. Mrs levity and I took advantage of the new regulations for a short run down the Shafer Trail and out the White Rim to Lathrop Canyon.

ebike in Canyonlands National Park.jpg


The iconic White Rim Trail is about it in the Island in the Sky District, but there are lots of other interesting routes in the Needles and Maze Districts. Have fun!
 
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Most wonderful News, Now us physically challenged people can enjoy a greater detailed visit to our lands,
 
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A good news press release! Spoke with the head Ranger, and he and other Rangers and staff are also happy as they have ebikes as well as regular bike and many use their ebikes to commute to work.

ebike allowed in southeast utah national parks.jpg
 
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Thanks for finding this. Theoretically, today is the deadline for Dept. of the Interior units to comply with the ebike order or give reasons why they are not going to allow ebikes. I'll have to hunt around and see if there is any news on the BLM trails around Moab.
 
Heading there in 2 weeks! Guess I am bringing the Levo along with the acoustics this time.
 
Keep in mind that this news release only applies to Arches and Canyonlands, and you'll need a permit for White Rim or Elephant Hill, which are the two in Canyonlands you are most likely to want to ride. You *can* ride a small section of White Rim without a permit. It is all very confusing.

In Arches, there is loop I'd like to do. Park on Willow Springs Road near 191, ride Willow Springs into the Park almost to Balanced Rock, then take the a 4x4 road from there to Tower Arch. From Tower Arch you connect to the Salt Valley road and head north to the east side of the Klondike Bluff, then up and over the ridge heading west to the Klondike Bluff Trail down to the trailhead. South from the Klondike trailhead to Sovereign, up and over that trail (gnarly fun), and then just a short dirt road ride back to the vehicle. No permits required for this (Park entry fee *is* required), and the "original" Klondike Trail and Sovereign are already open to ebikes. The Arches 4x4 road was the missing link.

Plus sized tires recommended because of the sand on Willow Springs and the Arches 4x4 road. Also, there are deep and fast washes certain times of the year that you would not want to risk.
 
Yep. Love these trails, and tower arch is the quietest part of Arches. I am thinking: Stay or camp at or near Dead Horse Point. Bike to Canyonland, down shaffer, White rim to nathrop (if day passes are available of course), return through Potash, up Long's Canyon. I should be able to do all of it on Eco, and save the battery for the climb through Long's.
 
The eMTB opens up a lot of cool rides that MTB riders consider uncool these days becasue of length and lack of singletrack. Back in the Dark Ages Long Canyon/Jughandle were consider to be good places to ride. They still are. Another great eMTB ride that used to be an MTB classic is Hurrah Pass to Chicken Corners and/or Jackson's Hole. Not sure I want to shoulder the ebike up out of the hole on the Jackson's Ladder to the top of Amasa Back though! You hardly ever see anyone doing that ride anymore, but it actually used to be used as an epic race course. Imagine racing full speed to the finish line down the Amasa Back jeep road on a hardtail with cantilever brakes and a fork with 70mm of travel, after riding 20 miles of tough dirt road and shouldering your bike up a 700 foot vertical "trail" that is basically a bunch of rocks clinging to the side of a cliff. That was brutal, I think my hands still hurt from that.

I really hope BLM gets it together soon and opens the singletrack to ebikes though. Also, Moab needs to pull their head out and allow ebikes on the paved path along 191.

If all of Porcupine Rim/LPS/UPS are opened to ebikes, it will be awesome. That grind up the road to the trailheads, and the five miles back to town, are not that fun on the non-ebike. It would be great to not have to shuttle up to the trailheads. I'll have to look to see if Jimmy Keen is on BLM or NFS. We may have to use the lower trailheads until there is a breakthrough on the National Forest trails. And again, Moab needs to pull their heads out once ebikes can ride Porcupine Rim and open the 128 river paved path to ebikes, or we'll have bikes on 128 again, which is the reason the paved path is there in the first place.
 
Another BLM area I'd love to ride on emtb: The San Rafael swell. There are tons of single track, old jeep\atv trails in these parts.
 
I rode the Five Miles of Hell on my MTB once. Well, I didn't really ride it as much as I walked it! There is already a ton of singletrack in the Swell that is open to eMTB, because it is also open to motorcycles. Also, there is singletrack at Goblin Valley State Park that is open to ebikes.
 
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