Green River

     After three days at Curt Gowdy, we headed further west in Wyoming. Our first stop was just outside of Laramie in Centennial, WY at the start of the Snowy Range Scenic Byway. I pulled out the road bike for the first time this trip and headed up to Snowy Range Pass. It was 12 miles uphill to Snowy Range Pass, which sits at an elevation of 10,847 ft. It was the highest I had ever climbed on a bike. The climb was not difficult as far as gradient, but I did feel the altitude for the first time this trip. It was steady all the way up, gaining almost 3,000 ft in elevation from bottom to top.

Starting the climb up the Snowy Range Scenic Byway

Mountain stream

Still going up

Nearing the top

     The top had some nice views. I bundled up for the following descent as it was chilly coming up the east side. The west side was much warmer though and had a killer headwind that kept me from fully enjoying the downhill. I hopped in the car at the bottom and we continued driving west toward Green River.

At the top

View from Snowy Range Pass looking toward Laramie

Descending

     Our camping spot for the night would be in Rock Springs at the KOA Campground. We stopped by long enough to drop my parents' trailer, then drove 10 miles down the road to Green River to check out their bike park for an afternoon skills session. My Dad was being a bit of a whiner and spent his afternoon on the greenway, while Shannon and I had fun in the park. It had a little bit of everything. There were multiple dirt jump lines, wooden drops, skinnies and even a pump track. A lot of the park needed some TLC, but we still had plenty of fun.

One view from the bike park

Another view from the bike park looking down the Green River

Lots of wood

Me about to drop in

Me on the "North Shore" section of the park

     I enjoyed the dirt jumps more than anything. Shannon even rode some of them. There were also some big drops that kept me on my toes. We stayed until sunset, then stopped by Pizza Hut for our first junk food outing of the week.

Me on the dirt jumps

Shannon on the jumps

Shannon drops in

One-hander into the sunset

Evening shadows on the Green River

     The next morning, we hit Green River's local trail system the Wilkins Peak Trails. I have heard it advertised as being comparable to Moab. It is not quite as rocky or scenic as Moab, but you get a lot of the same desert landscape and similar "dirt." I had a good time seeing something different. It's not a place I would want to ride all the time, but I would never hesitate to stop by again when passing through. I enjoyed some of the more advanced trails as they had numerous well-built jumps and drops off rock ledges. The TNT trail was a blast, but I would need to ride it about 20 more times to take all the possible options on the descent.

Nomojo trail ran next to several deep canyons

Brent & Mike's Trail

The trail managed to wind through the few trees that were to be found in this area

     I wanted to climb all the way up the ridge to see if I could see Rock Springs. At one of the overlooks we found a doubletrack climb going straight up the bluff. I was able to ride about half of it and pushed the rest, finally making it to the top after 25 hard minutes. Yep, you could see Rock Springs...and more. The descent back down was awesome! I felt like one of the downhill Pros that helibikes in the mountains. The doubletrack brought me down the ridge at high speeds with many drops and fun corners. What took 25 minutes to go up took about one minute to come down. But boy was it a great minute!

Overlook off Brent & Mike's Trail

That dot is me finally making it to the top

View from atop the ridge looking toward Rock Springs

The top of the ridge also gave you a good view of the Green River

That doubletrack is my way down

Flying off the ridge!

Just landed a small drop on Brent & Mike's

A big animal track on TNT. It's likely a coyote or gray wolf track.

I cruised the easier trails at the end along the river

Green River from the Channel Surfing trail

     Below is a short video of us riding the Green River Bike Park.

Video: Riding the Green River Bike Park

     After another long mountain bike ride, this time in the warm desert, we hit the road for Utah. Family and more epic rides awaited. My parents split off from us here, taking a few days to explore the Flaming Gorge in northern Utah before joining us here in West Jordan.