Cedar Mesa
We really enjoyed this trail. We had already done three trails and the autumn shadows were getting really long by the time we finished, but we liked the entire trip. We really like finding trails that are little-used and not well known, and this was definitely one of those trails.
It leaves the Muley Point trail on an unmarked road, and it was nice to be on an ungraded trail (many of the trails we did on the mesa are graded). The best part was probably the first half because it was along the ridge of the mesa and the views were amazing. We looked down on Johns Canyon and the trail we did down there, and we were all smiles.
Eventually, the trail turned away from the canyon's edge and we came to the first of at least six places where we could leave the trail early. We only needed to chat about it for a few seconds -- everyone was in it for the duration. We kept going past this and all of the other exits.
The trail was pretty mellow until we came to a fence and a place where cattle gather (though we didn't see any cows). It took some walking around to find the gates and the path through to the trail on the other side, but it all worked out. It definitely made things interesting.
After that, the trail went down and out of washes, up and around trees, and curved all over the place. The last few miles were really cool because of this. There were some places that made route finding a little challenging, but we didn't get lost or off track, which was good.
We took a long and wonderful 360-degree video of the trip, too.
Then, suddenly, we popped out onto the highway. What an awesome trail! The big concern was not doing the Moki Dugway in the dark, and we got off the trail early enough to be airing up at the bottom with a little bit of daylight left. What a great day of Utah wheeling!
