Tales of a Travelling Trail Runner: Moab

by Rhielle Widders

With recent travels outside of the Wasatch Front/Back, I am excited to bring you a new series of blog posts all about trail running while traveling.    The Travelling Trail Runner series promises to be an exciting and scenic adventure for you to follow whether you are on the road or on the couch.   We all go out of town for work or play, why not take our favorite hobbies on the road with us and create a memorable experience while on the road?

This time, The Travelling Trail Runner visits Moab, UT.  I was recently there for work and stopped into the Moab Cyclery for a little chat with one of the owners.  While we were chatting, he found out I was a trail runner and introduced me to a couple of the girls that work in the shop that are also trail runners.  I asked Stacy for a recommendation of a placed to run that afternoon.  I wanted about 6 miles at a medium challenge level.

She recommended the Amasa Back/Jackson loop.  We talked for a while about some other trails that were in and around town (more to come on those soon) and she mentioned that Gear Heads, the shop across the parking lot, was a great trail running resource for the next time I was in town.

I love loop courses because you see new things for the entire run.   This loop starts on the Amasa Back Jeep Trail.  To get there, I drove all the way to the end of Kane Creek Road.  When it turns to dirt there is a parking lot for over flow but because I was there so early in the season I went  just a bit farther and came to a large dirt parking lot.  I knew I was in the right place because the Jackson trail (the trail I would be returning on entered the parking lot through a break in the fencing).  I filled up my pack with my favorite snack and plenty of water (I love adding these electrolytes to it!) because I heard the entire trail is fully exposed.

I started up the dirt road and enjoyed the only shade I would encounter for the next 6 miles provided, with courtesy, by the sheer cliff walls on one side of the road.  At about 1.25 miles, I turned right and followed the sign for Amasa Back.  This is where I ran into a few Jeeps but they were courteous to me and let me pass without too much trouble.  After a small, technical descent, I crossed over the stream (in the Spring and early Summer) and then started the climb.  The view changes completely as I climbed up to the plateau top.  I stopped at the top and enjoyed the background of the La Sal Mountains contrasted against the red rock cliffs.

Once I reached the top of the plateau and had a look around, I started to circle around to a new valley.  Here there is a beautiful view of the Colorado River and the distant mountains.  In the Spring, the view includes some beautiful green.  I crossed over the pipeline and then took the second right onto Jackson trail where I descended along the Colorado River back into the valley.  This is a technical descent and I had to make sure that I was staying alert and paying attention to where I stepped so that I didn’t twist and ankle or land on a loose rock.  The key to doing this is to push off the high points on the trail instead of jumping or leaping over them.  I am proud say that by the end I felt like my descending legs were back under me.  I was able to bounce on and over things with lightness and ease.

At the bottom of the canyon, the Colorado backs up into the mouth of the stream and it is too deep to cross.  I was warned about this so I new to traverse along the base of the canyon wall back up the stream where there is a place that is much easier to cross and I hopped right over the stream there.  However, this adds about .5 miles onto the distance of the run so be prepared for a little extra distance until mid-June.

Even in late March, my car was a welcome sight for water.  With taking pictures and a little stop-and-go for sight-seeing, I did this run in just about 1:10.  I ran into some mountain bikers walking their bikes down the decent and that held me up for a few minutes.  I would imagine that as the trail gets busier and the tourists start to pour in, this could be a bigger problem and may cause some delays.

Overall, I would rate this 6.5 mile loop as a 6 for difficulty, an 8 for scenery, and an 8 for ease of getting to/from the trail head.  It was a great run on a late March afternoon!