The Kokopelli Trail: A Short Section for a Daytrip

[roverrocks]

The Kokopelli Trail in Colorado and Utah covers about 140 miles of great desert scenery. All can be done by mountain bike and much by truck as well. On May 8 I did a short section of Kokopelli from Rabbit Valley, CO to just north of Westwater, Utah. About 25 miles including side trails to overlooks. Nothing tough just scenic with wildflowers and silence. The Colorado River was just to my south meandering through the canyons and desert vistas. In the Rabbit Valley area the river flows through Ruby Canyon and then just west of Westwater, Utah enters Westwater Canyon which is renowned for it's whitewater rafting. There is a lot of light purple in huge dense swaths of my pictures and that is the insidious invasive Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) which is maturing and turning purplish. It dominates the huge flats which were heavily overgrazed in the early days of ranching. This whole area of Rabbit Valley and eastern Utah is a mountain biker's paradise with many many miles of desert trails in addition to the Kokopelli Trail.

 

[roverrocks]

The kokopelli Trail: A Short Section For a Daytrip cont.

More pictures.

 

[roverrocks]

The Kokopelli Trail: A Short Section For a Daytrip cont.

More pictures.

 

[roverrocks]

The Kokopelli Trail: A Short Section For a Daytrip cont.

More pictures.

 

[roverrocks]

The Kokopelli Trail: A Short Section For a Daytrip cont.

More pictures.

 

[roverrocks]

The Kokopelli Trail: A Short Section For a Daytrip cont.

Last pictures. Got off the trails before any rains came. Not much came though in this increasingly dry spring.

 

[mph]

Some great shots there...Looks like you had perfect weather as well!

 

[roverrocks]

Some great shots there...Looks like you had perfect weather as well!

The weather was indeed very good with lots of interesting clouds scudding about. Quite a bit of wind made wildflower shots somewhat of an adventure.

 

[mph]

Wind? Gotta love it

 

[Toyman01]

Beautiful country. Thanks for sharing.

 

[fireball]

Doing a little research on the Kokopelli for an upcoming trip to Moab in March. Any idea what the conditions would be in March? This would make for a nice start of our trip back home (east).

Thanks!

 

[pmatusov]

I wanted to drive this trail long time ago. Do you have a map or gpx file?

 

[roverrocks]

The Latitude 40 Grand Junction/Fruita map, Latitude 40 Moab area maps, and the Trails Illustrated Moab East are good maps to have. Ask questions on expeditionutah.com for the best info. I have no gpx info. Traildamage.com will have lots of info and maps of various Kokopelli Trail subsections in Utah.

 

[roverrocks]

The Trails Illustrated Grand Junction/Fruita map has a nice map of the eastern 1/3 of the Kokopelli's Trail and various side trails From Rabbit Valley to a few miles west of the Westwater, Utah area.

 

[fireball]

@roverrocks - what are your thoughts on doing the trail from west to east in middle/end of March? We're planning on spending most of our time in Moab, but thought the Kokopelli might make a nice start for our trip east.

I'll check out the maps you mentioned, thanks for the recommendation!