Colorado River Overlook Trail

Dogs No Dogs

E-Bikes Allowed

Features Views

This is a 4x4 road, so expect to share with Jeeps if you come at a busy time. Thankfully no other irritating OHVs are allowed in the park.

Given the unrelenting sun, a fair number of sandy stretches, and the fact that the trailhead is the Visitor Center in a National Park, it's probably best to save this ride for the off-season when the air is cooler, the ground is wetter and more compacted, and there are few/no people around: clear weather (with little or no snow on the ground) between Nov-Feb is perfect!

Bring everything you need, including plenty of gas, water and food. Services are limited (and expensive) out here.

There are few trails in the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park that a) allow bikes, and b) have little enough sand to be fun for mountain bikes. But this is one of them.

Though there are several stretches of sand in the first half of the ride, the entertainment value of the largely bedrock second half, along with the good views from the mesa top trail, not to mention the utterly remarkable views at the overlooks make it worth the trouble to push on through if you find the trail churned up.

Park at the Needles District Visitor Center and pedal out the dirt road. Return the way you came.

(On the return, about three miles from the end of the trail, you'll see a left fork going northeast. Maps show a jeep trail all the way to the highway east of the park entrance, and it might be tempting to make a loop out of it. HOWEVER, about 2 1/2 miles down, there is a gate and heavily grazed range land on the other side. The track may be nearly impassible due to cows churning up the ground and creating either loose sand or extremely uneven and unpleasant riding. NOT recommended.)

You'll enjoy views of Ekker and Elaterite Buttes in the Maze District, and the mesas of Islands-in-the-Sky District of Canyonlands on the way out; the Needles, Six Shooter Peaks, and Ute Mountain on the way back. At the end of the trail, you can scramble out to a point to look down into the Colorado River and the deep and narrow Salt Creek.

Leave your bike on the side of the road if you choose to (and you should) make the short hike out to the viewpoints in the area. Try to stay in washes or on rock to protect fragile soil crusts that are in surprisingly good shape here.