Day 1 Shafer Overlook to Airport Camp.

Shafer near the top

The alarm rang in our Moab motel room before 5:00 AM. In the heat of the summer season an early start is mandatory. With a quick breakfast and some predictably nasty motel room coffee, we are on our way to the trailhead. With minimal messing around we are on the bikes and start descending the Shafer road by 6:45, the sun is just rising. 

Shafer Road emerges from canyon

Having looked down on this road in prior visits to Canyonlands, I have an appreciation for the civil engineering marvel the road is. It drops over 1000 feet in 4 miles in a series of carefully crafted switchbacks. 

The road is (at least was on August 20, 2012) a well maintained dirt road of reasonable width for a full size pickup and with ample pullout areas to pass oncoming traffic should that be required. We saw no other vehicles in the hour it took us to descend. Great views, exciting riding make this a must ride.

One of many switchbacks

Brake lights were on a lot

Shafer joins the White Rim Trail at mile 4, the Potash road junction. Toilet facilities are located at this point for any required housekeeping that may be necessary after the descent....

Beer Oclock

 After Potash road junction the road mellows out to undulating along the Rim. Even time for refreshments....

For cyclists a pleasant spin, for a vehicle with a camper some issues with a few tilted spots. It was helpful for the driver to have a spotter on some of the trickier places.



A few miles along the Colorado River overlook is a spectacular viewpoint.
worthy of setting down the bike and wandering out to.

Colorado Overlook

Musselman Arch

Barb on Musselman Arch

About half way to Airport Camp you reach Mussleman Arch. This feature is well worth the short side-trip of a few hundred metres.

It's a cool arch about 60 metres long, 2m wide and with 100m of air beneath it... some folks apparently ride their bikes across it....? One of us had sufficient courage to walk across.


From the Arch it's about 8 miles to Airport Camp, mostly flat with one not insignificant climb/descent.





By 11:00 we are at Airport Camp, the temperature is 38C. The clouds that have been our savior for the last 4 hours have deserted us. Our driver is last to arrive, has found the bikes difficult to keep up with in the unpaved terrain. Who knew his job would be so demanding? Nevertheless he soon has a delicious snack of side ribs heated to restore the energy levels of the cyclists. Cold beer is extracted from the refrigerator to assist in hydration process.....

A sun tarp is setup but with lack of much other than the truck to stake to it is not a big success with the sporadic wind gusts. We note from the instructions that they do not recommend using in windy conditions? It is stuff stowed (which is apparently not the correct way to put something in a 'stuff sack' ) and it is not seen again.

The camp has a decent toilet facility that was maintained by Park staff while we were there, clean enough  to eat off the floor of if one was inclined... but prop the door with a rock, the heat is unbearable. There is little interest in side trips farther than the toilet, we relax and rest for day 2.