G U I D E
Do it
Recreational vehicles seem tailor-made for kick-ass pandemic adventures. You can drive a rig to a choice wilderness spot, roll right out the front door to a wild time—then come back and socially distance in style with a cold beer and hot shower. Here are five ideas for high-octane RV-oriented escapes. Words DAVE HOWARD
MOUNTAIN BIKING HURRICANE, UTAH
Set on the fringes of Zion National Park, just two hours from Vegas, the region that encompasses Hurricane, Virgin and St. George (and is home to Red Bull Rampage) features classic high-desert singletrack. RV options range from the civilized (the Temple
Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks have stellar hiking and climbing.
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View RV Resort in St. George has a pool and Wi-Fi, and Red Rock Canyon State Park serves up hot showers) to the fully self-contained (that is, bring your own water—but it’s free). For the latter, pull your rig into one of the many spots along SR 9 or Sheep Bridge Road on the way to Zion or the BLM’s Hurricane Cliffs
Recreation Area, which is a launching point for 36 miles of singletrack. Once set up there, you’ll be in the shadows of a can’t-miss experience: the world-class Gooseberry Mesa Trail, a flowy, up-and-down 13-mile loop with outrageous overlooks. Also nearby: the JEM Trail, an out-and-back that can be combined with
Goulds Rim or the Hurricane Rim Trail to form 20-plus-mile loops. When you set off on a rim above the Virgin River, with Zion looming as an epic backdrop, you’ll have no doubt that you’ve arrived at mountain biking’s promised land. Rent a bike at Over the Edge Sports in Hurricane.
CLIMBING SEQUOIA & KINGS CANYON NATIONAL PARK
It’s hard to be here and not want to climb something. Everything is so oversized— the namesake trees, the Tehipite Dome (the largest in the Sierra) and so on—that you feel like you’re in a giant’s playground. And while Yosemite (justifiably) gets all the headlines, in SEKI you’ll find huge granite faces without the masses on the walls. By one count there are 365 established climbs there, touching all skill levels, nearly half of which are trad and slightly more than a quarter of which are bouldering problems. This being national parkland, larger RVs are banned from parts of the sinewy roads, so the best option is to set up base camp at the Dorst or Lodgepole campground and hop on the Sequoia Shuttle, which will deliver you to the walls, or the trailheads that take you to them. Quickest access point: Moro Rock, a granite dome whose west face serves up 1,000 vertical feet of fissures and knobby holds festooned with a variety of routes. Up top, there are vistas of the entire Great Western Divide, the range that forms part of the border between Kings Canyon and Sequoia.
THE RED BULLETIN
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ROLLING BASE CAMP
