Checking out Panaca's Multi-Use Trail

Snake Valley Trail Partnership is working on developing more trails, including a paved one-mile long multi-use trail in Baker, Nevada.  To learn more about this type of trail, I visited the two-mile long paved multi-use trail near Panaca, Nevada. It starts at the entrance to Cathedral Gorge State Park (above).

Here's the view looking north towards the state park. Folks reaching this part of the trail can then enter the state park and get to the visitor center easily.

Continuing south, the wide trail veers closer to Highway 93 to cross a culvert.

Here's a closer look at their culvert extension.

A Pedestrian crossing sign announces that the trail crosses the highway. It's a 45 mph zone here.

The multi-use trail has stop signs for the users.

Then the trail continues on the other side, getting close to the highway again for another culvert crossing. 

At about the one-mile mark, it reaches the intersection of Nevada Highway 319 and US Highway 93. The pedestrian crossing marks have mostly worn off on NV Highway 319. This trail was put in about 10 years ago.


Here's a view of the trail along Highway 319 looking west towards the intersection and the gas station that's on the other side. For this culvert, they were instructed to do a dip, so when the Panaca spring is drained, this portion of the trail is inundated.

Continuing east along Highway 93, the trail is often far from the highway, but gets closer for another culvert crossing.

I called one of the trail sponsors to learn more about how it came about and how they maintain it. He said they had gotten a grant with an 80:20 match. They had had no problem raising the match. It had cost about the same as our one-mile paved project, in the $700,000 range. They had done nothing to maintain it except sweeping gravel off it and spraying weeds along it.

As I went along the trail, I found that there were sections with some gravel on it, but otherwise it looked great.

The most damage was where this driveway crossed it and it looked like something heavy had been dragged across.


My liaison also mentioned how it got used frequently. I'm certain ours would be also, especially by kids who want a place to rollerblade or bike ride, and those who want to go on a stroll and not worry about dodging traffic.

Hopefully we'll be able to get started on the Baker Multi-Use Trail soon and have a success story like Panaca!

More Fun Things To Do in St. George

 We love going to St. George, Utah. It's warmer, which in the winter is great! We went down on Christmas Day and took our bikes to ride on their amazing city bike trail system. The kids suggested where to go--to the "Physics Park," their nickname for the more commonly known as Cottonwood Cove Park. The playground has a bunch of unique features we haven't seen in any other playgrounds, and many of them use physics to make them work (like in the photo above).

It was about 4.5-mile ride each way, easy-peasy on a nice bike trail. Except that it started to drizzle. And then rain. And we got soaked through. The kids didn't care, but I got pretty cold. Fortunately my husband had packed an extra jacket. The kids played for awhile and then we headed back to where we were staying.

The next day we explored some more urban bike trails, this time in nearby Washington, UT. Somehow I forgot my phone, so didn't get any photos.

Later we went to the Washington Aquatic Center. For some reason it was almost empty. The big water slide was great and we had a good time.

Also in the same building was a climbing wall, which we could do at no additional cost. Since we wanted to do some real rock climbing in a few days, I figured this would be a great warmup. Off they went! There were easy and more difficult routes.

On the way out, we noticed this bulletin board. It really got the kids' attention. "How much sugar are you drinking?" Even the fruit juices and smoothies have more sugar than you might think, and since they're pasteurized, not so many of the nutrients.

We don't have a tennis court anymore in our small community, but I thought the kids might enjoy this activity. We bought some fresh tennis balls (the one we found in our yard wasn't so bouncy!), took our thrift-store tennis rackets, and went to a nearby court. We were terrible, but it was a lot of fun.


My brother Ed was with us and he loves to mountain bike. We wanted to ride Gooseberry Mesa, but found it too cold. So we headed back down in elevation and found some nice trails by Quail Creek State Park.  I learned that Desert Boy is like his dad and makes singletrack look easy. I tried to keep up.

The next day we had a permit for Bloomington Cave, a gated cave near St. George. But due to the government shutdown, we couldn't pick up the permit and get the gate code. 

So Plan B was to go rock climbing. We bought a climbing guide book by Todd Goss at the Desert Rat and went to Green Valley Gap. It took us a little time, but we eventually found the very easy 5.3 (Brazilian Ninja) and 5.4 (Texas Jug) climbs I wanted the kids to start on (they're not on the website, but are in the guidebook). Those are super easy and helped them gain confidence.

Then we proceeded to nearby 5.6 (The Offering) and 5.7 (Hairy Virgin) climbs. The kids did well on those, too. My brother and I enjoyed them as well, dusting off some rusty climbing skills. I used to do this a lot more and would like to get back into it.

Then it was off to the Santa Clara Aquatic Center for more swimming. While I was with the kids, Ed discovered the newly created Sand Hollow Bicycle Skills Park out back. We went to take a look, and even though the sun had already set, we couldn't resist riding some more! This was built starting in May 2018.

The bike park was amazing, with a variety of obstacles, hills, and curves. We all loved it.

We still haven't gotten through our original list of things to do in St. George and are already adding more. Hopefully this gives you a few ideas if you're heading in that direction!

More Cowbell Bike Trail near Hurricane, Utah

 Fall break in October involved a dentist visit and getting the SUV serviced, but we managed to mix some fun in. While Desert Boy ended up sick and staying home with dad, Desert Girl and I headed to sunny St. George. While the vehicle was being checked, we biked over to Thunder Junction All Abilities Park. This is a newer park and so much fun! First we had to take the train ride, which costs a whopping $1 per person. Desert Girl really wanted to sit in the back, and since we were there on a weekday, there were plenty of open spots.

Then it was on to playing in the water and almost getting eaten by a dinosaur.

The next day we were off to try some mountain biking. I had done some research and found an easy trail recommended: the More Cowbell Trail near Hurricane, Utah. It's in the Gooseberry Mesa-Hurricane Cliffs area, which is gaining more attention as a great mountain biking destination.

We started off and then I got confused by the trails, so we went back and I took a photo of the map at the trail head. We had to start off on the Dead Ringer trail and then we'd take the More Cowbell loop.

The loop was about 2.5 miles. Desert Girl was a bit hesitant, but I knew she could do it. We were closer to the edge than this near the beginning, but she made it through just fine.

Then we got into a nice groove. We had great views and could see part of the loop trail down below us.

We had one rocky section where we got off our bikes, but then we were back on. We took a couple breaks, including at this "bench."

It was such a beautiful day to be out!

Good times!

We kept riding the nice, flowing trail. We could see the highway for part of it, and long sweeping views in other directions.

Near the end of the loop there's a cowbell, and Desert Girl was delighted to ring it!

Then we followed the Dead Ringer trail back. Here's the trail junction where we originally took off for the More Cowbell trail.

I had Desert Girl lead so she could start learning how to read the terrain. We had one more section where we got off, but otherwise we rode the whole trail.

Desert Girl was so proud of herself for riding over her first rock. She really was quite a beginner, and this trail was great for her. We're hoping we can do some more mountain biking and increase her confidence. And enjoy more beautiful times outside!

A Bike Riding Adventure

 We haven't traveled much this spring break. When I proposed to the kids that I could take them to Cedar City for the afternoon and the next day go skiing, they said no. (In a few years, they might wonder about passing up a paid ski trip!). So I went out for a run, and when I came back, they had a plan. They wanted to bike alone to Ely.

"We've figured it out by math, Mom," said Desert Boy. He explained that if they left by 8:30 in the morning, they should arrive by 8:30 at night, covering the 64 miles. That's because they could ride 16 miles for the Wheel-a-thon (a school fundraiser) in three hours. I was impressed, they were actually doing some logical thinking. They might have left out going over two mountain passes, but they did have headlamps packed and blinky lights for the bikes, front and back.

So I said what any good mom would say. "Okay, you can go, but I'm going to go with you." They were surprised by that. And then I made them reduce the weight in their backpacks. We didn't really need a hatchet. Or a book for reading. Or two changes of clothes. Or sand from the broken snow globe. But they had water and food.

We put on sunscreen and saddled up and started out of town.

Desert Girl wasn't as convinced that riding for 12 hours was that great of an idea. "Why don't we go to the Border Inn instead?"

Desert Boy resisted. I told them we could wait until we got to the cutoff road to decide. And less than two miles later, when we got to the cutoff road, we were all unanimous. The Border Inn would be our destination.

We turned and enjoyed a delightful downhill. Desert Girl rang her bell, honked her horn, and sang. We kept an eye out for burrowing owls and kit foxes. We didn't see any, but the clouds were beautiful. We were under a wind advisory for later in the day, so the clouds moved fast.

We took a break, and the kids still had smiles.

Then it was onto the highway.

Even the highways out here have cattle guards.

I was very nervous about them riding on the highway with a speed limit of 70 and no shoulders. Fortunately there was very little traffic, and everyone that passed us moved into the other lane.

A strong tail wind propelled us to the Border Inn quickly.

Desert Girl rode to the Utah sign. We rode to another state!

Just past it was the "Next Services 83 miles" sign. Desert Girl mimicked a reaction. It might not have been too bad a ride with the tail wind. But we were ready for a break.

So we went inside and had brunch. Yum!

We took the back way to return home. This time we had to bike into the wind.

Desert Girl was not happy. Tears were shed.

We had a long break at the Stop sign. It's the beginning of the runway and also marks the ranch property boundary.

After more tears and more wind, we made it home. It was a good 3.5-hour adventure. I was so glad the kids had decided to do something outside.

And Desert Boy already has his alarm set to go do more bike training tomorrow morning.