Thought I would share some pics from an area that I spent a week riding at.. Lots of great fun. Much cooler up at the higher elevation.
Click on the link below and enjoy the pics..

Joe's Valley Pics

 

Great pictures. Thanks for sharing.

I am looking for a good place to take my 19-year old son riding in late August. Arapeen looks like it has some nice trails. I have the trail map, but I have never been to the area. Can you recommend some of the trails that would be the most enjoyable for a 19-year old and his dad? We will both be on dirt bikes. We enjoy a mixture of trail types, but nothing too technical. And we enjoy stream crossings (if the weather is nice).

And if you have recommendations for motels or campgrounds in the area, that would be great too.

Thanks.

 

We usually stay the the Joe's Valley Campground. You can ride from the campsite. ( do not ride on the dirt around the campground, stay on the paved area.) Trail 5 is a very good loop, It is best run in a counter clockwise direction as you are looking on the map.. Enjoy and have fun..

 

Thanks for the quick reply. Are there other good rides from Joe's Valley Reservoir? We are planning on staying for 3 days.

 

Yes they are all good rides.. You said you have the Arapeen Map. Then look at it and you will find all the info you need. From camp, go up to skyline drive.. trail 1.... Go south and take any loop from there you want, they are all good. Around Ferron Reservoir, Duck Fork, or go to the west side toward the Manti area.. Very good rides.. Take your camera...

 

Sounds great!

I have been pooring over my map tonight, and entering some of the trails in my GPS mapping software. I am trying to get a sense for how much ground we can cover in 1/2 to 1 full day. I think our machines are good for about 80 miles on dirt roads. Our bodies are probably good for around 60 miles, unless the road is really smooth (and I don't want too much that is too smooth).

We will probably have time for two 1/2-day rides and one full-day ride, so I am trying to plan rides that will get us the best experience in that timeframe.

Thanks for your input. It has been very helpful.

 

For your full day, I would suggest you get up onto trail 1 ( Skyline Drive ), and head south to trail 3. Ride that area using trails 31, 32, 33, and 34 as you wish..
For the half day rides.. try trail 5, and 52. They are is great..
Also, If you have a clear day, Take a quick trip on trail 6 and go over to Overlook. What an awesome view...

Take pics, and share some when you get back...

 

We just got back from out trip to the Arapeen ATV area. I was a little disappointed - the trails were not as fun as I had hoped. The main roads were really easy (which my wife would like) but most of the intermediate trails were too rocky for my liking.

When we were almost finished I figured out that I hadn't read the map correctly. I assumed green meant easy and blue intermediate (like many maps). It turns out that green means an ATV trail (no jeeps) and blue means a jeep trail. The circle, square, or diamond around the trail number indicates the difficulty. This explains why so many green trails were not easy.

On our first day we did a 52 mile ride. We started near Spring City, rode up trail #4, south along the Skyline Drive (#1), and then rode trail #5 counter-clockwise. The ride down to Grassy Lake was very enjoyable. But the lower part of Reeder Canyon was pretty nasty. The round boulders in the stream were very tricky to cross on a dirt bike. And then it started to rain, and those clay trails get really slick when wet. It would have been much easier on an ATV.

On the second day we explored trails around Manti Canyon - parts of #3, #31, #32, and #33. These were mostly very rocky - and my son didn't enjoy them at all. Again, it would have been better on an ATV. There were also a few nasty stream/mud crossings that were very challenging on a bike.

On day three we opted to head out into the desert and explore the Cherry Creek area. We had had enough of the rocky mountain trails and daily afternoon thunderstorms.

But the sceneray was awesome! And I learned enough about the area to make my next visit more enjoyable. I now know enough about the trails and roads to plan an easy ride for my wife and younger kids.

Here are a few photos:

http://s33.photobucket.com/albums/d8...0Trails_Aug06/

 

It would be better if u take your son to Florida during spring season. I had been to Miami last year and it was a heart throbbing experience. So this is what I recommend.
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Bert

http://www.addictionrecovery.net/utah