Porters Rockwell’s Ranch for many is a popular spot to take a break and take some pictures after hours of riding the sandy trails near the Little Sahara Recreation Area. Porter Rockwell’s Ranch is located west of the Little Sahara Sand Dunes in an area known as Cherry Creek. The ranch is Private Property but the surrounding area is state and BLM land including the Rockwell Wilderness Study Area directly to the East. Evidence of an old way of life is still present on the ranch. Rotted wood that was once a fence or part of a structure litter much of the property. Still standing is an old house, balanced on three of the four corners of the foundation. The house is severely deteriorated and unsafe but most of us can’t help ourselves to a self-guided tour through the home.
 
     Although many people that visit the house refer to it as Porters Cabin, his actual cabin was moved to Eureka many years ago. Porter’s cabin has been restored and is on display right off Highway 6 in the middle of town. Rockwell died in late 1870’s and it’s unknown if Porter actually stayed in the cabin. It’s believed that he had it build as a retreat or an escape. The old house on the ranch was built in the early 1900’s; twenty or so years after Rockwell died.
 
     The one hundred year old neglected structure is about to collapse into itself. Mother Nature has taken its toll. It must have been a difficult yet interesting life on the ranch. The creek has since been diverted and anything once living is now decomposing and covered with tumbleweed. The ranch itself probably has volumes of history yet very little is known.  

Finally the unpredictable spring Utah weather has just about passed and we were able to ride several days in Cherry Creek (amongst everyone else). It was plenty warm and dusty but rode trails on the outskirts of the main riding areas. The weather was fantastic although slightly breezy.

One of the evenings we hooked up the MegaLights to just about every dirt bike and rode a good hour and a half in the dark. It's an absolute different experience and so much fun. We didn't see another bike on the trails which was awesome for us. One of us didn't have a full charge on the battery pack (I won't mention who that was) and had to ride back with out a light. It was really no big deal since everyone else had charged their battery packs and their lights gave an abundance of light.

What a great spring ride we had. Never have we burned through so much pre-mix in a single weekend. We gathered more GPS data and over had tons of fun. Thanks for reading.

We finally justified a trip to St. George and rode Warner Valley. We got some rain but it didn't stop us from riding anything we wouldn't normally ride. In fact the dirt / sand was perfect. We were able to ride the slick rock and sand dunes plus quite a few trails into Arizona. 

With this being the first real ride since November I came home sore and tired. It's not a bad drive down there either. With very few places to ride up north this time of year its about the only option. 

By now most people I know that ride dirt bikes have made at least one trip to St. George to ride. That's at least a two day trip and I haven't been able to make time. Plus St. George unusually got hammered this year with snow. Tired of rechecking every bolt on my dirt bike in anticipation for spring I found something similar to stay motivated through winter. Ever heard of RAD Canyon BMX? I wish I had learned of it two months ago. Normally when I hear BMX I think of my youth setting up small ramps with my brothers in the street using bricks and old plywood. After learning about Rad Canyon BMX my view on BMX suddenly changed. 

RAD Canyon has one outdoor and 2 indoor BMX race tracks. I commandeered my sons BMX bikes (while they were catching their breath) and made several runs myself. It turns out this is way more fun than I had imagined. I seriously would have been riding this all winter had I know about it. It's not dirt bike riding as we all know it but this is an inexpensive rush during the winter months and a way to stay in shape. It was a ton of fun and I recommend it to everyone. If you hate winter as much as I do then this worth looking into.

The last big snow storm we pulled the dirt bikes out of the trailer, threw the sleds in and headed to the Little Sahara Sand Dunes... Sand Mountain. There was about 5 to 6 inches of snow on the sand dunes which made for a rare opportunity. We quickly found that Sand Mountain itself is way too steep for this kind of activity. So we loaded the side by sides and headed to the west. We found the perfect runs where we could go about a 3rd of a mile in distance. This is where the Atv's came in handy. The walk to the top would have been miserable with out them. This winter really hasn't been that cold but this kind of activity makes spring come a little quicker. 

Is winter coming this year? It's the last day of November and it's jacket weather. Snow is in the forecast for next week however. It was a little brisk in the morning but I knew it was going to warm up. Just can't ask for better motorcycle riding weather. 

We parked at the ranch and took a little trail that followed the wash (Tanner wash) north. As usual we played in the wash and climbed hills. We took random trails trying to get as far east as possible then circling to the west in an attempt to get about 20 miles of dirt bike riding in. We made good time and ended up riding 21 miles.

More information on the Jericho riding area

I went to a pretty cool riding area near Woodside (ghost town) Utah. It's maybe about 20 minutes south of Price Utah. I guess the riding area is called Chimney Rock. The area had some fun trails and was mostly rock. I would rate most of the trails as technical although there was an occasional mile or so that was mostly flat. 

One thing I realized near the beginning of the ride is that nothing grows out there. That's because it's all rock. I would guess there isn't much rain fall either. The trails were marked but sometimes it was difficult finding the trail through some of the washes.

Overall this area is pretty fun and challenging. If there were trails on Mars I bet this is what it would look like.

Check out the trail map of Chimney Rock

I'm kind of surprised we're able to ride in such awesome weather being it's almost November. Last year at this time we were planning trips hours away because there was too much snow. 60 degrees was the temperature today and we're taking advantage of it.

We parked at the Jericho Ranch near the Little Sahara sand dunes. This was once a popular place to ride but it seems to have been forgotten about. We stayed to the north west after dropping into Tanner Wash. The dirt all that rocky and there are some really cool washes to ride in and hill climb out of. We did a short 20 mile loop with the kids and headed back to the grind.

See the Little Sahara page for more info.