2025 Adventure MotoCamping Trip: Planning Stage

[BritKLR]

Ok....first of all, all those who have a T7 must say, "I am not Pol Tarres!" But, with that being said I've always wanted to go out to Swingarm City in Utah to ride and now that he's done it I must really go!

2025 Moto/Camp Trip - Denver, Co. to SwingArm City, Utah and back! August or September 2025. Generally 5-6 day trip, camping each night, must carry all your gear on your bike, pay your own way. No whining. Dates to be announced! Day 1: Tentative plan of riding I-70 to Grand Junction ride and camp in the hills north of the Airport. Day 2: The ride out to Swingarm, camp, ride. Day 3: Ride Swingarm, camp. Day 4: Ride to Moab, take RimRocker home, camp. Day 5: Ride and arrive back in Denver Area.

Subject to change.

LMK if interested.

 

[60wag]

Looks like fun. My little 450 isn't up to the cargo requirements unfortunately. I would, however, like to see you do those jumps with the T7 .

 

[BritKLR]

Looks like fun. My little 450 isn't up to the cargo requirements unfortunately. I would, however, like to see you do those jumps with the T7 .

🤣

I'm looking forward to riding that area (within reason and skill level since I'm not Pols!) but, since I'm still learning my T7 and have already learned how gravity works on it, I won't be doing any of those!

 

[Capriblue45]

Paul this trip has my interest, I however think my Africa Twin is a bit big and heavy for a lot of the trails in that area.

 

[BritKLR]

Paul this trip has my interest, I however think my Africa Twin is a bit big and heavy for a lot of the trails in that area.

Trust me. I'm on a new T7 with "OK" skills none of these areas will we be doing single track or highly technical trails.

The first area north the Grand Junction airport is the same area Bill Burke uses for his RS Training so just a lot of hills and wide open space of that hardpack dirt. I anticipate disperse camping that night close to the base of the buttes.

Swing Arm City has it all, wide open, trails, river beds, crazy hills, jumps and razorbacks....with that said, I'll only ride the areas I'm comfortable with....none of the Pols Tarres hill climbs and jumps! One of the biggest challenges out there will be our dispersed camping and having enough food, water, drinks for two nights!

Third, the ride home via Rim Rocker Trail will be mainly just dirt two track with a rock/boulder/sand here and there.

Bottom line is to have fun and a real experience but, not to get hurt and to make it home. Also, thisroute is subject to change based on new info between now and then.

lmk if you have Ny other questions. Thanks for posting up!

 

[DaveInDenver]

Have you camped up in the North Desert before Paul? I generally recommend against it unless you're familiar with it.

 

[BritKLR]

Have you camped up in the North Desert before Paul? I generally recommend against it unless you're familiar with it.

Thanks Dave.

No I haven't, just seems like a cool place. Please lmk what the con's are!

Much appreciated!

 

[DaveInDenver]

Thanks Dave.

No I haven't, just seems like a cool place. Please lmk what the con's are!

Much appreciated!

Where Bill takes you coming north from town on 29 Road and running on the north frontage road is called by the BLM as the Grand Valley OHV Recreation Area. That's bounded north and east of the airport (runs along 27-1/4 Road), north of I-70 to the Bookcliffs.

To the west of 27-1/4 Rd is North Desert Recreation Area, which encompasses the desert all the way to the state line north of I-70 with a special area carved out north of Fruita, known cleverly as North Fruita Desert. North Fruita is where all the MTB trails we call 18 Road are and there's more restrictive camping rules.

The thing is around the desert you gotta watch out for people dumping their junk, shooting, partying, doing and selling drugs and all the squatters. It can get a little rowdy where it's easier to access. Nothing you couldn't scope out or handle. One thing that really irritates me up there is people like to burn pallets so risk of picking up nails. OTOH if you need a new washer to use as a backstop or a worn out set of tires you might get lucky.

It's not as bad further west if you follow 25 Road or 21 Road (21 Rd turns into a gnarly jeep trail that you can loop around through the Bookcliffs to 16 Road and drop back into Fruita) you may find it a little quieter. South of I-70 out there you're familiar with is McInnis Canyon and Rabbit Valley, e.g. Kokopelli.

Just wasn't sure if you knew more than what Bill showed you, which is really the worst part for all that stuff. Plus it's under the flight path, not that GJT is exactly a major hub. There's early flights that start at 5AM. The last flight isn't that late tho, like 10PM. Midday is when it's really noisy, that's when the military guys fly in and out. Those you will hear. The Bombardiers Skywest flies aren't too bad. In the summer it can get a bit more busy since we're a wildland fire airport for the bigger aircraft.

 

[BritKLR]

Where Bill takes you coming north from town on 29 Road and running on the north frontage road is called by the BLM as the Grand Valley OHV Recreation Area. That's bounded north and east of the airport (runs along 27-1/4 Road), north of I-70 to the Bookcliffs.

To the west of 27-1/4 Rd is North Desert Recreation Area, which encompasses the desert all the way to the state line north of I-70 with a special area carved out north of Fruita, known cleverly as North Fruita Desert. North Fruita is where all the MTB trails we call 18 Road are and there's more restrictive camping rules.

The thing is around the desert you gotta watch out for people dumping their junk, shooting, partying, doing and selling drugs and all the squatters. It can get a little rowdy where it's easier to access. Nothing you couldn't scope out or handle. One thing that really irritates me up there is people like to burn pallets so risk of picking up nails. OTOH if you need a new washer to use as a backstop or a worn out set of tires you might get lucky.

It's not as bad further west if you follow 25 Road or 21 Road (21 Rd turns into a gnarly jeep trail that you can loop around through the Bookcliffs to 16 Road and drop back into Fruita) you may find it a little quieter. South of I-70 out there you're familiar with is McInnis Canyon and Rabbit Valley, e.g. Kokopelli.

Just wasn't sure if you knew more than what Bill showed you, which is really the worst part for all that stuff. Plus it's under the flight path, not that GJT is exactly a major hub. There's early flights that start at 5AM. The last flight isn't that late tho, like 10PM. Midday is when it's really noisy, that's when the military guys fly in and out. Those you will hear. The Bombardiers Skywest flies aren't too bad. In the summer it can get a bit more busy since we're a wildland fire airport for the bigger aircraft.

This is great info. Thank you!

I've seen the squatters and trash the several times I've attended classes out there. I'm still early in the planning stages for this run but this will help narrow down that first night.

Thanks!

 

[DaveInDenver]

There's a ghost town up there on 27-1/4 Rd and old coal mine, although the mine itself is gated on private property. It's kind of cool visit but not worth going much out of your way to see. The town was named Carpenter, there's some local history to it, a few foundations still exist. Back in the day there was a train that ran from GJ. That's about as far east as I'd go for camping.

Carpenter, Colorado - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

@60wag Bruce, if you wanted to do some of this I'd try to tag along on my DRZ. Doing I-70 over to Green River really sucks on it (if that's what they end up doing) but getting to Capitol Reef from here can still be done in a good day avoiding interstate or splitting it into two is fun. I'm only set up with soft saddle bags so I'm doing combustion-assisted backpacking, too. Planning for it would get me off my butt and put an Acerbis tank on my whip.