Escape Adventures

Bryce Canyon, Zion National Park, and the Grand Canyon, are a trio of nature’s finest. From southern Utah’s Brian Head Peak, descend off the mountain through a blur of aspen and pine to Red Canyon in the Dixie National Forest.  Here, ride a newly created bicycle path lined with oversized sandstone figures–a curious token preview of a bigger scene that lies ahead. 

At Bryce Canyon National Park, our road through the forest opens abruptly to the brim of a giant basin filled to capacity with stone-silent gatherings of human-like hoodoos.  Take a moment to hike down through its channels of bizarre form and color.  En route to the Grand Canyon, ride through ponderosa forests and deer meadows to the North Rim, where anticipation meets its match at the highest edge of the greatest gorge in the world.  A brief hike down the canyon wall manifests the canyon’s grand scale and magnitude.  Cycling back over the Kaibab Plateau, descend more than 5,000 feet into Zion National Park, for a grand finale ride into the stunning sanctuary of the Three Patriarchs, Angel’s Landing, and the Great White Throne.

Rolling down National Scenic Highway 101 along the foothills and beaches of the Pacific Northwest, our Oregon road cycling tour pulls out all the stops to truly showcase and fully savor the beautifully diverse Oregonian coastline, one of the state’s Seven Wonders.

Starting from the Columbia River at the state’s northwest edge, we wend our way along what locals call the People’s Coast, Oregon’s entirely public owned coastline—360-miles from end to end—enjoying forested seastacks, sandstone cliffs, vibrant inlets, not to mention oxygen rich ocean breezes. Blissfully detached from noise, commercialism or the crush of cars, the reality of Coastal Oregon lends itself to unparalleled road biking.

Our cycling tour is further distinguished by a hump, or layover day. This break form the saddle affords the opportunity to explore several state parks nearby; enjoying the rugged coast at our respective leisure.  We then head to Reedsport, where lush forest gives way to thousands of acres of cream-colored sand dunes in the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area.

Evenings are spent in quaint campgrounds, or inns; one and all are brought to a theatric close with a brilliant Pacific Ocean sunset.  This cycling trips rewards with no less than a lifetime of memories shaped by a weeklong experience that interprets, if not drinks in the very best of coastal Oregon!

The Greatest Bicycle Adventure In The American West!

Welcome to Utah’s Color Country, one of the greatest places in the world to ride your bike. Ride the Aquarius Trail and enjoy the marvels and scenery from the peak of Brian Head, through Panguitch, Hatch and Bryce, down to the beautiful town of Escalante.

From the seat of your bike you will experience, Brian Head Peak at a towering 11,306ft, down Proctor Canyon into quaint little town of Hatch. Meander past the Tropic Reservoir and ride on into Red Canyon, home of the infamous Thunder Mountain Trail and the Red Canyon Bike Path. Keep exploring all the Dixie National Forest has to offer; like a big climb up to the scenic Powell Point where John Wesley Powell surveyed Southern Utah. In the days ahead you’ll enjoy remote hut accommodations, secret singletrack and fast descents to more beautiful places. You won’t want to miss this!

Amidst this epic high country, we find what celebrated adventure author Zane Grey described as “a stairway to the sky”: a 7650-ft. high plateau known as the Grand Staircase.

In the summer months, from the Aquarius Plateau—North America’s highest tableland or tectonic uplift—a series of 10,000 and 11,000-ft. peaks, with extraordinary vistas even for a state known for scenery, we follow primitive trails dotted by hidden lakes and streams.  Large herds of elk crisscross the trail, while 13 types of raptors nest above. We admire canyon walls inscribed with Native American petroglyphs and pictographs and then relish in the cool, pure water cascading from 146-ft. high Calf Creek Falls.

From the high alpine terrain of the Aquarius Plateau, to the deep canyons of the Escalante River, discover a fantastic array of backcountry cycling! These primitive trails reveal secret canyons and spectacular mountain vistas. Trip highlights include cycling atop the highest plateau in North America, visiting John Wesley Powell’s favorite lookout point, cycling across Hell’s Backbone and the exciting Gap Mountain Trail.

For skilled riders who match go-deep endurance with long-in-the-saddle experience, Escalante Mountain Singletrack is nothing less than a superb, multifaceted trip. Conversely, the Escalante Intro Tour provides all the same enormous vistas, though set on far less challenging dirt roads mixed with doubletracks.

Brian Head Mountain stands magnificently, reaching 11,307 feet high above wildly scenic southern Utah.  This broad and burly pinnacle is home to Utah’s highest ski and mountain bike resort. Riding in Brian Head translates into long, vertical-mile descents set in crisp, head clearing mountain air and big, high altitude scenery. Speaking more to detail, the sensational XC (cross-country) singletrack here is unquestionably friendly for any moderately skilled mountain biker. Ride amongst pines and Aspen forests, around stunning mountain lakes, only to be whisked past mesmerizingly deep-red hoodoos.

From a personal-professional place, Brian Head represents our genesis; one of Escape Adventure’s maiden voyages. Please, come savor this original with us.

There is surely gold to be found in the intertidal zones off Florida’s Treasure Coast. Peruvian gold and Mexican silver, in fact, given up by any of the 11 Spanish treasure ships that went to bottom more than three centuries ago. But the real bounty of the Sunshine State’s central-east begins with water: from ocean to rivers, inlets and lakes to wetlands. To a region known for barrier islands, aromatic citrus groves, boating and sport-fishing, we’ve found onto an uncharted and original cycling destination.

Let’s start with the most pivotal intrinsic. Our most Southeastern state offers nothing but three season comfort. Fall and Winter days are consistently sunny. For a glorious week you can forget the coat and boots. Our design plays to those rich visual and natural attributes unique to Central Florida. On back roads or dedicated cycling infrastructure, this trip showcases the big Cypress that define interior Florida’s wildly lively watersheds. As well as the stately century-old Oaks fringed with Spanish moss, synonymous to the region’s Southern heritage.

On routes that key on quiet, quartz sand beaches and mesmerizingly blue-green lagoons, we dismount to glimpse a sea turtle, or manatees. Arriving for Spiny lobster and Stone crab seasons, our groups settle in, at day’s end, to the charm of an old-Florida lodge of distinction. Moved by a scrumptious tropical breeze, each epic day in the saddle closes out with a cold one. Or perhaps a Jimmy Buffett signature tropical cocktail, topped with a paper parasol to celebrate the sun-kissed Treasure Coast.

Less ice, more true wilderness. While big swathes of North America deals with snow and icy roads, we consider our great fortune: to enjoy exemplary outdoor wintertime adventure in the heart of the Mojave Desert, from Death Valley National Park to Red Rock Canyon.

Roam America’s largest national park outside Alaska: 3,373,063-acre Death Valley National Park. Despite its rather foreboding name, Death Valley represents a stellar trekking destination. Hikers and bikers, climbers to rock hounds come to marvel at Spring’s astounding wildflower blooms, not to mention the mild temperatures of fall and winter. Outdoorspeople will relish no less than 3,000-square miles of headspace, while cyclists find enviable elbowroom afforded by 350-miles of road and trails. (A full 91% of Death Valley is designated wilderness.)

We cycle across the big valley floor, stopping to visit historic sites, most of them accessed by 1930s-era Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) roads. Almost immediately we come to appreciate a very subtle legacy of the CCC: the bygone wisdom seen in roads built to respect, rather than conquer the landscape.

From slick Kevlar tires to thick Vibram soles, we navigate around and visually inhale sunbaked foothills, knolls, and stacks of boulders etched in yellow clay, rose and tan. These fantastic landscape features would serve as the backdrop for the first Star Wars film, Death Valley standing in for the planet Tatooine.

Each day in this storied place—contemplating 20-mule team wagons, Death Valley Scotty, the lost 49ers—you wake up in unfettered horizon. The evenings are given over to serious unwinding—“Prickly Pear margaritas, anyone?”—wrapped in great theatre: watching the two-mile high, 60-mile long Panamint Mountains, the valley’s defining range to the West, transition from shades of cool blue to a deep, purple bruise as the evening light drops away. In the other direction, the Amargosa range to the east is nothing less than radiant, bathed in bronze tones.
We are the authentic conscience of adventure outfitters: our desert West trips represent the standard by which others judge. Or aspire to. Reflexively, when you experience these lands by mountain bike, led by people who have a deep connection to Red Rock and Death Valley, you’ll quickly learn this is not a place to be endured, but rather a world-class outdoor recreation destination.

Central Utah has one of the largest stretches of true backcountry left in the nation.  This area remained uncharted until the mid-1800s and still harbors many natural treasures yet to be discovered.  From the alpine heights of Dixie National Forest to the slickrock canyons of Escalante National Monument, central Utah is a quiet paradise reserved for the few willing to venture this far.

Our cycling tour goes eastward through contrasting desert scenery and high alpine forests along Utah Highway 12 (among Americas most scenic highways) to Capitol Reef National Park.  Named for the white sandstone dome that bears a striking resemblance to our nation’s capitol building, this national park protects an immense uplift know as the Waterpocket Fold.  Long winding roads cut through a maze of canyons and an assembly of arches and monoliths make it seem as if this natural uplift was custom-made just for cyclists! Between rides, we relax in the quaint hamlets of Boulder and Escalante.  Remote and sparsely populated, this Escalante and Capitol Reef road bike tour is for anyone looking for un-crowded roads and a backcountry experience.

Jackson Hole and Yellowstone. It is the striking visage of the Grand Tetons—named by a 19thcentury French fur trapper, no less—that sets it apart from the rest of the Rocky Mountains. First, in the highest, sky-scraping thrust—an abrupt 7000-ft jut above Jackson Hole—that peers over a no less impressive supporting cast. So sharply serrated, the sub-peaks evoke a Great White shark’s lower jaw stretched atop a high plateau.

Only 40-miles long by ten-miles wide, this relatively small segment of the Rockies is also the youngest. Unlike other ranges in the Rockies, the Tetons have not been around long enough to acquire the foothills, or softer lines shaped by centuries of erosion. The Grand Teton National Park and adjoining National Forest protect this unique geographical feature, which peaks out at 13,770 feet; not to mention the wildlife, wildly lush subalpine meadows, and rich recreation opportunities we savor.

Each glorious morning, set against the dramatic Tetons, we stage an Upper Rockies tour: spanning three states, inhaling peaks, surging past cirques; beneath enormous, yawning canyons only to circumnavigate glacial lakes. Through an 18-million acre big mountain ecosystem, rich in bear, moose, wolf and elk, we’ll sweep across Yellowstone into The Bridger-Teton National Forest: crossing the Snake River and reveling in such American West icons as Old Faithful.

In our downtime, we might even indulge in a contemporaneous deconstruction of Yogi Bear and his purple bowtie wearing bear cub sidekick, Boo-Boo, if not the subtext and social hierarchy around Jellystone national Park…

In the smartly preserved Victorian town of Durango, cycling isn’t merely an activity… it’s a lifestyle. Cycling’s roots and colorful lineage here, in what’s known as Colorado’s wildflower capital date back more than a century. Genius.

Teddy Roosevelt’s vision, circa 1905, was to preserve “America’s Alps”, the San Juan Mountain Range within a 1.8-million acre (3000-square mile) National Forest. Our guides live for this: sharing some of the area’s unbelievably scenic routes, the unique terrain features. Big open runs through high meadows that roll like waves, exploding in shoulder-high wildflowers. For point and shoot types, the low-key signage at the trail head, “Watch for Traffic” means sharing space with mule deer, coyotes, fox, Wild Turkey, bobcat, not to mention some 200 type of songbirds and raptors.

Then prepare yourself for the piece de resistance: home-cooked, outrageously flavorful secret recipes, specifically drawn from the area. So savory, these dishes continue to surprise even our Durango returnees.

Taming the climbs, living and breathing five-digit elevation days, we cover the best this biking heaven has to offer: Hermosa Creek, Jones Creek, Dry Fork, Kennebec Pass, plus the Telegraph Trail System. Yours to explore for five fun-filled days.

This tour is scaled from intermediate to advanced riders, those possessing above average fitness and moderate technical riding skills.