| Description: | Devil's Racetrack is an ATV trail in the central San Rafael Swell. It starts at a high plateau near I-70 and descends north into North Coal Wash. The suggested start is at Dutchman Arch, take the most traveled trail north. It climbs a bit first, and then descends gently on a mix of slickrock and smooth to sandy doubletrack, all the way to North Coal Wash. The trail itself is not that great, but, the scenery is, a lot of interesting sandstone formations on the way. I rode down and up North Coal Wash as well on the ATV trails, going down it gets quite sandy, so, riding is hard. The trail up the wash was not that bad, only a couple of sandy spots that one could ride through. There's a natural arch about 2.5 miles up the wash, and another mile or so later it climbs to a small pass and down to neighboring Saddle Horse Canyon. Here I turned around, not knowing where further the trail goes, and backtracked. Later I found out, that one can complete the loop on an ATV track up the canyon.
I also only then found, that most of Devil's Racetrack and North Salt Wash are in a wilderness study area, and the OHVs are allowed there by a temporary permit under a new (2003) BLM travel plan. I firmly believe in travel restrictions for motorized vehicles, mainly through a destruction they cause to the trails. On the other hand, I also support allowing human powered vehicles (such as mountain bikes) to areas with existing trails inside WSAs and wildernesses. This is why I am posting this trail, to encourage mountain bikers to check out this awesome area, treat it with respect and see the difference in impact between motorized and human powered travel. |
