Bogley

Cirrus2000 · Joined: 26 Mar 2006 Posts: 1341

Sunday, September 26, 2004 was a beautiful sunny day. It was our second day in Moab (ever!), and my friend Tony and I decided to head to the Gemini Bridges. We pulled into the parking lot around 9:30 AM, and there were only a couple of other vehicles there.

It was a long slog up the road, taking us into the hills, but once we turned the corner the scenery became quite spectacular. Three or four Jeeps passed us as the road leveled out, but other than that we didn’t see anyone until we got to the Bridges.

On The Road to Gemini Bridges.

Cool.

Neat.

Purty.

There was one nasty sandy bit, followed by a steep stony uphill section where the trail turned up out of Little Canyon. Otherwise the trail was quite pleasant.

Arriving at the Gemini Bridges, it was tough to tell what we were looking at until we got right up close. Approaching from above, you just see a big hole in the ground. As you get closer, you realize what is there, and it’s pretty amazing. I took a photo from one of the bridges, looking at Tony sitting over the chasm at the end of the canyon. He felt a little queasy later when he saw just how big the gulf was below him.

Tony over the yawning gulf.

I hear that, every once in a while, folks have to clean up the mess below when someone inadvertantly drives off the edge of the bridges in the wee hours. Yikes.

On the return to the parking lot, we stopped at one point and explored some short cliffs on the north side of the road, clambering over the the little ledges, nooks and crannies in the rock, and making the lizards wonder what the hell we were up to. As we rode the trail back, a green snake darted out from one side, and scooted across – it managed to cross between Tony and I, avoiding being run over by the narrowest of margins. Timing is everything.

The most exhilarating part of the ride was coming back down the hill leading to the parking lot. All that work on the way up was worth it, as we hurtled back down, looking over the highway from hundreds of feet above, skittering down over loose rocky curves with tears streaming from our eyes from the wind. Fun stuff!

Ross · Joined: 16 Mar 2006 Posts: 188 Location: Salt Lake City

looks like good times.

live2ride · Joined: 20 Jun 2005 Posts: 1141 Location: Riding my bike

I have never ridden gemini bridges, I ought to try it out and just enjoy the scenery, sounds like a good trail for a second ride of the day. Hit it with the lights on going back.

Sombeech · Joined: 09 Dec 2004 Posts: 12660 Location: The Rubbish Bin

I've only driven up this road. I'll have to bike it sometime.

Thanks for the pics again. I added this report to the Trip Report Index. Keep those Moab trails coming! :cool2:

mroy · Joined: 20 Jul 2005 Posts: 236 Location: North Ogden

I haven't ridden Gemini Bridges in 8 years. I must've ridden it at least 10 times the summer I lived down there. I heard they graded much of the road the trail's comprised of, taking out a lot of the ledges you could jump off of. If that's true, that's too bad. Still though, it's a great, fast, fun ride that's doable even in the middle of summer for the heat sensitive (if you have a shuttle).