One-way Distance: 1.3 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Skill level:
Elevation: 4870 - 4967 feet
Cellphone: 0-3 bars
Time: 30 mins.
Trailhead: Klondike Bluffs
Fee: none
Attractions: Alternate route, dinosaur tracks
The Baby Steps South Singletrack trail is located in the Klondike Bluffs Mountain Biking Area north of Moab, Utah. The trail provides an alternate 1 mile route of singletrack to the Baby Steps Loop where that trail currently follows the old doubletrack jeep road. Another section of similar singletrack was added just to the north and it has already been included in the post for the Baby Steps Loop on this site. For this post we extended the Baby Steps South Singletrack all the way over to the Klondike Bluff Road in order to include some very nice dinosaur tracks that are often missed.
The trail begins near the top of the Baby Steps South trail at the same point the Instep trail makes its connection.
The singletrack departs on the right, or toward the south, from the main Baby Steps South trail.
It passes through a boulder field as it works its way toward a ridge.
You might want to line up for this one and suck in your elbows.
Another narrow passage comes up on the crest of the ridge where the trail builders made the best of a rocky summit. At this point the Sidestep South trail, which is another alternate singletrack route to the main Baby Steps South trail, reaches its upper end where it joins the Baby Steps South Singletrack.
From the ridge the trail drops down and crosses a scenic little wash.
As the trail climbs out of the wash it stays parallel with it for awhile.
When the trail leaves the area of the wash it takes a fun route around the side of the hill.
Near the 3/4 mile point the Baby Steps Singletrack is joined by the newly created Malachite trail.
From there the trail drops down to the slickrock and lands on the Baby Steps doubletrack trail. We continued to the right at this point so our map would show the connection to the Klondike Bluff Road.
And also so we could show some nice dinosaur tracks that are right before the Klondike Bluffs Road at the contact point between the slickrock and the hillside.
The Klondike Bluff Road comes up a little past the dinosaur tracks. There are quite a few more tracks along the Klondike Bluff Road if you turn right and begin following it downhill. Most of those tracks have circles of rocks around them to point them out. Some of the tracks that we have already passed are more distinct than many of those along the road. Anyway, the Baby Steps South Singletrack is a nice addition to the Baby Steps Loop and with its connections to the Malachite, Sidestep South and Instep trails it opens a lot of new routes to explore. If you would like to see it for yourself then all you have to do is grab your bike or 'Take a hike'.