Round Trip Distance: 0.6 miles
Difficulty: Strenuous
Skill level:
Elevation: 4812 - 4941 feet
Cellphone: 0-3 bars
Time: 30 mins.
Trailhead: Klondike Bluffs
Fee: none
Attractions: Alternate singletrack route
The Sidestep South trail is located in the Klondike Bluffs Mountain Biking Area north of Moab, Utah. The trail provides an alternate singletrack route to the main doubletrack Baby Steps South trail. The Sidestep North trail serves a similar function on the north side of the main route. The lower end of the trail connects to the Baby Steps South trail just above its intersection with the EKG trail. The upper end of the trail comes out on a ridge where it connects to the Baby Steps South Singletrack trail.
This post begins on the ridge at the upper end of the trail and follows the route in the downhill direction.
Looking at the profile it becomes apparent that it isn't all downhill from the ridge. Before the downhill section of the trail begins there is over a quarter mile of uphill to climb to get to the trails highest point.
From this direction the elevation gain is only about 60 feet and that is spread out over a quarter mile.
Tight turns around rocky outcrops require some more advanced skills to maneuver around.
The aspects of the landscape that add to the trails difficulty also greatly enhance its natural aesthetics.
From the highpoint of the trail the surrounding area can be appreciated. This trail system began as a series of old trails, that were built by miners, became mountain biking routes that were eventually augmented with fun sections of singletrack, like this one, to become the world class mountain biking area that it is today.
The trail gets considerably rougher as it begins descending the broken slickrock on the west side of the mountain.
It isn't all broken slickrock through. There are still some stretches of dirt in the mix.
The lower end of the trail dumps out onto the Baby Steps South trail where there is a map that can be studied for the next leg of your ride. With all the new interconnecting trails in the area there are many options to choose from. One interesting ride is to come up Baby Steps South to EKG, take Sidestep North to Instep, Instep to Baby Steps South Singletrack and follow that to the ridge where Sidestep South can be used to close the loop. The loop by itself would come out to a little less than 3 miles. If you would like to see it for yourself then all you have to do is grab your bike or 'Take a hike'.