Humans have flocked to the Moab Desert in search of everything from recreation to spirituality for thousands of years. Long before 13 colonies ever thought the tax on tea was too high, natives living in Moab recorded their lives and times in petroglyph rock art depicting everything from ancient hunters to mastodons. Today, Moab offers brilliant, beautiful scenery to go through on your dirt bike or ATV. What tracks let you unleash your engine with friends or on a solo tour?

Top Of The World Loop

It’s not really the highest point in the world (unless Everest has shrunk by a few thousand feet), though it is within biking distance of King’s Peak, which PeakBagger notes is the tallest in the state. Semantics aside, Top of the World offers views for 20 miles in every direction once you get to the top. It’s a 70-mile trail that begins at Dewey Bridge. Although there are no obstacles to get in your way, it requires skill and stamina to pilot your dirt bike through the winding, undulating trails. You can expect a bumpy ride, which any dirt biker worth his snuff should prefer.

White Rim Road

If your idea of a perfect ride gets you far, far from civilization, White Rim offers you the ideal getaway. This 112-mile trail takes you through a lot of loops and heights, none of which are especially challenging, but all of which require concentration. You’re as many as 50 miles away from the nearest town, so prepare with supplies for repairs by stocking up at a dirt bike store long before you arrive. While the water from the nearby Colorado River can be consumed with a filter, there is no spare fuel, torque wrenches or helmet visors if they fail.

Photo by Greg Willis via Wikimedia Commons

Slick Rock Bike Trail

Each year, some 100,000 visitors come to the Sand Flats in Moab, where hikers, campers, bikers, and fishermen all rub elbows and trade stories. The Slick Rock bike trail is where these activities often overlap, since hikers patrol it on foot, dedicated mountain bikers huff and puff their way along it, and dirt bikers blast through with engines at full throttle. Slick Rock takes bikers up, down and across small mesas and down into river valleys, where snow-covered peaks linger in the distance. At 13 miles, it’s a pretty short ride on a dirt bike, but offshoots like the Hell’s Revenge trails let you ride to your heart’s content.

Photo by vtsr via Flickr

Poison Spider Mesa

Although there are poisonous spiders aplenty in Utah, like the nefarious Black Widows and the much-less-nefarious False Black Widows, this trail isn’t any more likely to put you in their path than any other in Moab. What will be in your path is an array of rock art, fossilized dinosaur tracks, the aptly-named Pig Rock, and the Little Arch that overlooks the Colorado River. Poison Spider is a relatively difficult trail since it switches between dirt, sand, rock, and mud at a moment’s notice, but is only 12 miles in length.