Gooseberry is not a single trail, and that is the mistake most write-ups make. It is a broad area of mesas, jeep roads, sand, slickrock and rim viewpoints sitting just west of Zion National Park — and the closest town to it is Apple Valley, which is where our shop is. For our customers this is not a day trip. It is the local riding.

The jeep road network

A rugged jeep road bisects Gooseberry Mesa, and the main dirt road running out through the centre is roughly ten miles out and back — flat, open and easy going, which makes it a genuinely good first outing for somebody still getting comfortable on a bike. Branching off it, the old jeep trail out to the edge of the mesa is the one worth doing: sand, slickrock and a view off the rim at the end. It is short, it is fun, and it does not demand much of you technically.

Some of the best lines up here need an e-moto

This is the part you will not find in a guidebook. There are trails on the mesa that we know from riding here most weeks which are effectively out of reach on a full-size petrol bike — too tight between the rocks, too steep and stepped, too much of the kind of terrain where you need to stop dead, place the front wheel exactly, and pick the back end up over a ledge.

A Sur-Ron Light Bee X weighs around 120 lb against well over 200 for a comparable petrol bike, has no clutch to feather and no gearbox to be in the wrong part of, and will crawl at walking pace with instant drive the moment you ask for it. That combination is what unlocks these lines. It is not that a strong rider on a petrol bike lacks the skill — it is that the machine physically does not fit, and cannot be lifted and placed the same way when it does.

Being quiet helps as well. These are narrow, close-in routes, and a bike you can hold a conversation over is a very different neighbour to a two-stroke on the same ground.

We keep four Light Bee X units, so a small group can ride these together rather than one person getting through and everybody else turning back. They are on ground open to motorised travel — we are not talking about the mountain-bike singletrack — but they are genuinely technical, so they are not a first-ever ride. Tell us at pickup that this is what you came for and we will point you at the right ones for your level.

The rim views are the payoff

You are at about 5,200 feet on top of the mesa. North of you are the sandstone walls of Zion; west and below is a stack of coloured desert mesas and cut canyons. The elevation matters for a second reason too — in July it is meaningfully cooler up there than down on the valley floor, which makes it one of the better hot-weather options anywhere near us.

The wider area

Little Creek Mesa sits directly south of Gooseberry and is the quiet one — noticeably fewer people camping, riding or four-wheeling. Wire Mesa and Grafton Mesa lie a couple of miles northeast. There is also a well-documented route running from Gooseberry across to the ghost town of Grafton, and the Smithsonian Butte Road, a scenic byway that comes off Highway 59 east of Hurricane.

Access and signage across this area are not uniform, which is exactly why it is worth asking rather than guessing. Call us on (385) 236-8086 before you go out and we will tell you which routes are currently open and which suit the bike you are taking. We ride here most weeks.

One thing to know: the singletrack is for mountain bikes

Gooseberry Mesa is internationally known among mountain bikers, and the marked singletrack across the mesa top is theirs, not ours. You cannot ride the singletrack on a motorcycle — but the jeep roads and two-track are open, and they are where the riding is for us anyway. Keep to those and everybody gets along. Our bikes are registered for off-highway use, so you are legal where motorised travel is allowed.

Standard courtesy applies: motorised users yield to everyone else, and on a blind slickrock corner assume there is a cyclist on the other side, because there often is.

Getting up there and what to take

The first stretch of the access road crosses private land before it reaches BLM ground, so stay on the road and respect the posted signs. The roads up are dirt and rough in patches — fine on a bike, fine towing behind something capable, and a bad idea in a low car after rain. The Smithsonian Butte Road in particular turns to deep mud after heavy rain or on a warm day in a wet winter.

Slickrock rewards precision more than power. The Sur-Ron Light Bee X is excellent here — light, placeable and quiet on shared ground. Among the petrol bikes the Honda CRF250F is the easy all-rounder, and the GASGAS EX250 if you already ride well. Total beginners are still better off starting at Warner Valley, but the flat centre road here is a reasonable second outing.

Booking

Pick your dates above to see what is free. Gear and a trailer go on the same reservation — though being this close, plenty of customers just ride out from the shop.

Also nearby: Toquerville Falls, Sand Hollow and riding near Zion.