Chicken Corner
Chicken Corner is a dirt-road ride that can be just about any length you want. Go to the spot where you want to start, then ride. For example, you can do the ride from a camping spot in Kane Springs Canyon.

I'll tag the "official" starting point as the parking lot at the bottom of Kane Springs Canyon. This will give you a ride of about 43 miles. (You can easily start from Moab itself. It's 5 miles from the McDonalds on 191 to Kane Springs Canyon. This will add 10 miles to the round-trip riding distance.)

Kane Springs Canyon is pretty. I don't think you should skip it. At first, towering Navajo and Wingate sandstone walls enclose the canyon. Wildflowers bloom among cottonwoods lining the creek. As you begin to leave the canyon to the west, you enter the Chinle formation.

As you exit the canyon, you'll turn south in a broad valley. To the south, mesas formed of Wingate sandstone with Chinle skirts line the sides of Kane Springs Canyon as it continues south.

At the fork in the road, turn away from Kane Springs Canyon and ride northwest toward the Moenkopi slopes of Hurrah Pass.

Enjoy the views as you climb toward the pass. It's never very steep, but is a steady grind. The riding isn't technical. A beginning rider can manage this climb if they have the endurance.

After a climb of 700 vertical feet over two miles, you'll reach the summit of Hurrah Pass at an altitude of 4700 feet.

You can see lower Kane Springs Canyon to the northeast, upper Kane Springs Canyon to the southeast, Jackson Hole to the northwest, and the Colorado River (with your continuing trail) to the southwest.

The banded slopes of mudstone and sandstone are visually interesting. Don't go off the road. There are sheer drops to the side of a couple of tight turns.

As you arrive on the valley floor, you'll drop into a wash. At the sign in the wash, keep left. (The right fork goes to the Jackson Hole trail and Bass Camp.)

The trail will climb out of the wash and turn south. Several times it will approach the edge of the river. The general direction will change from south to westbound.

The cliffs over the river become gradually higher. You're climbing uphill, but it's so gradual you don't notice it until you turn around for the return trip and seem to fly back.

You're riding on a shelf of hard stone that resists erosion. While it forms a shelf above the Organ Rock Formation like the White Rim sandstone of the nearby White Rim Trail , it's not quite the same rock. This is band of a sandy limestone filled with bracheopod fossils, suggesting a shallow marine environment. Perhaps this area was ocean and the area to the north was beach.

Stay to the right at two forks. The cliffs and the views become more impressive as you ride further.

At the end of the trail, a foot path takes you to Chicken Corner. It's that little notch on the cliff face. The notch is just high enough to squat, and barely the width of a person. There are no handholds.

Guides named it Chicken Corner because, imagine this, some people were afraid to crawl around this simple little corner above a 300-foot cliff.

Let's go closer.

I have no photo of what's just around the mountain from Chicken Corner.

Looking down at my old mountain biking shoes -- no toe spikes; front quarter of the carbon sole totally chewed away; tread worn to nubbins, old cleat worn slippery -- I decided that I would, indeed, be the metaphorical chicken for which the corner is named.

As I fled ignominiously from Chicken Corner, the trail became a blazing downhill, with just a few spots of pedaling. Enjoy the awesome river and mountain views on the way out.

This is where you'll be glad you brought plenty of water. The ride is getting long, and you've got the big climb to Hurrah Pass ahead. Up and over, once again.

The climb forces you to slow down and admire the rock formations, which are even more impressive on this side of the mountain than they were during the climb up the opposite side.

Drop down the mountain to Kane Springs Canyon and begin heading north and east.

There's one short but miserable little climb on the S-turn in Kane Springs Canyon, otherwise it's slightly downhill and fast riding as you head back to your starting point.

Getting there: Head south on Moab's Main Street. When you reach the McDonald's, turn right onto Kane Creek Blvd. After 0.6 miles, go straight where the road seems to turn right (500 West). Drive (or bike) along the Colorado River for 5 miles until the road turns to gravel. Park in the ATV parking lot at the bottom of Kane Creek Canyon, or if it's too crowded, go on up the road 1/2 mile to the Amasa Back parking area.