The mountain bike trail begins across from a tiny parking area on the Gemini Bridges Road (straight across from Arth's Corner and Getaway singletrack trails), about 0.4 miles downhill from the Gemini Bridges hiking trail and main parking area. It extends downhill to join the Little Canyon Singletrack about 1/2 mile from where Little Canyon ST becomes the Gold Bar Singletrack as it crosses the Gold Bar Rim road.

Although Great Escape joins two trails of the Magnificent 7 trail system, it's NOT part of the official Mag 7. Riders descending the Mag 7 (part 1) can, however, substitute Great Escape for Arth's Corner and the upper 1.6 miles of Little Canyon Singletrack Ridings can also go directly from downhill Getaway to Great Escape, or from Great Escape to Getaway when riding uphill.

I think the best way to ride Great Escape is to combine it with the upper Little Canyon Singletrack and Arth's Corner to form a loop. From the Gemini Bridges parking -- which you'll be forced to use on weekends because the trailhead parking will be full -- the loop will be 7.5 miles with 500 vertical feet of climbing. This is suitable for intermediate riders. See the "short loop" ride description below. I did a counterclockwise loop, but the trail rides well in either direction.

Advanced riders will want to start on Bull Run near Highway 313 (see lariat loop ride description below). This ride is 19.7 miles with 1700 vertical feet of climbing. Ride Bull Run downhill, do the loop, then ride Bull Run back uphill. This ride is upper intermediate technical, but will be quite strenuous because of the constant bike motion required to ride uphill on the ledge-filled trail. Remember it's a reverse-profile ride: you'll be grunting uphill when you're the most tired.

Great Escape can serve as an alternate climbing route to the Gemini Bridges Road , and takes you directly to Getaway , which climbs on uphill toward 7-Up The trail can also easily be incorporated into a ride to Two Tortoise Rock or Bull Canyon .

The trail is marked with cairns, trailside logs, and stripes of light-green paint on the rock. It's easy to navigate either direction.

The riding surface is about 80% rock, 20% dirt. On my ride (just a few weeks after the trail opened), some of the dirt spots were a little soft. There were two sharp dirt turns where the tires dug and washed out. These were spots that required a bit of power to hit an uphill slope after the turn. Not a crash, but a fishtail. With time, these spots should pack and berm. There were no sand bogs like on Bull Run.

The biking is similar to Arth's and Little Canyon -- smooth rolling sandstone alternating with some small ledges and occasional strips of dirt singletrack. Occasional pinions and junipers dot the slope, with bitterbrush and sage where the roots can find some dirt. There are views of the La Sal Mountains to the southeast, and occasional glimpses of Two Tortoise Rock.

The rock is Entrada sandstone. It's mostly smooth and tacky under the tires. But as the trail gets lower in the rock strata (closer to the underlying Navajo), the Entrada becomes striated with dirt and rock in pancake layers that form ledges.

Most riders will want to start from the Gemini Bridges parking area. The easiest way is to drive up Highway 313 (10 miles north of Moab), then turn left on the Gemini Bridges Road at mile 13 from US-191. Drive 6 miles downhill on the dirt road. (You can drive there on the Gemini Bridges Road from 191, but it's spooky narrow and steep.)

Park in one of the Gemini Bridges spots. There are several three-car spots along the little loop. Then pedal downhill to where the parking loop rejoins the main Gemini Bridges road. This will be 0.2 miles from the bike rack and the hiking trail.

As of 2012, there are now a few parking spots directly at Arth's Corner TH across from Great Escape.

From Gemini Bridges, ride 1/4 mile downhill until you see signs for Great Escape and Arth's Corner. Turn right on the Great Escape singletrack. After 150 yards, stop at a short spur on your left to look at the Gemini Bridges to the west.

Now pedal on to mile 2.2 from the Gemini Bridges hiking trail and cross the Bull Canyon Road. FYI, the Two Tortoise Rock doubletrack is about 100 yards south of you (to your right), on the left (uphill) side of the road. That's in case you want to mix it up and follow Little Canyon to Gold Bar , then catch Two Tortoise back uphill.

At mile 3.9, Great Escape ends on the Little Canyon Singletrack You're about 1/2 mile from where Little Canyon ends on the Gold Bar 4x4 road. If you go right, you can descend to Gold Bar, where you can pick up the Gold Bar Singletrack or the Two Tortoise Rock trail.

If you go left, you'll climb about 1-1/2 mile on Little Canyon ST (crossing the Bull Canyon Road again on the way) until it ends at the Gemini Bridges Road. To reach Arth's Corner, stay straight and go 150 yards up the Metal Masher road, then find the ST on your left. Arth's will take you back to the beginning of Great Escape, or to Getaway if you're climbing further uphill.

Bottom Line!
This ride is worth doing. But it's not much different in feel, tech factor, or views than Arth's or Little Canyon. So if you've already done the other Mag 7 trails, ride Great Escape to mix things up a little. But don't feel bad if you're forced to miss it as you're doing Mag 7.I really liked the lariat ride using Bull Run to descend to the loop, then climbing back up Bull Run to 313. But the constant bumpy tech riding was a lot of work. For a 20-mile ride with only 1700 vertical, it left me pretty worked over.

Getting there:
From I-70 and Crescent Junction, drive south on US-191 for 20 miles. Or, drive about 9 miles north of the Colorado River if you're driving out from Moab. Turn west on Highway 313 (the road to Dead Horse Point and a href="/trails/whiterim/"> Canyonlands). Drive 13 miles on 313 to the Gemini Bridges sign and turn L onto dirt road. 
For Bull Run lariat ride: Find a spot to park immediately after turning off 313. Begin riding down the dirt road and turn right to the Bull Run trailhead at mile 1.3.
For the loop ride from Gemini Bridges:  Drive down the gravel road 6 miles to the Gemini Bridges parking area N38 35.232 W109 42.597. Pedal downhill 0.2 mile from the fork where the parking lane rejoins the main dirt road. Arth's is on your left (your return route if going counterclockwise), and Great Escape is directly across the road on your right.