Riding the YES, Please downhill flow trail, looking south. Photos and trail review by Bruce on August 1, 2021.
Iron Springs Flow TrailsThe Iron Springs DH trails include three downhill flow trails. These include sYdwindErS (the
capitol letters spell YES), which is an easier route for early-intermediates,
and the intermediate-level
YES Please (which splits to start YES Sir about 1/3 of the way downhill).
There's a singletrack
climbing trail called jeYESup's, as well as a climbing doubletrack.
The trails start at 5800 feet elevation and descend to 5400. The top of the trails can be reached
from above via the
Three
Peaks Loop
trail (for example by climbing up the
Iron
Springs
trail to
Petrified Whales
and then to the loop) and from below by climbing doubletrack. The expected riding season would
be April through November.
Looking downhill on the newer eastern option of YES Please, which I'm calling YES More until I learn the real name.
Take this trail to the big culvert under the railroad tracks ahead.
From the Iron Springs resort, the trails are reached by starting uphill on the Iron Springs
trail. In the large gravel parking lot on the north side of the Iron Springs
Road, the access
trail starts right next to the road on the far east side of the parking
area. It descends through
a culvert under the railroad, spends about 100 yards in a wash-bottom,
then climbs out. You
can then choose to climb Iron Springs, or go directly to jeYESup's climb
to get to the top
of the DH trails.
During a heavy summer rainstorm, the wash and culvert may not be safe to ride.
There's a dirt road that offers a higher dryer passage over the railroad
tracks. (The route is shown on my map below and also discussed on the
Iron
Springs
page.)
Climbing Route - jeYESup's trail
Entry to the trail from the doubletrack.
After crossing under the railroad tracks, navigating a bit of wash-bottom, then climbing out,
take the ATV trail that splits to the left from the singletrack
Iron Springs
trail. Pedal 150 yards. (Pass the singletrack connector to Iron Springs on your right.) Veer
left as the ATV track joins a larger dirt road. Another 150 yards later,
turn right uphill
on the broad dirt road. Pass the downhill end of YES Sir on your right,
then 50 feet later,
turn to the right on narrow singletrack.
jeYESup's trail is 1.5 miles long and climbs 400 vertical feet. It tends to follow the general
course of the doubletrack climb (see below) until the final push to the
top.
For the first 1.2 miles, jeYESup's trail is a two-way trail. Once it crosses the doubletrack
just downhill from the Three Peaks loop, though, it becomes one-way uphill-only.
At this spot,
the trail also becomes much more technical, requiring intermediate skills
for the final 0.3
miles of climbing.
The lower mile of the trail is dirt ribbon.
Heading north uphill through sage and juniper, with the spires of granite in the distance.
jeYESup's trail isn't really an "easy way up." Climbing the doubletrack (see below) all the
way to Three Peaks then dropping down to the DH trails seems like less
work, even though the
doubletrack route has more vertical.The trail winds back and forth through
sage and juniper. The surface tends to be a bit soft,
but it will firm up with time and riders. The route was well-marked with
frequent signs.
A couple of challenges on the final push to the top: A narrow ramp along a granite cliff, and
A turn on a granite rock ramp. Not particularly tough to ride.
When jeYESup's trail crosses doubletrack for the final time at mile 1.2, it becomes a much
harder ride. There are some rock outcrops and tight climbing turns. The
pitch increases but
is still fairly easy. After another 0.3 miles, you'll arrive at a ridgeline.
To the right is
sYdwindErS, and to the left Yes Please.
Approaching the ridge where we'll find the DH trails.
Climbing Route - Doubletrack
Turning left onto the smaller road at mile 0.5 of the climb from the base of the DH trails -- 0.8 from parking. The path will go up onto the ridge at far right.
Get to the doubletrack northbound as described above. After 0.5 miles on the main northbound
dirt road, turn left onto a smaller dirt road. It will become loose and
granny-gear steep.
Follow this road 0.4 miles. As you reach a ridge, on your right are three
paths that turn 90
degrees off this road. Take the third one, along the north side of a slot
mine. (The mine will
be to your right.) At the top, turn left and descend 100 feet to the DH
trails, on your left.
You'll climb 400 vertical feet.
A second option that's slightly less steep is to climb the big road to mile 0.7, then veer
left on a smaller track. After 0.2 miles, look for singletrack (the jeYESup's
trail climb,
uphill only) on your left and take it 0.3 miles uphill.
A third option is to follow the smaller dirt road another 0.3 miles up to the Three Peaks main
loop and turn left. The turnoff to the connector trail to the DH routes
(see below) is just
150 yards west of the doubletrack on Three Peaks.
Fourth option: 0.1 miles before reaching Three Peaks, there's an ATV path that climbs up directly
to the connector trail, but it's a steep and loose climb.
On top of the mine (there's a cliff into the pit to my right here). I'll now veer left downhill to the DH trails.
Climbing Route - Big Loop via Iron Springs trail
Rolling up the granite on Iron Springs.
You should use this climbing route at least once while you're doing the DH trails. Longer,
but worth it!
Start out from the trailhead, but instead of turning onto
the doubletrack stay on the singletrack
Iron
Springs
trail. Climb 2.6 miles up Iron Springs to where it ends on the
Petrified Whales
trail. Turn left.
Pedal north on Petrified Whales for 0.3 miles. When you reach the
Three Peaks Loop
, keep straight onto the loop. (R goes northbound on the loop, L is the expert-level Four Loco
trail. You might want to take a few seconds to be certain you're on the
correct trail!)
A narrow elevated boardwalk on Petrified Whales.
View south at an iron mine from the Three Peaks Loop.
Pedal for 0.7 miles on Three Peaks. You'll pass the return from Four Loco (unmarked at the
time of my ride) and cross two doubletracks. (The smaller dirt road is
one of the direct climbing
routes.)
Shortly after crossing the smaller ATV path, the Three Peaks trail will make a gentle turn
to the right. On the day of my ride, there was a cairn on the left and
a metal sign in the
juniper on the right. This is the access trail to the flow trails. Turn
right. (During my ride
after recent heavy rains, the trail was littered with rock and almost
impossible to see.)
Here's the turnoff to descend to the DH trails.
The Rock of Death option, marked by this sign, is straight ahead. The Three Peaks loop is uphill on the left.
When riding the Three Peaks loop counter-clockwise, the connector can be reached via "Rock
of Death" which is a short optional route to the right when heading southbound.
The rock isn't horrible, it simply has a substantial side-slope. After crossing the rock and
dropping to the dirt trail, keep right as the trail from uphill joins.
Doesn't look too deadly, but it's going to hurt you if you don't ride it right.
Keep straight at this sign, which points downhill to an ATV route (you can climb this ATV track as an alternate uphill but don't go down it now).
Now pedal over a low hill and drop 0.3 miles on the ATV track. Pass an ATV track on the left
(keep straight). When you're looking at a big bald hill -- and the ATV
path appears to go to
the right of it -- keep straight and begin to climb the upslope of the
saddle in front of the
knoll of mine tailings. There you'll spot the two DH trails on your right,
about 50 feet apart.
Downhill Flow - sYdwindErS trail
Entry into the sYdwindErS trail. Looking west.
The trail on the north (first trail if you descended to the trail from Three Peaks, second
trail if you pedaled up the dirt road past the mine and went over the
knoll) is sYdwindErS.
(Seems like a lot of work on the name "sidewinders" just so the capitol
letters can spell "YES"
but OK. If you build the trail, you get to name it -- and spell it however
you want -- and
everybody else can just shut up.)
sYdwindErS is an easy downhill flow trail. It's machine-cut, with banked turns and rollers.
It's 1.5 miles long with 400 vertical feet of elevation change. (The last
0.1 mile runs along
the downhill side of a doubletrack, and is often skipped by riders who
are planning to head
back uphill. See the map.)
Section with very low rollers, heading south.
Banked turn.
A few of the rollers are sharp enough to throw a beginning rider's back end up in the air.
So I'm going to classify this trail as an easier-intermediate, not as
beginner-level in skill
requirement.
At the bottom, sYdwindErS crosses the east-west doubletrack then turns to the east and runs
parallel to it for 0.1 miles more. To reach the direct climbing routes,
either bail when the
trail crosses the doubletrack at the bottom, or turn 180 degrees and come
back 100 yards to
the climbing road. (By the time you ride, it's likely that riders will
blazed an "option" through
to the bottom of YES Please and the climbing road.)
Almost to the bottom.
Downhill Flow - YES Please trail
Entry to YES Please. Looking west.
The YES Please trail is 1.1 miles long, descending 400 vertical feet. It ends right at the
bottom of the direct-climbing road.
YES Please is intermediate in tech requirement. Compared to sYdwindErS, it has more rock exposure,
bigger dirt humps and tighter turns. It descends the same 400 vertical
feet.
Heading into some rollers.
The big rock is a fun natural wall ride, but you probably won't see it your first trip down. Looks like most riders just roll the corner under the rock.
The YES Please trail splits into two trails for the lower 2/3 of the run. The eastern (left)
option is still being worked on a bit and has no trail markers. To hit
this newer east option,
you'll need to keep left at two trail forks.
At mile 0.4, YES Please has an expert option on the right, which will rejoin a bit lower down.
But within the distance that's bypassed by the optional line, the eastern
route forks away
from YES Please. You wouldn't see it if you took the expert line.
The expert option is only 100 yards long. Within that distance is a second split of around
20 feet with the more gnarly rock-drop being on the right.
A bit below the wall ride is the trail fork for the tech option. The main trail runs left under my handlebar.
Rolling through rocks.
After the tech option rejoins, the trail meanders downhill through the junipers, with occasional
flirting with rock outcrops.
At mile 0.4 of YES Please, and less than 100 feet past the split with the optional tech line
(see above), YES Please splits into two trails for the remainder of the
descent. The trail
on the left is Yes Sir.
Approaching two small engineered ledge drops in the trail as we head southeast toward the main climbing road.
We've crossed the road and are now in an area of narrower hand-built trail. This area is slightly uphill.
This route is a bit longer, at a total of 1.2 miles. It will also require a short stretch of
climbing. This eastern route will drop to the valley floor, cross the
climbing road, then go
into the rocks on the opposite side of the small valley.
There's one "you're kidding me" drop down a loose slope with embedded rock that ranks expert
in skill requirement. Maybe they're working on an alternate line to this.
Granted, I rode after
a nasty gully-washer rainstorm, but I found the drop down the chute to
be ugly and spooky.
Looking back at a slippery steep chute.
That's a table jump on the opposite side of the little wash.
At the bottom, the trail returns to machine-cut ribbon, with banked turns and a few jumps.
It dumps onto the climbing road a few feet above the bottom of YES Please.
Map of the Iron Springs riding area
Getting there:At the Cedar City 200 North Exit from I-15, go westbound on Highway 56.
After 4.4 miles, just as the road is turning from straight west to
southwest, turn right onto the Iron Springs Road (1740). Drive another 4.4
miles. As you see the big Iron Springs sign and flags on your left, look
for a big gravel parking lot 200 yards ahead on your right. Turn into the
parking lot and turn right to park along the eastern side. The outgoing
trail starts on a broad dirt path alongside the paved Iron Springs Road.
As soon as you pedal up onto this dirt path, immediately turn 90 degrees
left onto singletrack. Descend into the wash and go through the tunnel
under the railroad tracks. Follow the signs as the ATV path and bike trail
split. (You can take the ATV path to the left to reach the DH trail
system, or wait until Iron Springs crosses a dirt road and turn left
there. To climb Iron Springs, just follow the signs.)
Water at trailhead. No public bathroom (resort, campground, and
restaurant facilities are for customers).
