A couple months ago I had a 20 hour overnight in St. George, Utah. I’ll get St. George overnights every so often, this had been the longest overnight I have had in St. George. Usually on the overnights I will use one of the hotel bikes and go for a ride along the Virgin River and then head over to Feel Love Coffee.

When I had first gotten the trip I was planning to rent a car and head into Snow Canyon State Park to do some hiking. I then last minute switched my plans so I could do a trip on my days off after this work trip. The wheels in my head are just constantly turning. I think about one thing and then all of a sudden its spiraled into something else….usually bigger.

So with that I looked at trails that where within town and then decided that I would take the hotel bike to the trail. I had also wanted to ride around town. I have had plenty of overnights in St. George but its been awhile since I have been in St. George. St. George was the first town I lived in when I first moved to Utah. We have some history even though I had only lived there for 5 months. 19 year old me would drive around late at night when I couldn’t sleep or early in the mornings before the heat set in and wander around wondering what the hell I was doing with my life. Then usually cry at the overlook at Red Hills Parkway and then make my way back to the condo where I was living and then try to get some sleep to do it all over again.

While riding around town on the hotel bike it felt like dots where connecting in ways for me. The airline that I work for currently is based out of St. George and they have been there since 1976. I had a coworker at one of the three places I had worked at, who now that I think about it worked at the scheduling department down in St. George while she was going to school. Sometimes things come about in a very strange way or maybe it’s not strange at all.

For my little morning outing I of course headed to Feel Love Coffee and then rode the bike route from the coffee shop up to Red Hills Desert Garden. I wondered through the garden and then made my way back to over to hike the T-Bone to Pioneer Rim Trail. The Pioneer Rim Trail will then drop you down into the Narrows where I then played around on the red rock for a bit before it was time to start heading back to the hotel. Honestly the whole time while I was walking T-Bone I just kept looking out and thinking how great these trails would be for gravel biking and then I thought how easy it would be to access for a little bike overnight.

All of the red rock and desert air and plants had me really longing for more time in the desert and now that I am once again looking at these pictures I am once again wanting sunshine and red dirt. I am looking forward now to my next St. George overnight I get for more hiking explorations.

With love,

Jess