Land sale by the Utah State Trust could destroy two of southern Utah’s most famous MTB trails

The Utah Trust Lands Administration (aka the Utah State Trust) has listed a parcel of land for sale in southern Utah, just outside the town of St. George. Normally this wouldn’t be cause for concern, but the parcel in question is home to some of the most popular mountain bike trails in the region: the Zen Trail, Mega Zen, Stucki Springs, and Bearclaw Poppy. In addition, the parcel includes the popular rock climbing crags of Moe’s Valley and Green Valley Gap.

The Utah State Trust is tasked with using Trust lands to “generate revenue for public schools and other important state institutions through evolving and strategic land management.” To do this, the agency sells Trust lands to generate revenue or leases it for resource extraction. That revenue is then invested in an endowment, which is used to fund the public school systems. While the endowment continues to generate revenue year after year, Utah continues to periodically sell Trust Lands to meet increasing demand.

In this particular instance, a roughly 3,000-acre parcel of land known as Zone 6 of the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve, aka the Greater Moe’s Valley, has been listed for sale for real estate development. If a deal goes through, the land would be “sold to private developers for McMansions, more or less,” said Lukas Brinkerhoff, General Manager of Red Rock Bicycles and founding member of the Dixie Mountain Bike Trails Association, now known as the Trail Alliance of Southern Utah (TASU). St. George routinely tops the list of the fastest-growing cities in the USA, and demand for development remains high. Development near the bottom of the Zen Trail already continues at a breakneck pace, with so-called McMansions creeping higher and higher up the mountainside.

The backstory of mountain bike trails in the Greater Moe’s Valley.

Like many trails in southern Utah, the Zen Trail, Bearclaw Poppy, and others started as illegally built pirate trails. However, due to their popularity, these trails have all been adopted and recognized by the city of St. George, even though the Zen Trail in particular has no supporting infrastructure.

“The city of St George, from what I’ve been told, has adopted the Zen Trail as an official trailhead, but they don’t own the land, so they can’t really do anything as far as infrastructure goes,” said Brinkerhoff. “So they’ve kind of accepted that they’re not official trails in the sense that the BLM or somebody has gone in and signed them and taken care of everything to be able to really put the infrastructure so people can get there.”

The Bearclaw Poppy trail runs through the bottom of the valley on the opposite side of the ridge from Zen. “The bottom section of Bearclaw Poppy is the most traveled trail in Washington County,” according to Brinkerhoff. Due to the massive traffic, the “city and the county [built] a huge trailhead just a few years ago.” This relatively new trailhead sits on Trust Lands, and if the sale goes through, the bottom two miles of Bearclaw Poppy and this expensive trailhead could be wiped out.

This beautiful desert environment is also highly valued for its biological resources. Again, this is Zone 6 of the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve, and the greater Desert Reserve was established in part to protect “a critical habitat for the Mojave Desert tortoise, a threatened species, and several rare and endangered plant species, including the iconic dwarf bear poppy,” according to a “Petition to Permanently Protect the Greater Moe’s Valley Area.” Zone 6, in particular, is also currently designated as an “open space” by the city of St. George.

I’ve personally ridden these trails several times over the years, and can attest to how spectacular and unique they are. These aren’t just ho-hum social trails — they’re some of the best mountain bike trails in southern Utah.

The Zen Trail is a technical masterpiece, filled with slickrock slabs, rock rolls, and stunning views from the elevated rocky rim. From the top of Zen, riders can look down into the wild desert valleys below and enjoy views of the soaring mountain peaks in the distance. At the same time, they can see the development taking over the side of the mountain ridge, threatening to fill this rugged, beautiful desert landscape with endless McMansions.

I’ve also witnessed firsthand the mountain bike playground that is Bearclaw Poppy. This web of singletrack is more akin to a natural bike park, with endless lines swooping up and down natural whoops and berms in the beautiful Utah desert. It’s astounding to see the number of mountain bikers that use this beautiful landscape. So why is the State Trust so intent on selling it?

The problem has smoldered for years, but the recent listing of Zone 6 has made advocacy efforts urgent.

Brinkerhoff helped found TASU in part because they realized that the land these trails were on could potentially be sold at any time. That was 15 years ago, but it’s only just recently that the Greater Moe’s Valley has been listed for sale.

So why the change? Why were these trails only recently listed for sale?

“This is a pretty politically charged thing, mostly because of the highway,” said Brinkerhoff.

The full story of the proposed Northern Corridor Highway is long and convoluted, but an article from KUER.org sums it up well:

The Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service authorized a plan in 2021 to connect the northeast and northwest sides of St. George, granting the right-of-way to build the 4.5-mile highway through part of [the Red Cliffs Deser Reserve].

As part of that deal, Zone 6 was added to the conservation area in exchange for the land that would be lost to the highway. But two years later, the federal agencies put the highway plan on hold to take a closer look at its environmental impact. That reopened the hot button issue.

Local leaders and the state say if the highway doesn’t happen, Zone 6 is open for business.

In essence, the county and the state both say they’ll sell Zone 6 to generate funds if the highway doesn’t go through. However, some local advocates claim that the government is creating a “false dichotomy” and could choose to protect Zone 6 even if the highway doesn’t get built.

“I see it more or less as a middle finger to everybody that’s been involved,” said Brinkerhoff.

A coalition of outdoor advocates opposes the sale of the Greater Moe’s Valley.

While Washington County may seek to divide local advocates, it appears they have so far been unsuccessful. A massive coalition of local, regional, and even national-level organizations have signed on to fight the sale of Zone 6. These organizations include:

• The Access Fund
• Back Country Horsemen – Southwest Chapter
• Black Diamond Equipment
• Conserve Southwest Utah
• Intermountain Cup Racing Series
• Red Rock Bicycle (St. George)
• Salt Lake Climbers Alliance
• Southern Utah Climbers Alliance
• St. George Climbers Coalition
• SW Utah Broadband – Great Old Broads for Wilderness
• The Desert Rat (St. George)
• Trail Alliance of Southern Utah

What does it look like to win?

“Our success is keeping our trails open,” said Brinkerhoff. “A lot of it’s going to come down to how the city decides to zone that land.”

These advocates are pushing for the city of St. George to keep the land zoned as open space and not zone it for residential development. While there is a law that would allow the State Trust to force the city’s hand, in practice they rarely utilize that law, as the State needs to partner with the cities in order to make real estate development both feasible and lucrative.

The petition also says, “as a first step, we urge Washington County and St. George City Officials to pursue funding through the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) as part of a comprehensive strategy to protect this vital landscape. This is one of many solutions we can pursue together that would ensure that the Greater Moe’s Valley Area is preserved for future generations, while fulfilling SITLA’s financial mandate.”

“I would prefer them to not have any houses or anything, just to leave it raw the way it is right now,” said Brinkerhoff. “But I would say that some compromise of, let’s keep these sections open so we can ride our trails. Let’s keep those as a park, and if they want to sell some different sections and allow some development, I don’t know that anybody can throw a huge fit around that. Big thing is just, everybody just wants to be able to maintain their recreation spaces.”

Sign the petition to protest the sale of the Greater Moe’s Valley.

Brinkerhoff and other local advocates urge everyone who loves these trails to sign the petition against the sale of the Greater Moe’s Valley. Many riders, like myself, who’ve ridden Zen and Bearclaw Poppy and love the trails might not live in the local area and think their opinion doesn’t matter. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

“The way that Washington County is set up, it’s very tourism-based, so signatures from outside of the county almost count for more than signatures inside the county. They see that as revenue coming in that doesn’t take [from] the tax base,” said Brinkerhoff.

So, go on and sign the petition. Let’s Save Zen, Bearclaw Poppy, and this gorgeous desert landscape from development.