The Route: Big Rock Candy Out & Back

This 40+ mile morning ride, roundtrip, covers three main sections. 

It begins just beyond Made in Good Taste  co-op bakery and farmers’ market on Main Street in Elsinore, Utah, and about a block away from a small and very local art gallery, the Staples Art Center.

The route starts with a nice, wide two-way . . .

• bike path paralleling Sevier Hwy 258 (old Hwy 89) from Elsinore through the little farming town of Joseph (where you can turn off at the sign for the Wildland Nursery for dryland/xeriscape gardens).  The bike path switches from the west to the east side of the road at the Flying U Country Store (website has a link to photos of the bike trail) and continues through Sevier (past Country Church Antiques) to 

• the trailhead of the Candy Mountain Express Bike Trail – a beautiful bike trail climbing up through a dry canyon full of sage brush and wild flowers along the Sevier River on an old railway bed

and which brings you to the Big Rock Candy Mountain Resort Restuarant 

 

(an amazing place to stop for breakfast on the way back home and apparently popular with other cyclists, too)

 

and from there to a wide, clean 

• shoulder along low-traffic Sevier Hwy 258 (old Hwy 89)

past water meadows full of calling birds,

 

old stone farm houses,

 

irrigated hayfields,

and at last, to Marysvale, an old mining town, 

where you can stop for bagels, water, and other convenience foods or necessities at Tug’s One Stop – much frequented by ATVers  who come down off the mountain trails here.  Or if you’re lucky,

you’ll find signs for fresh cherries being sold out of someone’s backyard. 

Then turn at Marysvale and come back the same way:

The Candy Mountain Express Bike Trail can be rather exciting when a sudden summer squall blows up –

thunder and lightning in the narrow canyon, hail and water pouring over the road. 

But beautiful at the same time.

And at least it’s all downhill until a last low crest and then a long glide into town.

 The Map:  Big Rock Candy Out & Back and links to similar routes that include the Rock Candy Express bike trail

Riding the Big Rock Candy Out & Back: “My Husband Doesn’t Sing“(2009)

Useful Links

Bikely: Rock Candy Rumble – map and cue sheet for a longer ride that includes the stretch between Elsinore and Marysvale

Map my Ride: map and elevation info of the ride from Richfield to Big Rock Candy Mountain  

TrailLink: description and map of Candy Mountain Express