Red Slot to Cow Freckles Dirt Bike Trail, Moab Utah

This was one of those rides that just kind of came together as I was exploring the area near Ten Mile Canyon. We were camped at White Wash Sand Dunes as we often do, and I set out by heading SW up the wash to the Kid’s East Trail that exits the wash. The route I took was an awesome ride, although kind of pieced together from a number of trails.

Starting up Red Slot

The main goal was to ride the Cow Freckles Single Track Trail near Ten Mile Canyon. I wanted to take a more interesting route than the dirt road and I personally like the trails around Red Slot along no name mesa including Red Slot itself quite a lot. Going up Red Slot has a quite difficult ledge as you’ll see in the video. I don’t believe it’s as hard as I make it look, but being alone I took extra caution. It should be a proper challenge for most anyone however. There are many spurs in this area, most of which are fun so don’t get too caught up in getting off course as long as you hit Red Slot and Cow Freckles. The most direct route has the most single track instead of arching around on the road and/or double track. This was my first time on the Cow Freckles Trail although I had passed the trail head on many occasions thinking it looked like a fun ride. The trial head is well marked although I didn’t see the name of the trail posted. There are some logs to keep out anything wider than a dirt bike. It begins in the sand and is easy to follow then starts to weave over mounds of slickrock and back into sand. It becomes harder to follow and I had to backtrack a few times to see where I missed the trail. The hardest part to find is where it drops into a steep canyon. The arrow points forward in the right direction but your eyes see the tracks up the rock to the left and that’s where I immediately rode as I enjoyed the scenery of the canyon that I was suppose to be riding down into. I eventually found my mistake and completed the trail. At the end of the single track the trail continues to the right and eventually drops into ten mile canyon(this route into ten mile canyon has since been closed). I was out of time and did not want to attempt it not knowing for sure the correct route so I simply back tracked the way I came.

• Distance Traveled: Around 24 miles
• Difficulty: Mostly moderate, Going up Red Slot is Very Difficult
• Best Time To Ride: Fall or Spring
• Time To Complete: 2 hrs
• Type: Mostly single track, sand and rock with a large portion on slickrock
• Location: Near White Wash Sand Dunes, Moab(see map)
or click for Directions To White Wash Sand Dunes from your location to the turn off to White Wash Sand Dunes, then continue East to the Dunes. The trail begins in the main wash just before the dunes. (as seen on the map)
• Elevation: About 4,200 feet

-DOWNLOAD KML FILE-

Key GPS Points

• Trail Head: 38.800546, -110.033902
• Kids East Trail Head,(Exit Wash): 38.785602, -110.043367
• Cattle Guard, Spur to Red Slot East of Cattle Guard/Gate: 38.753556, -110.027449
• Red Slot: 38.754477, -110.016846
• Second Cattle Guard, Trail spurs SE from Road: 38.753634, -109.991241
• Cow Freckles Trail Head: 38.743438, -109.964425
• Ride Down Canyon (easy to get sidetracked here): 38.727238, -109.971667