VJ Trail, San Rafael Swell

While searching for a post on the VJ Trail in the San Rafael Swell, I realized that I had never posted this ride. The VJ Trail is a lesser known trail among the popular "color trails" in the Southern San Rafael. It connects the Orange Trail back to the wash it starts in and makes a nice loop. One benefit of this is you bypass the lethargic Blue or Green Trail and the road back to the parking area.

A narrow wash along the VJ Trail

We have only done the trail once and it was in a clockwise direction. This year we plan on reversing the route and doing the VJ Trail first followed by the Orange Trail. I believe this would make the VJ Trail slightly harder by traveling up the trail instead of down, but I am not sure. The trail has many steps and a few narrow washes along with some high speed single track and wide washes. I would say it's moderate in difficulty and really close to the difficulty of the Orange Trail. Doing only the loop does cut off part of the Orange trail so if you want to do the entire Orange Trail, you will need to go North/East up the wash from it's junction with the Green trail and then retrace your route back to complete the loop. Zooming in on the map below shows where we started up the wash.

• Distance ridden: around 15 miles
• Difficulty: intermediate
• Best Time To Ride: Spring or Fall
• Time To Complete: 2 to 3 hours
• Type: Sand washes, slickrock, singletrack
• Location: South San Rafael Swell. Click for Directions to the Parking/Staging Area from your location, see the map below for trail route information

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Key GPS Points

• Parking Area: 38.653329, -110.6543
• Orange Trail Head: 38.691628,-110.658394
• VJ Trail Head: 38.731707, -110.666493