Moab and the Dead Horse 30K

Rounding the corner at the top of the first climb near Court Point.

Earlier this year I signed up for the Dead Horse 30K thinking it’d make for a good excuse to head to Moab for a weekend in late-November. Escaping to warmer climates from the Vail Valley during the winter and shoulder seasons is something we’ve been doing more and more of lately, and with Moab only a few hours away, we were overdue to spend some time there.

The Dead Horse Ultras put on by Mad Moose Events offers three distances – 30K, 50K and 50-mile – which all start from the same point and wind up and around through the Magnificent Seven Trails area northeast of Dead Horse State Park. The courses feature lots of miles running on red slickrock and through creek beds and sand washes, which lends to a true desert race feel. Being as late as they are in the year the races also generally feature mild weather. Not having trained for anything significant in a few months and having just returned from Hawaii, I was pretty happy with my choice in the 30K distance.

At the race start on a cool November morning.

Anna-Lisa dropped me off at the start line and I was off with the rest of the 30K runners ten minutes later. Initially the course climbs up and around a corner along the Gemini Bridges road, then descends down to the first aid station before transitioning to singletrack.

Runners along the road.

From there the singletrack quickly gives way to red rock slabs with painted hash marks denoting the trail/route. Kind of cool, but this type of terrain also demands concentration and is pretty tough on the legs.

The route ahead with the La Sals in back.

Being pretty undertrained even for a 30K I took things pretty casual and coasted through the first half of the 18-mile course. On the back third of the race I was still feeling pretty good and decided to burn myself out trying to pass people up the final climb back out towards Court Point.

On the Gemini Bridges Road again after completing the lollipop.

Then after the short descent it was onto the final mile of flat road to the finish. My time ended up being 2:42:58 for a place of 50/432 overall. Full results can be found here.

At the finish line. Such a neat little race.

And a map of the course. Stats came in at 17.8 miles and 1,700 ft.

Anna-Lisa met me back at the finish line after going on a run herself with Jax, then we motored on into town for a late-breakfast. It was nice to finish a race before noon and have the rest of the day freed up to do other things for once.

So after breakfast we decided to head into Arches and putz around, as Anna-Lisa had never been there before and it had been at least 20 years for me. It was cool to get back in there and see a few of the arches I remember as a kid, as well as a few new ones. Sounds like it was good timing as well, as apparently Arches is moving to timed reservations in the wake of surging visitation during the COVID era.

Nice afternoon light on Skyline Arch.

Sunset over The Windows area with the snowcapped La Sals in the distance.

Balanced Rock just after sunset.

After a nice dinner in town and an early morning back into Arches to check out some more features at sunrise, we headed on up to Dead Horse State Park and ran the Rim Loop around the edge of the plateau. Neither of us had been into this park before and thought it was well worth the price of admission.

Landscape Arch at first light the next morning. Spanning 290 feet this is the 5th longest natural arch in the world.

Stopping to soak in some sun at one of the many overlook points along the Rim Loop Trail.

Looking east towards the La Sals and the Potash evaporation ponds.

And lastly, dinner in town. Cheers!

With the most recent dump it’s starting to look a lot like winter around here. Can’t wait for the real ski season to begin 🙂