Southwest - ROAD routes in Moab?

Greetings, did a search, did not find relevant threads.

A buddy and I will be camping in Moab in mid-March with road bikes (and mountain bikes). I'm interested in some road routes around there -- supposed to be beautiful.

I'm currently semi-recovering from a month and a half of pneumonia :-( so I'm going to be getting back on the bike just a week or two before we leave. I've lost 90% of any fitness I had. So I'm looking for relatively flat or flat-to-rolling routes, between 10 and 40 miles total -- and distances in-between, too.

Of course gorgeous scenery would be nice, but that's sort of a given out there, from what I can tell.

Thanks in advance!

La Sal Loop

http://pages.swcp.com/~nmts/rides/MoabCentury.htm
http://skinnytireevents.com/images/stories/PDFs/MCT2008%20Map%20&%20Elevations.pdf

and check the routes the Skinny Tire Festival uses (heck you may even be there the same weekend?): http://skinnytireevents.com/content/blogcategory/28/63/

I've ridden there a few times, and it's gorgeous. The Dead Horse Point ride is a must-do, as is Arches National Park (http://www.nps.gov/arch/index.htm), and if you have the legs, climbing the Big Nasty (the La Sal Loop) is a nice notch for the belt, too...

found this pic of me at Dead horse Point two Marches ago (note the clothing, it's still cold in March). Sorry there's some dood blocking the view....
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/241/450958666_14bec693f9.jpg

Thanks, SD -- those sound interesting, though probably more than I will be able to handle by then, with recovery from pneumonia. :-( Kind of hard to be traveling to one of the most beautiful road-riding places but being extremely limited in energy/fitness. My friends who've had it, and the doctor, say stay away from over-exertion. Grr!

I will def. check the links out before deciding, though.

The portal ride and riding out towards Dewey Bridge should be just fine; they're along the river so your elevation change is minimal. The portal ride is like zero climbing. If you head to Dewey Bridge there are rollers, but nothing like the Big Nasty or the drag up to Dead Horse Point. Arches has a stiff climb from the front gate just to get into the park, then it's big rollers from there. But man it's worth it....

Excellent info.

I'll probably have to try to get through Arches. Haven't been there since about 1982 - I was a teen. And road riding it... well... duh! I'll have to try. Thanks!

What is the road traffic like in the Moab area? Cars & trucks everywhere? Winter quiet, summer busy? Thanks!!

Yeah, good question. I'd like to know as well. Esp. in March!

Bumpin' this, because the leave date is approaching and I'd love to know of a couple more easy road routes.

Also, if there are any (??) easy (I mean EASY) MTB routes, that would be great too. I'm getting over the pneumonia pretty nicely, but it's still there, and what with gaining 4000', flying all day, and all that, I really have to start easy.

Thanks in advance.

What did you find? I am hoping to spend time in Moab as I move back to the midwest. Looking for both road and dirt.

DP, I ended up not being able to ride like I'd hoped, due to a head cold and an injury, but even the easy riding out there is fantastically rewarding.

I did go both up and down the roads beside the river, and they are quite flat and rewarding, good time trial material and gorgeous canyons. You can pull off and watch rock climbers along the way, which is great in the bouldering area.

I did some of the ride to Dead Horse Point -- a long, steady climb which would be no problem today, but I was feeling to crappy that day to finish. I should think that finishing the climb and then getting that view at the top would be worth it (I drove to the top on a different day). The view is worth the trip to Moab all by itself.

We got very lucky with the weather -- in mid-March, day-time highs were consistenly low- to mid-70s and clear blue skies. However, it got considerably chillier and more mixed there just the week after we left -- and stayed that way for a while (I checked AccuWeather).

I definitely want to head back there.