Many places which have very little water are the same places that have the deepest, most awesome canyons carved by rivers. On Section 7 of the Western Wildlands Bikepacking Route (WWR), we were challenged by cycling across arid lands with no access to water for several days. As a reward, we cycled to the Grand Canyon - a mile deep and up to 18 miles wide. But that was only one of several stunning canyons, most of which are less visited by tourists. They’re also the domain of one of North America’s rarest and largest birds - the California Condor.

No, this blog isn’t about Scarlet O’Hara descending the staircase at Tara in her ball gown. Over the course of 7 days, we cycled from the heights of North America’s highest timbered plateau, down a series of pink, white and vermillion cliffs. It’s a geologic Grand Staircase spanning more than 600 million years of Earth’s history. And it’s a magnificent backdrop for cycling the Western Wildlands Bikepacking Route.

From the first mile, segment 7 of the Western Wildlands Bikepacking Route (WWR) will test your mettle. No other segment reaches the same heights (11,000 ft above sea level) or spends as much time at high altitudes. We were now spending days threading our way along high plateaus, with stunning vistas that stretched far into the distance. There are alpine meadows studded with aspens, and rocky cliffs with many ridge tops to cycle.

We’ve now traveled more than 1,600 miles (about 2600 km) on the Western Wildlands Bikepacking Route (WWR). That means we’ve passed the half-way point from Canada to Mexico. Leaving Idaho behind, we cycled back and forth across the Utah/Wyoming border through parched, sagebrush prairies and frontier towns. But this is the WWR. And before long we were back into the mountains, where we cycled over high ridges, through scenic groves of aspen and spruce on remote gravel roads.