The Best Paved Cycling Route in St. George, Utah

Thanks to Instagram, we’ve all heard of Zion National Park in Utah. While it’s known for its famous Narrow hike through a river, Zion also boasts a great biking opportunity on Zion Canyon Scenic Road. However, before you arrive to Zion, you may be flying into the neighboring city of St. George. Though you may be so excited to get to the parks, don’t overlook the paved biking opportunities in St. George.

We started our ride renting bikes at Rapid Cycling which is conveniently located near the start of the trail following the Snow Canyon Parkway and the Red Hills Parkway Trail. We headed straight across the street to Diagonal Street where a bike trail follows the busy Bluff Street. Follow this path until you reach the intersection of Bluff with Snow Canyon Parkway to the left and Red Hills Parkway to the right. They’ll be obvious signs on the bike trail to help with directions. 

We decided to start with the trail on the left to head to Snow Canyon State Park. Due to Utah’s “Mighty 5” national parks, Snow Canyon often gets overlooked. Along with biking through the park, there are red rocks, petrified dunes, slot canyons and lava tubes to explore. The bonus is that it is much less crowded than the nearby Zion with a similar looking landscape. Honestly, this park would probably be a national park in any other state other than Utah.

This mostly flat trail will take you past beautiful golf courses, neighborhoods, and lots of the desert and red rock landscape. Continue to follow the nicely paved bike trail along Snow Canyon Parkway for about 5 miles until you reach the second roundabout. Here you’ll stay to the right and continue on Snow Canyon Drive which will take you up to the state park. From here it’s only a mile to the South Entrance gate of the park. The fee is only $3 per biker. 

Now that you’re officially in the park, get ready to climb! There is 4 miles and 900 feet elevation between the South and North park entrances. There is a paved multiuse trail starting on the left side of the road. It does wind pretty far away from the main road at points making it a bit tricky to explore some of the hiking trails. We had Jenny’s Canyon and the Sand Dunes on our itinerary originally. Unfortunately we decided to skip them due to time constraints, but I regret that! So if you are looking to make some pitstops throughout the park, I recommend biking along the main road. 

Once the Whiptail multiuse path ends at Upper Galoot, the real climbing begins. The last mile is brutally steep and feels never ending. The great park views are unfortunately behind you at this point, so don’t forget to turn around when catching your breath and marvel at the landscape. After passing the north entrance gate, congratulations you’ve completed a section of the trail used for the St. George Ironman!

Now that the climbing is out of the way, it’s time to fly downhill. The bike trail (not sure it has a name) starts in the back of the parking lot on the right side of the road just before the intersection of UT-18. It’s just under 8 miles and down 1,100 feet elevation back to the main intersection in town. This part of the ride is like a rollercoaster with steep rolling hills and some tight turns. This side is not as pretty as it’s following an interstate, but the downhill thrill makes up for it. We got up to 39 miles per hour in sections.

Once we finished the first loop and made it back to the intersection of Snow Canyon Parkway, we then took a left onto Red Hills Parkway Trail. The first half mile is a STEEP climb. My legs were already pretty tired from Snow Canyon so I struggled. We followed the path about 3 miles to Skyline Pond. Keep an eye out for the Red Hills Desert Garden and Pioneer Park on the left side of the street. While we didn’t have time to explore these areas, they looked amazing and worth a walk!

We then snaked down this ridiculously steep walking path through Temple Springs Nature Park so we could start making our way back to the rental shop. We eventually made it to Diagonal Street and finished the last 3.5 miles to Rapid Cycling. As tough as the climb up through Snow Canyon State Park was, I wouldn’t recommend cycling in the opposite direction. The hills along UT-18 would be much worse. But I’d say the state park is a must see if you have time to kill in St. George.