Long and Winding Roads

We've been looking for bike paths that we could use that would be interesting and safe at the same time. We've now visited two of these "multi-use" paths. They are paved, striped paths for walkers, joggers, and cyclists (and probably any other non-motorized means of transportation).

The first of these is the Indian Bend Wash green belt located in Scottsdale and the northern part of Tempe in Arizona (see the map at right). The "Over Twelve Miles and Climbing" entry below shows a short video view of part of this path.

One can start on the north side of Tempe Town Lake and ride north all the way to Shea Blvd in Scottsdale. This is about 12 miles one-way (so an easy 20-mile round trip). There are various parks and parking lots along the way where you can start, stop, and rest (so you can go from just a couple miles up to a goodly distance). Several of the parks have "facilities" for quick pit stops.

The second path we found is located in Provo, Utah. We were there dropping one of our sons off at the LDS MTC and stayed in a small inn that backs up to one of the multiple paths found in the city. The picture shows the path from the back of the inn. It runs from Utah Lake (to the west) all the way up through Provo Canyon to Bridal Veil Falls. Be aware that the altitude in Provo is around 4500 feet, so if you are use to lower altitudes (like we are in the Phoenix area at around 1100 feet), it might be a bit of an exercise to do the same distances up and down the grades on this route that can easily be done at lower altitudes.

The circled area on the map below shows where the photo was taken.