Steamboat Pass by Bicycle - Velo

Steamboat Pass

This pass is low. Whatever feels like "a climb" is over before it begins. But I wouldn't want to miss what this pass has to offer. This is my favorite kind of scenery, far open views to rocks and open expanses. The surface is free of washboard. It also didn't hurt that I had sunny clear conditions after a two day combined dust/rain storm. - What an incredible place the Utah western dessert is.

1.START-END WEST:low point on Tule Valley Rd
2.profile turns left onto Steamboat Pass Rd
3.TOP: Steamboat Pass,5280ft
4.profile leaves Steamboat Pass Rd, on order to find a low point on this side
5.START-END EAST:Black Hills Well

Approaches

From West. the stretch of road that crosses the gap in the Black Hills is really no steeper than the valley approach to the turnoff into the Black Hills. So I'll include the valley portion in the profile. Besides - the most interesting part of this ride really is the first 10 miles of Tule Valley Rd from the jct of US6. The road along the multifaceted Confusion Range skirts lake-playas and large bowls of sand. The road however is free from this and in great shape. It is also straight as an arrow - most of the time. The turnoff to Steamboat Pass is actually signed with an attractive BLM marker.

This last portion is on less used track and crests in a wide gap, with a cliff shaped like ship hull to the south. I imagine that's where the name comes from. A track starts here that looks like it can be used to get to the crest of these low Black Hills

From East. (described downwards) A sliver of Sevier Lake appears between the rocks, soon after rolling down the gentle inclined plain. But in order to get to the lake you have to keep riding for quite a while. The flat, white, salty surface shimmers in the distance. There is a short stretch on this side, where the surface may justify a mountain bike. But it does not last.

Heading north along the lake, the route reaches a low point still more than a mile distant from the lake's shore. That's where the profile ends. Technically speaking you could get a bit lower and closer to the lake on short detours heading in an easterly direction.

Dayride with this point as highest summit:

PARTIALLY PAVED / UNPAVED

( US6 Summit: Tule Valley - Ferguson Dessert | Headlight Canyon - Filmore Canyon s(u) > )

Steamboat Pass , Skull Rock Pass : near jct US6 - Tule Valley Rd > Tule Valley Rd south > Steamboat Pass Rd east > Steamboat Pass > Steamboat Pass Rd north > 3c Rd north > US6 west > Skullrock Pass > back to starting point near jct US6 - Tule Valley Rd: 52.7miles with 1980ft of climbing in 5:57hrs (Garmin etrex30m3: 22.4.23).
Notes: I saw only one motor vehicle on the non-paved part (in addition to the dead car wreck), and that one was within a couple of miles of US6.