The Sundance area is one of the most amazing areas in the world. I don't know if there is a more beautiful place in the world. Probably not. I know I say that about every ride, but this area is incredible. The ride itself, not so much. I know there are a lot of fantastic rides, especially at the top of the Alpine Loop, but most of those require shuttling. This ride starts at the bottom and climbs up to that summit, so it's straight up and straight down.

Aspen Grove is found just a few miles past Sundance--it's impossible to miss. This trail starts in the parking lot just past the toll booth, so if there's someone manning the booth, just park on the street a little before and ride up into the parking lot. If you've climbed Timpagnogos before, this is the same starting point assuming you started on this side. The ride climbs up to the other starting point for the hike, about five miles or so up the road. Don't follow the signs for Timpanogos' summit-bikes aren't allowed, and the trail would be impossible on a bike. Instead, you'll ride up for a quarter mile or so, then take a right off the main trail and cross over a small footbridge. From there, it's up a few loose, rocky switchbacks before the grade lessons, at which point it's just a long climb to the top.

After a couple miles you'll see another fork, and you'll take a left. Going right will dump you right onto the road where there's a small turn off for people to take pictures. There are some really nice views at this point, but most of the ride is in dense forest. Towards the top it flattens out and speeds up just before you end up at the little circular parking lot at the top of the road. Elevation is 8000--a gain of 1200 for the ride. I didn't have a lot of energy for some reason, so maybe that's biasing my view, but I wasn't real impressed. The setting is incredible, but the views from the trail really aren't. It's rocky and slow going up, and bumpy and sketchy going down. The top half is actually pretty fun, but it gets rocky and slow pretty quick.