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Considering a move to Cedar City, anyone live there and ride?

4813 Views 39 Replies 16 Participants Last post by KRob, 2 mo ago

Sanchofula

Discussion Starter · Feb 1, 2022

My kids are settling in SLC/Ogden, so we wanna be closer; not too close

I'm pretty familiar with the area, been riding in Southern Utah for years, visited my kids quite often when they were at Dixie State.

I'm not of the predominate religion, but I'm comfortable working with and being friendly with all walks of life, so that's not a concern for me.

I'm pretty much focused on Cedar City, St George is too hot, SLC/Ogden is too cold and too congested, Grand Junction/Fruita is okay but not exactly what I'm looking for ...

My wife and are both medical providers, so obviously we won't move there unless we can find work; I want to avoid the drive to St George.

So what's the riding vibe like for locals? Is there a trail building group? How's winter riding, do the trails close down for three months or are they rideable after a a bit of melt out?

I'm fifty plus, but ride like I'm thirty, love the chunk, ride everything in St George/Hurricane.

Thanks for looking!

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k2rider1964

· #2 · Feb 2, 2022

Don't live there and this info is very dated but I had two non-Mormon co-workers move to Cedar City from San Diego. They lasted 2-3 years tops before moving on to Texas. They said they always felt like outsiders and found it hard to assimilate. I've read about those same issues for years and years but they usually centered around school age kids not getting invited to events, birthday parties, etc...

We've ridden at most of the CC stuff at one time or another. Aside from the shuttles out near Brian Head, I like the Iron Hills stuff the best. Very well designed overall, good scenery and I could lap Lava Link for 1/2 a day.The negative is you can actually hear the freeway traffic. Three Peaks is more diverse and ranges from pretty cool to blah as far as both terrain and scenery. They seem to be adding more features every time we go.

Personally, with riding being a high priority, I'm not sure CC would fill my needs but the downtown area is coming along, is super clean and has some very good restaurants.

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Sanchofula

Discussion Starter · #3 · Feb 3, 2022

k2rider1964 said:
Don't live there and this info is very dated but I had two non-Mormon co-workers move to Cedar City from San Diego. They lasted 2-3 years tops before moving on to Texas. They said they always felt like outsiders and found it hard to assimilate. I've read about those same issues for years and years but they usually centered around school age kids not getting invited to events, birthday parties, etc...

We've ridden at most of the CC stuff at one time or another. Aside from the shuttles out near Brian Head, I like the Iron Hills stuff the best. Very well designed overall, good scenery and I could lap Lava Link for 1/2 a day.The negative is you can actually hear the freeway traffic. Three Peaks is more diverse and ranges from pretty cool to blah as far as both terrain and scenery. They seem to be adding more features every time we go.

Personally, with riding being a high priority, I'm not sure CC would fill my needs but the downtown area is coming along, is super clean and has some very good restaurants.

Yeah, we're old, our kids are professionals, so we'd be working toward retirement, spending time with grandkids riding, hiking, etc...

The town of CC is small, not much for entertainment but compared to where we live now it's comparable; CC has a university which adds some cool vibes we are lacking in our home town.

St George is really evolving, it's kinda cool to visit, lots of activities other than biking, and plenty of good food for vegetarians.

In terms of riding, the Three Peaks would be my daily ride in the winter as it thaws out quickest, Brian Head and Iron Hills when I have a day off and during summer, then of course SG and Hurricane when I want dead of winter riding or a break from CC.

My plan is to get a big chunk of property and build out trails, build a house, etc... this is what we did at our current place.

Having spent a lot of time in Utah, the LDS thing is not a problem, but if I had school age kids I'd think twice.

When I look for a place to settle, I think about how it will be in twenty years; I used to be a city planner, so it's a built in mind set.

Twenty years from now, Cedar City will be a vibrant alternative to St George, not as hot, more diverse, and a much bigger student population.

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SAM313

· #4 · Feb 3, 2022

I’m in Moab, we need Nurses but the pay in Utah is so lousy I don’t know why you’d move here, even for kids. You’d honestly be much better working out of Grand Junction as CO wages are much higher. I have only ridden the Three Peaks area in Cedar City with Our MTB team, nothing like Moab, scenic kinda, flowy sorta , just not my cup-a-tea. It’s kinda like riding Joshua Tree except with trees instead of cacti. You’ll get a lot more snow cutting into your riding season in Cedar City vs St. George. I ride year round in Moab but our housing rates are so high no one can find anywhere to live.

TrailMiss

· #5 · Feb 3, 2022

Cedar City is beautiful and the riding is fantastic. I went to college there (decades ago) and the town has and hasn't changed. I live in St. George, and I'm not part of the predominant religion either. I don't have a problem being a minority. As far as vibe, both St. G and Cedar aren't really "adventure towns." They're "soccer mom towns." But if you're like me, you can have your own adventure without the town leading you to it. The local trail group is Iron Trail Craft. irontrailcraft.org

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Sanchofula

Discussion Starter · #6 · Feb 3, 2022

SAM313 said:
I’m in Moab, we need Nurses but the pay in Utah is so lousy I don’t know why you’d move here, even for kids. You’d honestly be much better working out of Grand Junction as CO wages are much higher. I have only ridden the Three Peaks area in Cedar City with Our MTB team, nothing like Moab, scenic kinda, flowy sorta , just not my cup-a-tea. It’s kinda like riding Joshua Tree except with trees instead of cacti. You’ll get a lot more snow cutting into your riding season in Cedar City vs St. George. I ride year round in Moab but our housing rates are so high no one can find anywhere to live.

I'm not a nurse, I'm a nurse practitioner, so wages are considerably higher and it's generally a sellers market.

The wages for NP's are very comparable between Utah and Colorado, ie neither pays that great unless it's a critical access hospital.

I did consider Moab, but the jobs are very limited; ie work at the hospital, compound that with population growth problems, increasing tourism, increasing house prices (if you can find one), yeah, it's not really an option.

Living in St George is a no go, it's far too hot.

Like I said, we're moving to Cedar City, I'm interested in learning more about the biking vibe/secene from folks who live there... does anyone on the forum actually live there?

Sanchofula

Discussion Starter · #7 · Feb 3, 2022

TrailMiss said:
Cedar City is beautiful and the riding is fantastic. I went to college there (decades ago) and the town has and hasn't changed. I live in St. George, and I'm not part of the predominant religion either. I don't have a problem being a minority. As far as vibe, both St. G and Cedar aren't really "adventure towns." They're "soccer mom towns." But if you're like me, you can have your own adventure without the town leading you to it. The local trail group is Iron Trail Craft. irontrailcraft.org

Thanks for the feedback, yeah, we make our own adventures

St George has really grown up, been visiting there for a couple decades, my kids wen to Dixie (hated it), but they liked the town, though it gets pretty durn hot!

My wife is from the deep south and I lived there for twenty years, a church on every corner, first question when meeting someone new is "what church to go to?".

I'm a psych provider, so I can get along with anyone for thirty minutes

TrailMiss

· #8 · Feb 3, 2022

Me and the Mister would be happy to ride with you, if you end up moving to Cedar. The only way to change the demographics is to be the change.

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Harold

· #9 · Feb 3, 2022

I lived in Southern Utah for a few months while I worked for the USFS just out of college. I wasn't in Cedar City proper, but I went there regularly to buy food and visit the nearest bike shop and such.

Living there was...interesting. In the town I was in (Escalante), locals glared at you for enjoying a pitcher of beer on the patio of the local restaurant with coworkers. You were made painfully aware that you weren't local and were of a different religion than them.

Cedar City was big enough that I didn't much notice that, but I also didn't live in town and see the same people regularly the way I did in Escalante. You could probably do okay there, so long as you can handle seeing very obvious polygamists from time to time. That was a challenge for me, because they're visibly STRONGLY patriarchal. I've lived in the south. I've lived in parts of the midwest with Amish populations. Southern Utah is a good bit different still. After spending that time there, the region fell into my "nice to visit, don't want to live there" category.

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rockman

· #10 · Feb 3, 2022

I don't have much to add to this thread other than the trail scene is going off and the Shakespeare film festival is worthy.

One of the more interesting things I ran into on a trail last year was shuttling Blowhard and running into 3 nice ladies on full squish bikes in 19th century pastel prairie dresses. They did have helmets but it wasn't clear how they actually pedaled in those outfits. Towards the end of the ride we ran into the men all in wranglers but also wearing helmets. One tried to send the little gap in the canyon at the end which was an impressive fail. Anyway, an interesting end to a fine day at the Brian Head bike park followed by shuttles on bunker creek and blowhard.

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evdog

· #11 · Feb 8, 2022 (Edited)

rockman said:
One of the more interesting things I ran into on a trail last year was shuttling Blowhard and running into 3 nice ladies on full squish bikes in 19th century pastel prairie dresses.

Haha, I actually had a similar encounter at a trailhead above Beaver, UT in July. While I was getting ready to ride and a girl in full length dress and two guys in full wrangler outfits rode in off the trail on pretty nice full suspension bikes.

Back to the OP, it is worth mentioning that there are some excellent, seldom ridden backcountry trails above Beaver that get up to 12,000ft that are less than 90min away from Cedar City. I'd definitely be spending some time up there in the summer and fall.

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el poseur

· #12 · Feb 11, 2022

Nurse Ben said:
I'm not a nurse, I'm a nurse practitioner, so wages are considerably higher and it's generally a sellers market.

The wages for NP's are very comparable between Utah and Colorado, ie neither pays that great unless it's a critical access hospital.

I did consider Moab, but the jobs are very limited; ie work at the hospital, compound that with population growth problems, increasing tourism, increasing house prices (if you can find one), yeah, it's not really an option.

Living in St George is a no go, it's far too hot.

Like I said, we're moving to Cedar City, I'm interested in learning more about the biking vibe/secene from folks who live there... does anyone on the forum actually live there?

I think you are a nurse.
😳

mixmastamikal

· #13 · Feb 11, 2022

I lived in Cedar for quite a few years and attended school there for a bit before transferring to University of Utah (The engineering program at SUU only offers an integrated engineering degree that is too closely associated with civil and could not get mechanical jobs with it like I wanted). I still have quite a bit of extended family there. Vegas is only a few hours away as an international airport hub and it seems like it is easy to get good priced flights out of there plus there are some good shuttle companies that will transport you straight from Cedar to the airport at a reasonable price. Winters can be pretty cold there but you can drive south less than an hour and have riding for most of the year. Trail scene is only getting better there as well and have lift access riding at Brian Head less than an hour away as well. Plus lots of other great places to ride within 2 hours like Bryce Canyon and Richfield that has a really good trail system that is growing.

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Sanchofula

Discussion Starter · #14 · Feb 11, 2022

el poseur said:
I think you are a nurse.
😳

No, I’m a Nurse Practitioner, it’s quite different.

Nurses can’t diagnose or treat illness, they must follow the directions of a medical provider.

Nurse Practitioners diagnose and treat illness, they are medical providers.

It’s sorta like comparing a carpenter to an engineer.

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Sanchofula

Discussion Starter · #15 · Feb 11, 2022

Hey, thanks for the feedback!

I’ve passed through Cedar City many times over the past twenty years, each time there’s more development on both ends of town.

The university continues to grow, more folks are moving to the area, but it’s not going gang busters like St George, so I’m hoping to get in before things get too crazy.

It’s a less developed area than Carson City, but if we stay there for twenty years, it’ll become s more liveable place; ie diverse.

I’d like to get involved in community planning with an eye toward building a central place in downtown, traffic calming, etc … I used to be a city planner.

mixmastamikal said:
I lived in Cedar for quite a few years and attended school there for a bit before transferring to University of Utah (The engineering program at SUU only offers an integrated engineering degree that is too closely associated with civil and could not get mechanical jobs with it like I wanted). I still have quite a bit of extended family there. Vegas is only a few hours away as an international airport hub and it seems like it is easy to get good priced flights out of there plus there are some good shuttle companies that will transport you straight from Cedar to the airport at a reasonable price. Winters can be pretty cold there but you can drive south less than an hour and have riding for most of the year. Trail scene is only getting better there as well and have lift access riding at Brian Head less than an hour away as well. Plus lots of other great places to ride within 2 hours like Bryce Canyon and Richfield that has a really good trail system that is growing.

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el poseur

· #16 · Feb 11, 2022 (Edited)

Nurse Ben said:
No, I’m a Nurse Practitioner, it’s quite different.

Nurses can’t diagnose or treat illness, they must follow the directions of a medical provider.

Nurse Practitioners diagnose and treat illness, they are medical providers.

It’s sorta like comparing a carpenter to an engineer.
[/QUOTE

Sanchofula

Discussion Starter · #17 · 5 mo ago

We’ll, we’re finally on our way, just sold our house, made an offer on a house in Cedar City, moving in April.

We found a place off grid out by Iron Town, very quiet, 20ac baked up to BLM, so I got room to build my own trails, then I’m looking to get involved building trails in Cedar and in Pine Vally.

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KRob

· #18 · 3 mo ago

Sanchofula said:
We’ll, we’re finally on our way, just sold our house, made an offer on a house in Cedar City, moving in April.

We found a place off grid out by Iron Town, very quiet, 20ac baked up to BLM, so I got room to build my own trails, then I’m looking to get involved building trails in Cedar and in Pine Vally.

Welcome to Cedar. I’ve often wondered if there’s any potential riding coming over the pass between New Castle and Cedar near Iron Town and Pinto. Looks like a lot of private property near the highway anyway… but if you have 20 acres backed up to BLM land you should have plenty of room to explore.

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can't get right

· #19 · 3 mo ago (Edited)

You certainly are a ways out. Buy a gravel bike, you have endless dirt roads in every direction from there.
Or better yet, an ADV moto. I spin through there on my moto occasionally on my way to the backside of the beyond, when avoiding pavement.

Cloud Sky Plant Tire Wheel

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Sanchofula

Discussion Starter · #20 · 3 mo ago

KRob said:
Welcome to Cedar. I’ve often wondered if there’s any potential riding coming over the pass between New Castle and Cedar near Iron Town and Pinto. Looks like a lot of private property near the highway anyway… but if you have 20 acres backed up to BLM land you should have plenty of room to explore.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Got the house and moved in a bunch of stuff, final move is in three weeks, the place is a little rough from the goat rearing, but we'll get it shaped up.

Yes, twenty acres of cedars, the front acreage ~ five acres is fenced for dogs, but the other 15 ac backs up to BLM, so lots of trail opportunities.

We didn't realize we were quite so high up, just a hundred feet short of the pass at Iron Mountain ... good thing the house is well made and warm

My trail building "tool" is in the planning stages, a walk behind loader like a Dingo, six way dozer styled blade, additional attachments might include a trencher, auger, or a hoe.

I was just happy to get the house purchase done, clean things up, and prep chicken coop ... now we're talking about getting some heritage turkeys next, but I want peacocks

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