Alyssa's story: Dirty Dino Gravel Race

BaseCamp athlete Alyssa Biel shared her experience at the 2026 Dirty Dino Gravel Race in Utah.

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Very excited to have my first race with the tiny camper as my basecamp, what a luxury! I hitched it up and headed down to Vernal, UT, gateway to Dinosaur National Monument for a fun weekend. I reserved a spot at a nearby state park so I wouldn't have to factor in any anxiety about camper-related stuff into my race weekend, no worrying about finding a suitable dispersed camping spot along with all the other racers, running out of battery, filling water tanks, etc.

The local sheriff's department had put out an electronic sign to warn the public of bike racers sharing the road, and I really appreciated the touch of having a little T-rex chasing a bike they managed to animate on it!

I picked the mid-distance course and went with a gravel bike, hoping for less loose or chunky conditions. The gravel bike was definitely the correct tool for this event, even with the skinny tires.

The mid- and long-distance courses both start with a neutral rollout, followed by a heck of an uphill. You fortunately have incredible views of the surrounding area to help boost your spirits as you slog through what seems like an endless climb. Similar to all the stages of grief that one might go through during a race, you cycle through a diverse range of scenery, red canyons, dry sagebrush hillslopes, shady cool Aspen stands, lush high elevation wetlands and grassy clearings. Maybe I'm partial, but it's worth the ride for the views alone.

Near the top of the biggest climb is the first aid station. I stopped for a quick water refill and sunscreen reapplication, planning to not stop at any of the other aid stations.

After climbing for what seems like an eternity, you have a section of rolling terrain (probably how they came up with the name for this particular course) before starting the long downhill. Definitely worth making sure your brakes are in good condition pre-race.

There's an aid station in the rolling section somewhat close to reaching the mostly-downhill-from-here point, which I passed by. There's another aid station somewhere along the descent, but unless you're in dire need of something, I feel like it's probably worth skipping and just continuing to the finish.

As the descent flattens out, you encounter some of the worst "pavement" I've ever ridden and arguably the part of the course you need to be the most on your toes picking a line to get through, unless you want to potentially taco a wheel or get thrown over the bars dropping into or out of a ~6+ inch deep crater where the repaired asphalt has left the building. Especially tricky with the dappled light from the roadside forest!

Once you make it through the pavement that mimics the remnants of the earth's surface after the meteor impact that killed the dinosaurs, it's fairly quick rolling on much better pavement to bring it to the finish line.

I felt like I did a good job keeping myself pedaling up the climb without stopping, and it was such a fun day on the bike I'm definitely hoping to make it back to ride again in the future.