Just outside Caineville, Utah, lies Swing Arm City, a 2,600-acre hot spot for off-road junkies. The destination boasts countless hills, precipitous drop-offs, and ridgeline singletrack trails, along with some of the country’s biggest natural jumps. Tom Parsons, a 38-year-old motocross rider, has made the trek there from his Florida home numerous times. One recent August, he and Chris Tedesco, a Denver-based photographer, spent three days in the 100-degree heat, crisscrossing the moonlike landscape.
One precarious feature, in particular, called to the pair. The slope was difficult to walk up, let alone ride, owing to the steep grade and powdery silt covering it. Still, Parsons, a former X Games gold medalist, was bent on reaching the top. Hitting the base at 35 mph, he used the raw power of his KTM 450 motocross bike to maintain momentum all the way up.
“The fact that the other side is a vertical drop was more mental than anything,” Parsons says. “Luckily, I couldn’t see over the edge.”
