The route
Desert RATS 100K
Next edition8-11 April 2027
A 102 km out-and-back through the Colorado desert, relief front-loaded at the start, barely 1,931 m of climbing.
Drawn with a pen, line by line
- Distance
- 102 km
- Elevation gain
- 1,931 m
- Highest point
- 1,640 m
- Summits, passes and villages
- 20
01
The route in numbers
Indicative figures computed by Plotrek on its illustrative route, with altitudes from a terrain model. They may differ from the organiser's.
02
Reading the route
An out-and-back through the Colorado desert, this route climbs very little for a hundred-mile ultra: most of the relief happens in the opening kilometers.
5 am, at Hawkeye Trailhead, in Fruita: runners head out into the desert. The route climbs straight to its highest point, then drops for good: the rest of the course rolls gently, on desert singletrack and 4x4 track.
It passes Rustler's Loop, then follows the Colorado River on and off up to Salt Creek. The terrain switches between rock and sand, through the canyons of the Kokopelli trail network.
The route reaches Western Rim, then Jouflas Campground, at the far end of the out leg, before retracing the same path back to Hawkeye Trailhead. 20 hours, no more, for the round trip.
Paths and places: © OpenStreetMap contributors. Altitudes measured on the route.
03 · Your poster
The route, drawn with a pen
The relief of the course, out and back from Hawkeye Trailhead, takes shape as contour lines: our pen plotter draws it with a pen, line by line. Your finisher name and time go in the cartouche, in A4, A3 or A2.
Shipped from our workshop in Le Bouscat
04
Official information
- Illustrative route redrawn by Plotrek from public data: the course announced by the organiser and OpenStreetMap paths. It is not the official course of the event.
- Altitudes: terrain model AWS Terrain Tiles
- Places: © OpenStreetMap contributors
- Figures and text: Plotrek
- Plotrek is not a partner of, or affiliated with, the race organiser.