Sunday morning loop into New Mexico

 It's a beautiful early August day, not too hot and no clouds in the sky - perfect for a morning motorcycle ride. We decided to ride a loop to Navajo Lake and explore some new roads. We started off riding south on US 84, turning west onto US 64 after we crossed from Colorado into New Mexico.

We rode through the Jicarilla Apache Nation that covers almost 880,000 acres in the upper San Juan River Basin and Rio Chama.

There was almost no traffic as we zoomed along the straights and through the gentle curves.

Our destination was Navajo Lake, the second largest lake in New Mexico and home to two state parks - one in New Mexico, and the other in Colorado. Navajo Dam was built in 1962 on the San Juan River to provide water storage for use on the Navajo Reservation.

We decided to turn north onto NM 539, a twisting, winding 2-lane paved road that provided lots of motorcycle fun as well as beautiful views.

The road goes over the dam, providing views in all directions.

NM 539 ends at the junction with NM 511, and we continued north along the lake.

We crossed back into Colorado, riding into the Southern Ute Reservation as the landscape between more green and mountainous.

We turned east onto CO 151 in Ignacio, home to the Southern Ute government. CO 151 is part of the Tracks Across Borders Scenic Byway which travels 89 miles from Durango, CO in the west to Chama, NM in the east. We caught glimpses of the northern edges of Navajo Lake, and then rode past Chimney Rock National Monument. 

Chimney Rock is the site of over 200 homes and ceremonial buildings of the Ancestral Puebloans who lived in this area from about 600-1125 AD. We hiked here last month when our oldest son and his girlfriend visited, and it's a fascinating stop.

CO 151 ends at US 160, and we turned east toward Pagosa Springs and then home. We rode about 3.5 hours today, covering 185 miles through northern New Mexico and southern Colorado, still home to the descendants of the Ancestral Puebloans and an important part of our history.

A perfect way to start an August Sunday.

376 miles on two roads from Colorado to Arizona

 Our route today was simple:  US 160 West from Pagosa Springs, Colorado to US 89 South to Flagstaff, Arizona. We started out at 8am with temperatures in the mid-50's and ended the day pushing 90 degrees. 160 West took us past Chimney Rock National Monument between Pagosa Springs and Durango.

An archaeological site that preserves hundreds of ruins from the Ancestral Puebloans who lived here over 1000 years ago, Chimney Rock is in the San Juan National Forest. Not far down the road we passed Mesa Verde, another site where the Ancestral Puebloans lived for over 700 years, building cliff dwellings that exist today. We celebrated as our odometer rolled over to 32,000 miles. 

In Durango, US 160 becomes the San Juan Skyway, twisting 236 miles through the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado. We were only on this route for a few miles, continuing on 160 West while the scenic skyway turns off onto CO 184.

We rode through Cortez, just outside the Ute Mountain Tribal Park. The park is currently closed due to COVID, but we rode past Sleeping Ute Mountain. According to legend, the mountain is the sleeping Great Warrior God who battled evil, was hurt, and lay down falling into a deep sleep.

Until Cortez the scenery was green - irrigated fields of grass and hay and dark green pine trees on the mountain sides. Continuing west past Cortez brown is the dominant color as the desert takes over.

US 160 goes past the Four Corners Monument, the only place where four states meet: Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. This is another casualty of COVID, closed by the Navajo Nation to minimize the spread of the disease. We saw several groups of horses today as we rode through the vast  Navajo Nation, and I wondered how they manage to survive on the scarce brown grass. The 2-lane paved highway stretches straight through the desert, only occasionally sweeping in wide turns.

We stopped in Kayenta for lunch at Subway, repeating our lunch stop the first day of our trip almost 2 weeks ago when we rode east on US 160. There aren't many places to stop and eat on the Navajo Nation so we made sure to take advantage of places we know are open. After lunch we continued west on US 160, riding through flat areas that stretched out to hazy cliffs in the far distance that alternated with high rock cliffs and craggy canyons.

We turned south on US 89 with long-distance views of the San Francisco Peaks in Flagstaff, AZ, in front of us.

The temperature climbed and hovered around 90 degrees even as we climbed in elevation to about 7000' in Flagstaff. After 7 hours of travel today, we were ready for an air conditioned hotel room and an early dinner followed by a walk around busy downtown Flagstaff. Tomorrow we head home, finishing our 2-week trip through the Southwest.

Climbing over high altitude mountain passes on the BMW

After enjoying a rest day in Carbondale, Colorado, we were ready for a longer day on the BMW, and it started off with a bang as we headed south on Colorado 133 with views of 12,965' Mt. Sopris in front of us.

133 sweeps and twists alongside the Crystal River, making for a fun and beautiful start to our day.

Route 133 is part of the West Elk Loop Scenic Byway as it travels through the West Elk mountain range in the Rockies. There was hardly any traffic as we wound our way through rocky canyons and then climbed up through aspens on McClure Pass that tops off at 8,769'.

We descended into the North Fork Valley where the landscape changed completely from green mountains and rivers to dry, brown landscape that reminds us of parts of northern Arizona as we rode through Hotchkiss where we turned west on Colorado 92 toward Delta.

In Delta we turned south on US 50 that travels through the Uncompahre Valley Today this is prime, irrigated agricultural land and historically it was the home of the Uncompahre band of the Ute Native American tribe. Spaniards were the first Europeans to explore this area in the 1770's, giving Spanish names to many mountains (the San Juan range) and rivers. Gold was discovered here in 1858 which led to an influx of European settlers.

We picked up US 550 heading south from Montrose, and the real fun of the day began as we passed Ridgway, gateway to the San Juan Mountains and the start of one of our favorite motorcycle rides on the San Juan Skyway scenic byway.

We climbed from Ridgway to Ouray, named for the chief of the Uncompahre band of the Utes. Ouray is an old mining town at 7,792' elevation, founded by miners searching for silver and gold. Today it's a mecca for hiking, off-roading - and zooming around tight hairpin turns, twisties that hug the towering rock walls on one side with thousand-foot drop-offs on the other side (no guardrails!) and so much jaw-dropping scenery that we never tire of riding this fantastic road through the mountains.

There is still plenty of mining operations evidence in this area, and it's fun to try and spot the remnants of the Red Mountain Mining District tucked into the pine forest or sometimes right out in clear view alongside the road.

We crossed the top of  Red Mountain Pass at 11,018' descending with wide, sweeping turns into Silverton.

After passing Silverton, we climbed up and over Molas Pass at 10,912' followed quickly by Coal Bank Pass at 10,610' and then it's downhill all the way to Durango.

We stopped for lunch just before we reached Durango, enjoying pulled pork sandwiches at Serious Texas BBQ. Durango was founded in 1880 to serve the San Juan mining district, and is named after Durango, Mexico. It's the largest city, with about 17,000 people, in the area and we really noticed how much the city has expanded since our last visit a couple of years ago. 

We took US 160 east from Durango toward Pagosa Springs, our stop for the night. Along the way we passed Chimney Rock National Monument a protected archeological site of the Ancestral Pueblans who lived here about 1000 years ago.

Pagosa Springs is the site of several hot mineral springs, but unfortunately we don't have time on this trip to take advantage of their healing properties. We're headed over more high mountain passes in the Rockies tomorrow!

Cross country motorcycle trip coming to an end

It's a bittersweet feeling as we started on our last full day on the BMW today, heading west from Pagosa Springs, Colorado on U.S. 160. Seeing a brightly colored hot air balloon hovering over the town, and then enjoying a bright, sunny day as we rode through the San Juan Mountains past Chimney Rock kept us happy as the BMW hoovered up the miles.

Chimney Rock is a national monument that was home to the Ancestral Puebloans of the Chaco Canyon. We've ridden past Chimney Rock a few times on previous motorcycle trips, and one day we plan to stop and hike in this area.

Continuing west we saw some amazing scenery as we rode through Durango and Mancos.

When we reached Cortez, U.S. 160 turns south through the Ute Mountain Indian Reservation  on the Colorado side of the Four Corners National Monument which is the only point in the United States where four states meet:  Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona.

The landscape quickly changed from mountains to high desert as we crossed into Arizona in the Navajo Nation.

The ride from Kayenta to Tuba City is absolutely beautiful, with multicolored cliffs on one side, and desert pastures on the other.

Towns are few and far apart on the Navajo Nation, and since we've been through this area numerous times we decided to stop for lunch at the Hogan Family Restaurant in Tuba City. It's a great lunch spot, and one day we plan to make time to walk through the Navajo Code Talkers Museum that is next door to the restaurant.

We started watching the sky, which over the past hour had turned from bright blue to covered with large, angry clouds that looked to be directly in our path as we turned south onto U.S. 89 toward Flagstaff.

We decided to stop and put on our rain gear as the sky turned almost completely black. Once again we were lucky that we missed the worst of the storm as the temperature dropped 30 degrees from 85 to 55 and we rode through scattered rain.

We're celebrating the last night on our cross-country trip in Flagstaff, with a short 2-hour ride home tomorrow morning. We can't believe the trip is almost over!

Here is today's route