Colorado/New Mexico Loop on a late Fall day

 It was a beautiful late October day yesterday, so we decided to ride 194 miles looping south into New Mexico. Thanks to Butler motorcycle maps we chose a road marked in red, meaning lots of elevation changes and twisties.

To get to the twisty road, we first headed south on US 64/84 through the Chama River Valley. This was our first time riding the BMW on this route that is bordered by ranch land.

We headed east when US 64 split off from US 84 an started to climb up Brazos Summit, the second highest paved road in New Mexico.

What a fun road on a motorcycle - 77 miles with lots of curves and twisty turns, stunning long views with Fall foliage colors, and almost no other vehicles on the road.

The highway tops off at 10,528' and then winds down to about 8,000' in Tres Piedras at the junction of US 64 and US 285 where we turned north on US 285.

What a change in landscape as we rode on a straight road through a high altitude valley with wide open plains and far-off views of the Rockies.

We rode past the Rio del Norte National Monument, an important wildlife corridor and home to people for thousands of years. 

We crossed back into Colorado and turned west in Antonito on CO 17, one of our favorite drives as it twists and turns through the San Juan Mountains over the Cumbres Pass at 10,022'.

We had a beautiful afternoon with perfect Fall weather, gorgeous scenery, and fun motorcycle roads straddling Colorado and New Mexico.

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.

Into the mountains

We started off the morning riding east from Farmington, NM on US 64, riding out of the industrial/commercial area into open country, following the 2-lane paved highway as it swept and turned past high rock walls.

64 East took us through the Carson National Forest and then the Jicarilla Apache Nation in this rugged and beautiful part of northern New Mexico. 

We turned north on NM 17, riding through the small town of Chama, home of the historic Cumbres and Toltec Scenic narrow gauge railroad. Only 64 miles of narrow gauge tracks remain, and this year one of the original 1880's steam engines returns to service. 

Route 17 and the narrow gauge railroad snake through the Sangre de Cristo mountains, the southernmost range of the Rocky Mountains. This is gorgeous country, and we were excited to watch the elevation rise to 10,230' at the top of La Manga Pass once we crossed over into Colorado.

We turned around and retraced our route heading south on 17, crossing back into New Mexico and descending through groves of aspens.

We stopped for lunch at Fina's Diner in Chama where we sat outside in the large tent and watched the holiday weekend traffic, including a few motorcycles, zip past us on the highway. We turned north on US 84, crossed back into Colorado, and ended our day in Pagosa Springs.

We love seeing water running in the streams, green grass, and the snowy mountain tops which are so different from our home in Arizona. Pagosa Springs sits at about 7100' elevation on the Western Slope of the Continental Divide in an absolutely stunning part of the country. Our first day of the trip was all about straight roads through the desert, and today we enjoyed sweeping curves through the mountains.

Back on the road in 2021

We started our first long-distance motorcycle trip in almost a year today, and it felt fantastic to pack up the BMW and ride 376 miles from our home in Prescott, Arizona to Farmington, New Mexico. It's the first day of a 2-week trip that will take us to the Denver area to visit our sons, South Dakota, and then - well, we're not exactly sure where we'll head next. 

We headed north from home on AZ 89, picking up I-40E for a few miles to Flagstaff where we once again turned the BMW north on US 89. We were a bit surprised to see snow at the north-facing top of the San Francisco Peaks in Flagstaff. Named for the Franciscan friars who were doing missionary work in this area in the early 1600's, the San Francisco Peaks are a volcanic mountain range with the highest point in Arizona - Mt. Humphrey's at 12,633'.

We rode through the Navajo Nation the majority of the day, turning east on US 160 and stopping at a Subway in Kayenta for lunch. Due to COVID-19 restrictions there is no in-person dining, so we found a spot of shade outside and enjoyed our lunch.

We can't remember the last time we rode on 160E past Kayenta, and enjoyed watching the changing scenery and the far-off distant vistas.

We picked up US 64E and then just a few miles further crossed the state line into New Mexico. We're still in the Navajo Nation, which covers over 27,000 square miles in four states:  Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. 

 There was almost no traffic on this stretch of asphalt, and we were excited to see the odometer turn over to 30,000 miles. We've had the BMW for a bit over 3 years and are looking forward to many thousands more miles.

We passed a few herds of cattle and saw a small herd of horses off to the side of the highway taking shelter from the mid-day sun under the rock overhang in a wash. There weren't as many motorcycles as we expected, and much of the time we enjoyed the road to ourselves. Riding through the Southwest is a lesson in vast spaces, long distances between often very tiny towns, and lots of open road. Tomorrow we'll head into Colorado and are looking forward to the Rockies.

Riding through the prairie

We started the 3rd day of our cross-country motorcycle trip in Clayton NM, in the northeastern corner of the state. We started on U.S. 56 east, riding through the Kiowa and Rita Blanca National Grasslands that straddle the New Mexico and Oklahoma state line.

As we were looking out over the sea of grass to the far-off horizon, an Oklahoma state trooper pulled us over for riding 7 mph over the speed limit. The friendly and professional trooper gave Mike a warning, and he and his partner told us about the area and how their families have ranched and farmed here for generations.

I took advantage of the time to take photos of the BMW and the buffalo grass growing along the side of the narrow highway.

Oklahoma was the first of the 19 states we plan to ride into so that we've been on the BMW in all of the lower 48 states, and soon after Oklahoma we rode into Elkhart, Kansas, knocking off our second new state. We then headed south on OK 95 through the panhandle, crossing into Texas at Texhoma and our third state.

We were mesmerized by hundreds of windmills that spread across the horizon. Texas has more windfarms than any other state, which fits with the saying that 'everything is bigger in Texas'.

Continuing with the 'everything is bigger in Texas' theme, as we were riding south on TX 136 we passed by a huge cattle feed yard, and then what seemed like hundreds more windmills.

As we rode south on TX 270 we left the flat prairie grasslands behind and wound our way down a 10% grade into Palo Duro Canyon.

Palo Duro is the second largest canyon in the United States, behind only the Grand Canyon. It's 120 miles long and 6 miles wide on average, with the widest section topping out at 20 miles. In the 1890's William Hamblen created a rough road through the canyon using old Native American Indian trails. The road was finally finished in 1928 and paved in 1954.

We stopped at the top of the canyon to get a better view, and took advantage of the picnic area to take some additional photos.

Energized, we got back on the BMW to finish up today's 366 mile trip through more flat prairies to our destination for today, Childress, TX. Like so many towns in this part of the country, it was established because of the railroad and it continues to be a busy commercial hub.

The majority of the time today we rode on straight 2-lane paved roads with grasslands, ranches, and huge agriculture fields on both sides of the road. Infrequently we rode through small towns of less than 500 people where the main streets were lined with mostly closed brick buildings. Days like this demonstrate the vastness of the United States, and the resilience of the people who live in these quiet open spaces.

Tomorrow we continue to ride east through West Texas and into Oklahoma, looking for more adventures.  Here is today's route

Cross country BMW motorcycle trip begins!

Mike and I have been planning a cross-country trip on our BMW motorcycle for months. The goal is to ride the BMW in every one of the lower 48 states. Because we lived in Vermont before we moved to Arizona 5 years ago and we love traveling on our BMW, we only have 19 states left. However, these states are spread throughout the country. We're starting our trip on the southern route:  heading east from Arizona through the southern states all the way to Florida. Then we turn north through the east coast states and stopping in Vermont for almost a week to visit family and friends before we head west to eventually ride through the northern states. After South Dakota, we plan to ride through Colorado to visit our oldest son and then finally back home to Arizona.

We'll be gone 5-6 weeks depending on weather and whim. It's the first time we haven't had a set return date on a trip, and we're loving the freedom of taking the trip one day at a time.

Today was our first day of the trip, riding on familiar roads from Arizona to Farmington, NM.

After a short ride north on I-17, we turned east on AZ 260, riding through pine forests leading to the top of the Mogollon Rim. The benefit of starting out at 6am on a Sunday morning is that we saw very little traffic, and most of the day had the roads to ourselves - except for some of the local wildlife. Just before we turned north onto AZ 87, we saw two large female elk grazing in the forest just off the side of the highway.

The landscape changes from forest to high desert on AZ 87 north to Winslow, with long-distance views to the shadowy mountains to the north and west. Winslow is famous for being part of the Eagle's song "Take it Easy" where there is a statue 'standing on the corner in Winslow Arizona' and it's on the old Route 66 that crossed the U.S. from Chicago to Los Angeles.

From Winslow, we continued north on AZ 87 through the Navajo and Hopi reservations where we saw more horses and sheep than cars.

At Second Mesa on the Hopi Reservation we turned east on AZ 264, and then north on AZ 191 where we stopped for lunch in Chinle. The Navajo Nation covers 27,000 square miles, and the smaller 2,500 square mile Hopi Reservation is surrounded completely by the Navajo Nation. Riding through both of these reservations the miles slide by quickly because of the lack of traffic and people, plus we make great time on the lightly traveled roads.

4 years ago we discovered Indian Route 13 that winds through the Chuska Mountains between Lukachukai in Arizona and the Red Valley in New Mexico. It's one of our favorite motorcycle roads because of the steep, twisting, winding road that runs over the Buffalo Pass - our first mountain pass of our trip.

After crossing in New Mexico we rode past Shiprock, the remainder of a volcanic eruption 30 million years ago. The prominent rock formation that rises 1500' above the desert is sacred to the Navajo.

From Shiprock we left the peaceful 2-lane highways and headed north on the busier 4-lane divided highway US 491 to the town of Shiprock, then east on US 64 along the San Juan River into Farmington, our stop for the night.

Starting our cross-country trip on familiar roads gave us the opportunity to ease into the routine of motorcycle travel. Tomorrow we continue east riding through the mountains of northern New Mexico. More steep and twisty roads are in store - our favorite!