Traveling south to Bisbee, AZ

It's hard to believe that today, October 18th, is the first overnight motorcycle trip we're taking in 2019. We've been on several day trips, but a combination of bad weather and work have made longer trips impossible this year. Riding through the changing Arizona landscape, from high desert to pine-tree covered mountains, past a huge reservoir, watching the fluffy clouds over the rocky mountains, seeing swirling sand dervishes in the distance, marveling at the fields of cotton made us promise to not let so much time go by before another overnight trip on the BMW.

It was 56 degrees when we left Prescott, and I wore all my motorcycle liners to stay warm as we rode east up and along the pine-tree covered Mogollon Rim to Payson where we turned south on AZ 87, the Beeline Highway. After a few miles riding south and descending 3000' in elevation we stopped to shed the warm liners as we rode through the Tonto Forest in the bright Arizona sunshine. We were reminded about how large Arizona is as we looked far in the distance in every direction and rode 400 miles, all in Arizona. The Tonto Forest itself is over 3 million acres, and is the 5th largest forest in the United States.

Soon after turning south onto AZ 188 we started to see the northern edge of Theodore Roosevelt Lake, formed by a dam on the Salt River in 1911.

Every time I see large lakes in Arizona I get excited because we here in the arid Southwest there simply isn't much water. I started daydreaming about swimming and boating as we rode along the 8 mile long lake.

We turned east onto AZ 70, riding through the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation that encompasses over 1 million acres of mountains, forest and scrubby desert.

We watched rain clouds in the distance, and then saw pools of water along the sides of the highway. The last time we rode through this area 3 years ago we were stuck in a torrential downpour. Today we were lucky and missed the rain completely, although we could smell rain in the air. We stopped in Pima at Taylor Freeze, a family owned ice cream and burger spot that's been in business since 1968.

We rode past fields of pima cotton, which gets its name from the Pima Indians who worked with the US Department of Agriculture in the early 1900's to perfect this specific type of high quality cotton.

We continued south on US 191 then rode 50 very windy miles west on I-10 because there simply aren't that many paved roads in this part of the country. Once off I-10 we rode past the Boot Hill cemetery and OK Corral in tourist-crazy Tombstone where you can walk the dusty dirt streets of the old West and watch actors re-enact the famous gunfight.

Finally we came to our destination:  Bisbee, founded in the late 1800's as a copper, gold and silver mining town in the Mule Mountains just 11 miles north of the Mexican border.

We're staying in Bisbee for the weekend, walking the steep, winding, narrow old streets that are now home to a wide variety of restaurants, shops and art galleries.

It was a sunny Saturday with Arizona-blue skies so we decided to go on a 4-hour round-trip ride through the cooler pine forests to Payson and back. Even though this is the start of the Memorial Day holiday weekend, we only encountered traffic in two places:  on the 7-mile stretch of I-17 and riding through the small town of Strawberry, where both sides of the 2-lane highway were crowded with parked cars and people walking through the local arts and crafts fair.

This is a familiar ride for us, since whenever our long trips head north or east we typically ride part of this route:  I-17 north to the General Crook exit onto AZ-260. George Crook was a career US Army officer, promoted to Major General during the Civil War. He was sent to the West during the Indian Wars, and fought against the Apache in Arizona. Geronimo surrendered to General Crook in 1886, marking the end of the Indian Wars in the Southwest. After leaving the Army, Crook worked for the US government promoting better treatment of the Native Americans.

Heading north on I-17 we see the Mogollon Rim, an escarpment that rises to 7,000' elevation and in many places is 2000' above the valley below. The Rim forms the southern end of the Colorado Plateau that slices 200 miles across northern Arizona. Our trip today takes us through "Rim Country", the area in Arizona right along the Rim in the densely forested White Mountains.

Because of the higher elevation, it's 15-20 degrees cooler on the Rim than in Prescott, which is one reason why this is such a popular area in the summer. Due to the extremely high risk of fire this month, the Forest Service closed most of the Coconino National Forest to all types of public access, and we saw bright yellow and red warning signs across all of the forest roads along our trip.

We turned south on AZ-87, riding through the small towns of Strawberry and Pine until we reached Payson. After a quick stop for ice cream and a bottle of water, we retraced our route back home to Prescott.

I zipped up my motorcycle jacket all the way to the chin as we rode along the windy Mogollon Rim, and then unzipped it as we dropped down off the Rim into Camp Verde, where at 3,100' elevation the temperature soars into the high 80's and the landscape changes from pine forests to scruffy high desert vegetation.

We saw several groups of motorcycles along our trip today, but the majority of the time we had the 2-lane AZ-260 and AZ-87 to ourselves - just the way we like it.

Our Thanksgiving BMW Motorcycle Ride in Southeastern Arizona

Wednesday morning the temperature was 45 degrees in Prescott. I put on warm tights, a fleece turtleneck, warm sweater, two warm upper body motorcycle jacket liners, motorcycle jacket, rain jacket, motorcycle liners for the motorcycle pants, socks, boots, neck warmer, helmet, and my super-heavy-duty mittens. I was (finally) ready for our trip to Bisbee in southeastern Arizona. The last time we went on a motorcycle trip in June and July, the temperatures were well above 100 degrees and I wore shorts and a sleeveless shirt under our lightweight motorcycle gear.

With no one coming to visit us for Thanksgiving, we decided to ride south for warmer temperatures. We started off Wednesday morning riding north on I-17 to reach AZ 260 heading east toward Payson, riding along the Mogollon Rim through the pine forests before we started descending into warmer temperatures and the Tonto Basin in the Sonoran Desert.

We stopped for lunch in Punkin Center, a tiny unincorporated town on AZ 188, because it was the first restaurant we saw since we rode through Payson over an hour earlier. After lunch, we continued south on AZ 188 along Theodore Roosevelt Lake in the Tonto National Forest.

Lake Roosevelt is the largest reservoir completely within Arizona, and was formed by a dam on the Salt River, dedicated by President Theodore Roosevelt himself in 1911,one year before Arizona became a state. It's always a bit strange to see lakes in Arizona since it's such a dry area of the country, and this one is big enough to boast a marina and several boat ramps and campgrounds.

AZ 188 ends at AZ 60 near Globe, and as we continued south we rode through the 1.86 million acre San Carlos Apache reservation. Established in 1872, it's home to 15,000 people.

We rode past miles of fields of cotton and much of the time the sides of the highway were lined with scattered white tufts of cotton. In the 1980's Arizona grew 66% of the Pima cotton produced in the United States, but today produces only 2% of the total U.S. cotton crop due to changing climate conditions and the growth of cities that have overtaken agricultural land.

We continued south on AZ 191 and turned west onto I-10 for a short 6 miles before we turned south on local, 2-lane paved roads with almost no traffic. Usually traffic the day before Thanksgiving is a nightmare, but staying off the major roads and heading into a lightly settled area of Arizona meant we had long stretches of straight pavement all to ourselves.

We rode into Bisbee just before 5pm, ready to walk around this once booming copper mining town built into the side of the Mule Mountains.

Our home for the next 2 days is the Copper Queen Hotel which opened in 1902 as the grandest hotel in the largest city between St. Louis and San Francisco. Supposedly it's haunted by three ghosts - we'll find out!

Windy ride to Payson, AZ

 

The first official day of Fall greeted us with a strong, cold northwest wind. On a motorcycle, a windy day takes on new meaning. Mike says the wind moves the bike sideways while we're going forward,  and we felt like bobbleheads during most of the trip.

 

Today Steve and Kim on their Kawasaki Concours and Tom and Christine on their Victory joined us for a ride to Payson on the Mogollon Rim.



Steve and Kim



 

 

Tom and Christine

 

Payson was founded in 1882 and became well-known in the early 1900's due to  books and movies about the area by Zane Grey. We were more interested in the limestone and sandstone cliffs that rim the valley, and the twisting roads that climb through Ponderosa pine forests.  

 

 

We like to ride through the changing countryside in northern Arizona, where in the space of an hour we travel through flat, dry high desert plains with mountain peaks a shadow in the distance; scrubby pines that dot the rolling hills, towering Ponderosa pines that crowd thickly together, dry creekbeds and washes, canyons that zigzag through the valleys; and steep, sharp rocky cliffs. Payson is only 100 miles mostly east and a bit south from Prescott, giving us plenty of time to stop for lunch at the Crosswinds Restaurant at the Payson airport.

 

The wind didn't let up during the ride back home, and the bright sun made the limestone cliffs stand out stark and clear against the clear blue sky.

 

I like riding in a group, stopping to talk and stretch our legs, chatting at a stoplight, and pointing out a passing helicopter as we ride down the highway. We have hundreds of miles of roads to explore, and I'm looking forward to future trips.

 

Mike and Lynn on the road - thanks for the photo Christine!