Taos to Pagosa Springs

Day two of our motorcycle tour began at 9:00AM...a late start by our standards and one that we'd agreed was needed after yesterday.  Both of us were tired and KC was still in need of some make up sleep following a couple of sub standard nights.  And we were both rewarded with great nights with high performance air conditioners and quiet rooms.  Actually I had a noisy family across the hall with a boisterous child, but they got the toddler under control before it got too late.

This morning I took a place at a long table in the Hampton Inn breakfast room and looked forward to a quiet breakfast.  When I returned to my place with my breakfast food, a family of three had settled around me and guess who it included?  That's right, my boisterous next door neighbor toddler.  I recognized his too-precious high voice as he announced,  

"Daddy, I like waffles.  Daddy can I have waffles too?  Huh, Daddy, can I have waffles".  

So, ever the social butterfly, I struck up a conversation. 

"Whats your name?",  I asked.

"His name is 'Peanuts'", replied his mother.

"Well ain't that special", I thought.

Our bikes were loaded by 9:00AM but I needed air so we found a gas station that had an air machine.  Now if you've ever added air to a vehicle with spoke wheels and big disk brakes, you know that it really takes an air nozzle with a right angle.  Naturally, this one did not have that.  In fact, this air machine was really more suited to removing air, than adding air.  By the time I finished I was lying on my back with my helmet on, sweating, cursing and in as foul a mood as that time our septic system backed up on Thanksgiving weekend with a house full of inlaws. 

The route out of Taos however soothed my rotten mood in no time.  In fact our ride today was one of the most beautiful I've ever done. 

Scenery off the charts, roads off the charts, weather off the charts.
It was awesome, awesome, awesome.

While our destination was Pagosa Springs, CO we definitely took the long way starting with a 90 mile loop around Taos Ski Valley called the Enchanted Circle. 

We followed NM64 past Angel Fire and through Eagle Nest.  From there we took NM38 through Red River, a gorgeous small mountain town with a ski resort right in town, to Questa, NM. We finished the loop on NM522 southbound towards Taos.  The loop was mountainous with passes at 10,000' and stunning views of mountains, pines, aspens and ranches.

Before Taos, we turned off on NM64 West and in about 10 miles we crossed over the Rio Grande River Gorge in which the river ran about 600' below the bridge. 

We stopped for photos and I walked out onto the bridge, stopping at one of the lookouts.  At the lookout I saw a telephone with the words "Crisis Hotline.  There is Hope.  Make the Call" on it. Jeez, what a buzz kill.

Magic Bus on the way out.

Apparently this is a suicide destination...we came for the view, others come for the jump.  Once someone launched off this bridge, there'd be no second chance.

A short ways from the bridge, we encountered the most unusual settlement either of has ever seen.  It was a community of completely green/self sustaining/off the grid homes called, and I am not making this up, Earthship Biotecture. 

I struck up a conversation with a young woman who lives there and she described life there...all solar power, recycling rain water and gray water, growing vegetables, etc.  Total living off the grid hippies.  But what was most remarkable was the design of the homes.  Each was unique and like nothing I'd ever seen...it looked like a gated Martian community.

NM64 passed across the basin between the Taos Mountains to the east and the Tusas Mountains to the west.

The ride along NM64 through Tres Piedras ("Three Stones") and Tierra Amarilla, then north to Chama was fantastic.  The views were some of the best I've ever seen.  Just jaw dropping. 

Continuing along NM84 we arrived at our budget hotel, The Alpine Inn.  Karen and Sherry...it makes The Sheridan House look like the Ritz Carlton.  But it's cheap, has good internet, the sink works and there are sheets on the bed.  

Works for me.

Update:  Two things.  First, shortly after arriving at our hotel, KC remounted and rode to Wolf Pass. 

In the exact same spot he'd taken a photograph on his cross country ride in 1976 (See: Seeking America on BMW R90S) and I'll be goddamn, the same dead tree was in the same spot.  A few less dead branches, but there it was.  Go figure.

Second, at dinner tonite, a couple next to us began asking us about our trip.  They asked us to join them and we met Don and Paula...recent transplants to Pagosa Springs from Houston, TX. 

Don and Paula

They were great fun and we traded travel stories with them, but they had us with their account of taking the mule trip down into the Grand Canyon from the South Rim.  In March.  In a snow storm.  Jesus, I want to do that.  Great folks who were fun to hang with.