Pagosa Springs to Placerville

Today was day three on our motorcycle trip and it began with a thud. 

The Alpine Inn in Pagosa Springs where we stayed last night was one of the worst hotels either of us had been in a very long time.  The AC sucked, the rooms were noisy and the bed/linens/pillows were what you'd expect in a homeless shelter or maybe a hostel.  Could you sleep in the room?  Well, yes, technically speaking it was possible.  But for me it was a very scattered experience...a little sleep, wake up, listen to the noises, drift off.  Repeat.  My reservation, my bad.

When we got on the bikes at 7:45AM headed for Durango, CO in 36 degree temps both of us were at less than our peak operating levels.  Still, the sky was brilliant blue and cloudless, the sun was at our backs and we blasted those big GS's down Hwy 160 eastbound, determined to make Durango before the narrow gauge steam engine left town for Silverton. Our Gerbing heated jackets and BMW heated grips made a huge difference.

We had photo op's in mind.  

It was a very scenic ride, up and over Yellowjacket Pass (7,785') and into the morning commute traffic in Durango.  A short distance out of Durango on Hwy 550 Northbound we spotted the train's unmistakable plume of smoke and seconds later we pulled along side the engine and its string of cars, full of tourists full of anticipation of the adventure that awaited them.  The sound coming from the engine was stirring...the blast of its whistle, the rail cars bouncing along the tracks and the muscular engine pumping under the steam power.

A few miles later we pulled over at a rail line cross road and waited for our first chance to shoot the train. Another photographer, obviously a local, was waiting for it to arrive and as it passed by he told me..."That's Shorty at the controls.  He's only this tall but he's a worker".  He then told me how he'd lived just blocks from the train tracks and he said, "There was never any mistake about whether Songbird was running".

Although we hoped to see the train again before it reached Silverton, we did not. Posing next to the train in Silverton...taken with my Fuji camera by an Indian tourist who told me about his two Royal Enfields back in India.

But, what we did see was so stunningly beautiful, that both KC and I declared today's ride THE BEST MOTORCYCLE RIDE WE'VE EVER HAD.  Coming from me, that doesn't mean much.  Coming from KC, with 52 years of motorcycling all over the country, it is a tad more significant.

The section of Hwy 550 that runs between Durango and Ouray is commonly acknowledged to be one of the best rides in the country.  Under normal conditions this is true.  But today's conditions were so totally off the chart that we set new records for saying things like "Holy shit" and "Gawdamn" and "You ain't gonna believe this" over our Sena intercoms as we wound our way north on the San Juan Scenic Byway and the Million Dollar Highway. 

If the beautiful mountains and the crystal blue sky were the canvas, the Aspens were the paint.  The Aspens were in full, spectacular, brilliant yellow and orange.  Everywhere we turned there were huge splashes of color in contrast with the dark green pines and the gray/black rock formations.  

At one pull out we parked next to a couple about our age and I struck up a conversation.  They were Coloradans and the man remarked that in fifty years he'd NEVER seen the Aspens as brilliant as they were today.  In fact, the couple we met last night told us that we had timed the Aspens perfectly.  I believe it...they were incredibly beautiful.

Our lodging tonite is at The Angler Inn just outside of Placerville, CO which is on Hwy 145 about ten miles from Telluride. 

The rooms are clean and comfortable, the AC works great and things seem quiet.  The restaurant that is attached to the Inn was good enough for a couple of tired travelers.  We both are anticipating a good nights sleep in preparation for our foray into Utah tomorrow.

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.

Albuquerque to Taos

Today was the first day of our "motorcycle trip" and with all due respect to our adorable wives, the REAL reason for this whole damn ordeal.  As Rob Glass said, "I'm enjoying the foreplay, but when does the real fun begin?"  Rob, the answer is, today my friend.

Our route today (which was about 220 miles and took eight hours to complete) was less than direct...principally because I really wanted to ascend Sandia Crest which is a 10,600' peak that rises dramatically at the edge of Albuquerque, is home to a huge antenna farm and promised some very dramatic views of the city when viewing to the west and of the Sandia Mountain Wilderness when viewed to the south and east. 

City streets led us to Route 66, which led us to NM14 northbound. 

A few miles later we took NM536 all the way to the peak of Sandia Crest.  En route to the top we were passed by knee draggers on sport bikes and we passed several cyclists.  At the top the weather shocked us...the temperature had dropped a full twenty degrees and was 36F and the wind was howling at 30mph.  I was cold as hell and I grew up in Buffalo fer chrissake.  KC was growling like an injured bear...he could not get down soon enough. 

However, the views were stupendous, both of the city of Albuquerque and of the Sandia Mountain Wilderness in the other direction, so honestly, I'm very glad we went.  Halfway down the mountain we turned to the north on a Butler Map "recommended dirt road". 

It was eight miles long and OK...rutted and rocky at times, a few good views.  Both of us were tired from getting those pigs through this section.  Honestly it was the only way to head north from Sandia without circling all the way back to Albuquerque.

Once past Placitas, NM and across I-25 we picked up NM550 and took it to San Ysidro, NM along side the Jemez River and Rio Grande River through the Zia Indian Reservation. At San Ysidro we picked up Hwy 4 which is highly rated by Butler Maps.  As it should be...we had breathtaking scenery through Jemez Springs and on to the Valles Caldera National Preserve where we passed by a lush, gorgeous ranch lying in a valley surrounded by mountains that provides winter feeding grounds for the Elk population. 

Hwy 4 bypassed Los Alamos and took us through the Bandelier National Monument, through White Rock and on to Hwy 30, then Hwy 76 and Chimayo, NM. 

Eventually we found Hwy 518 which wound through the Carson National Forest and into Taos, NM.  The scenery was prototypical northern New Mexico in every respect...the geography, the demographics, the weather.  It was everything I'd hoped for for our first day on the bikes.

Since we'd not eaten any lunch both KC and I were famished and had a hankering for some Mexican.  200 yards down the street we found a great spot named Guadalajara Grill and dined on massive chimichangas and enchiladas.I'm stuffed and tired.  I think a shower and early to bed sounds about right.