Road Trip

2016 Great Southwest motorcycle trip

Our trip had been in the planning for months, Camp sites at KOA's had been reserved and the Flamingo in Las Vegas for one night. Ken Ridout had done an excellent job researching and planning this trip.  Everything was ready and all members were ready to ride. We started out on a beautiful morning headed out 635 and meeting JD on I 20 and then Dan on the other side of Ft. Worth. Our ride to Carlsbad Caverns was 11 uneventful hours of highway riding. We got to Carlsbad and checked into the KOA and had dinner at the KOA. Donna Sue bought us ice cream and drinks after dinner.  The next day we viewed the Caverns and made friends with Lacey Thomas our Park Ranger guide through the caverns. Lacey gave us the full history of the caverns. Take the guided tour of the caverns it is the best. We then decided to view the caverns on our own waiting for the bats to fly out in the evening. There are between 450 -750 thousand bats in the caves. The next day we headed out to Silver City. Silver City is an old mining town in New Mexico. The ride to Silver City we ride through long sweeping curves and the road rising rapidly up to  Cloudcroft . Then we get into the mountain twisties down to Alamogordo New Mexico.  In Alamogordo we visit the NM Space Museum here we see and learn about rocket sleds, V2 rockets, Apollo spacecraft. Our next destination is White Sands we ride into the dunes after a short stop at the visitor center to get Passport stamps and some hydration. In the dunes we see a sea of white and a group of kids sledding down the dunes. We leave the dunes and head to Las Cruces. We descend the mountain into the valley and a pretty flat and straight road to Silver City. In the distance  we can see ominous clouds and rain as well as dust devils out into the desert. This road we are riding is pretty straight but there are a few twist and turns. Across our front we see a Haboob crossing our path!!! A Haboob is a major dust  storm with very high winds. I slowed down feeling the bike was going to fall over, however, Dan said speed up! Speeding up made the bike cut through the wind better, a physics lesson on  a motorcycle :) . It worked! Thinking this is working and we are home free, no way right after the Haboob there is torrential rain hitting us in the face. Needless to say we are happy when we get to Silver City and have dinner at Q's Southern Bistro. The next morning we leave Silver City and head to The Devil's Highway. We take Highway 180 to Mule Creek (78) to Three Way and 191 which has been renamed from 666. The ride from Silver City to Clifton has a lot of twist and turns ascending and descending many curves. When we get to Clifton and visit one of the largest Copper mines in the United States. We gas up and head for the Infamous Devils Highway. There are many stories and tales about this highway.
Google and see for yourself! Here is my impression, the road is very clean asphalt in a wilderness with no services for over a 100 miles. The road twists and turns through great forests and mountains as well as a few valleys that are straight. The straight road is a relief from the constant twist and turns that are unrelentless. There are switchbacks in places down to 10 - 15 mph. In Springerville the road flattens and we take a much needed lunch break. We head to Holbrook AZ where we camp for the night. The next day we visit Meteor Crater where Steven our guide gives us a detailed history of how the crater was formed. We leave Meteor Crater to Stand on the Corner in Winslow AZ, before heading to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. On the road to the Canyon an RV catches fire and blocks the road for an hour or more as we wait for fire fighters to put out the grass fire.
We set out tents in the Grand Canyon camp ground where we meet Boy Scouts on a 23 day trip across America. We have a wonderful dinner at the lodge and watch the sunset on the Grand Canyon. We get up the next morning and head to Las Vegas and encounter rain on the way to Kingman AZ. The rain seemed to chase us through out this trip? We get to Highway 93 to Las Vegas and we get a reprieve from the rain but hit heat that reaches 118 degrees. We visit the Hoover Dam and briefly take pictures and ride across the dam. We head into Las Vegas and get our room for the night at the Flamingo hotel. That night we tour the city and have a fun time. A bed is a welcome sight and a good break from camping. Springdale and Zion is our next destination. We get to Zion and pitch our tents and head to Angels Landing to attempt to climb to the top, Ken made it to the top, Dan and JD came close. Zion is a glorious place and you must see to believe the beautiful slot canyons and multicolored mountains. Dinner reservations were at the Switchback Steak house in Springdale, Ken and I rushed to make the dinner reservations on time. Dan and JD went back to the campsite to change. Riding through the town a deer jumped in front of me and I immediately squeezed the breaks and let the deer bound across the street. Thank goodness for training!
We headed to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon but stopped in Kanab to learn about the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, The Grand Staircase is five layers of rocks formed over millions of years. Chocolate is the oldest and at the bottom (Grand Canyon) , Vermillion Cliffs (Kanab UT), White Cliffs (Zion), Grey Cliffs (Moab UT), Pink Cliffs (Bryce Canyon). The best place to view this formation is on 89A in AZ at Le fevur scenic outlook near Jacob Lake. We put on our rain suits and rode into the North Rim of the Grand Canyon we set up tents and went to the rim to watch the sunset and get dinner. Next day we head to Telluride and make good progress until we get to Lizard Head Pass and the road is blocked . There is a huge gap in the road and two front loaders have to put in fill dirt and pack it in from both ends of the road. The repair takes over an hour and we vote to stay at a hotel in Telluride instead of pitching tents at Matterhorn Camp ground. Plan B was definitely nice and no one complained about spending the night in a hotel. Inn at Lost Creek in Telluride is top notch and the service and food was exceptional! In Telluride we woke up and delayed our departure a few hours to let the rain pass. Riding the gondola down to Telluride from mountain village was really fun and there was lots of quaint shops to peruse before we headed back to our motors and head out to ride the Million Dollar Highway from Ouray to Durango. Well the weather didn't cooperate and we rode the highway from beginning to end in the rain. Riding on the Million Dollar Highway is not for the faint of heart in the rain. In Durango we stopped and had a burger at  Old Tymers Cafe, where I got to visit with my former assistant and her husband who are on vacation also. There we planned our next move and decided to get hotel rooms in Bloomfield NM to avoid the rain in Pagosa Springs. Riding from Bloomfield NM to Taos NM was a great ride with "O" turns that went on forever as well as "U" turns that were exceptional. Riding through the clouds was also a part of the experience. Riding from Taos to Tucumcari  was beautiful with no rain,excessive heat, fog. We were definitely in the dessert and enjoyed the desolate scenery.  We ate at the Lizard Lounge in Tucumcari and ice cream at the Sonic. Our last day was long but uneventful from Tucumcari to Dallas. 
My riding partners are great handlers of their motors and made this trip a lot of fun with our jokes and ribbing of each other during the trip. 12 days in the saddle and averaging 300 miles a day, you want to be with skilled riders.
Can't wait for next years trip!