rocker59 Posted September 22, 2008 Share Posted September 22, 2008 Day 1: Destination Santa Fe... 775 miles in 12 hours on Wednesday, the 17th... Fuel stops every 160 miles +/- in Henryetta, Weatherford, Groom, and Tucumcari... With only a little help from these (and my trusty AriHawk) on an otherwise stock LeMans Nero Corsa... Arrived 5pm Mountain at my base of operations for the next few days... I decompressed with a beer and some good conversation in SFR's back yard... My host for the weekend: Santa Fe Rider, aka Marcelo: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocker59 Posted September 22, 2008 Author Share Posted September 22, 2008 Day 2. Spent the day in Santa Fe. I'd never been there and Mrs. SFR was nice enough to show me around in the morning. After driving me around a bit, she dropped me off at the plaza. Good music around every corner. Interesting buildings everywhere you look. Palace of the Governors. The State Capitol building. Incredible houses in the hills surrounding the town. After lunch, SFR and I took a drive up the road to the ski area. Beautiful country. more coming. stay tuned... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocker59 Posted September 23, 2008 Author Share Posted September 23, 2008 Day 3... The High Road, Sipapu and and Angel Fire... Marcelo pulled out his Ducati ST3 and decided to show me about 250 miles of his favorite roads in the Sangre de Cristos on Friday. Our route included the "High Road" to Taos (highways 503 and 76), then the road through Sipapu to Mora (highway 518). From Mora it was highway 434 to Angel Fire... Near Truchas, New Mexico. The Church of San Jose of Gracia was built in the farming community of Trampas circa 1750 (yep... 1750). The High Road to Taos is a great, scenic, twisty stretch of highway! When we reached 518, we stopped at Sipapu for a pitstop. Then it was down the valley to Mora. Yeah, that's the highway on the side of that hill across the valley! Fun, Fun! No pics, but at Mora we headed up a beautiful (and dangerous!) highway 434 to Angel Fire for lunch. After eating, we hopped on US-64 and ran the canyon down to Taos, then "The Low Road" along the Rio Grande back into Santa Fe. A nice 250 mile tour of the mountains Northeast of Santa Fe! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocker59 Posted September 24, 2008 Author Share Posted September 24, 2008 Day 4. Solo ride in the Jemez Mountains. Departed Santa Fe around 830am Saturday morning to ride the mountains northwest of Santa Fe. SFR pointed me to some beautiful riding! From Santa Fe, I took US-285 North, then highway 502 towards Los Alamos. The trick is not to go through Los Alamos, but to take highway 4 south through White Rock. It's a nice little stretch that avoids traffic. Highway 4 is a killer road all the way to San Ysidro at US-550. Here's the first part of my route: This is the secret awaiting you on highway 4: http://www.vallescaldera.gov/about/ Valles Caldera, home of the historic Baca Ranch has been a preserve since they year 2000. Beautiful country! Just West of the park in national forrest land is also amazing! These views are beautiful. The highway through the forrest, fabulous. At San Ysidro I headed North on US-550 for fuel at Cuba. Quite the change of scenery on 550 after coming down from Valles Caldera. From Cuba it was highway 96 through Coyote to US-84. I found a nice place to stop for a bit near the Abiquiu Resorvoir. HIghway 96 gets a big thumbs-up! A little run up US-84 to Tierra Amarilla to access one of my favorite roads in the area, US-64. Here's a cool farm house along US-84. This is the view after turning onto US-64. This is the reward after running the twisties up the mountain to about 10,500 feet. Brazos Cliffs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocker59 Posted September 24, 2008 Author Share Posted September 24, 2008 US-64 is a nice run down through the Carson National Forrest to the valley that leads on to Taos. This is an old ranch along the way. Crossing the flat valley, you come to the Rio Grande. The Rio Grande Gorge Bridge was built a little over 40 years ago to ease travel in the area. It's about 650 feet above the river below, making it the third highest bridge in the US. I stopped in Taos at the plaza and grabbed a little bite to eat at Ogilvie's. I enjoy thier veranda overlooking the plaza. from Taos, I decided to hit The High Road one more time since I knew that would be the last of the twisty roads for almost 800 miles until my return to the Ozarks... Marcelo's steak dinner was very welcome upon my return to Santa Fe after an almost 400 mile circuit of Northern New Mexico! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocker59 Posted September 24, 2008 Author Share Posted September 24, 2008 Day 5. Santa Fe to Fayetteville with a couple stops along the way. I drank coffee with Mr. and Mrs. Santaferider Sunday morning, then departed about 830am Mountain time. A couple minutes later, I ran into this. At first I thought is was a roadblock to keep me from leaving (wishful thinking), but they were just hauling an SUV outta the ditch that some drunk had put there overnight... 775 miles ahead of me. I-40 in Eastern New Mexico. Between Clines Corners and Tucumcari the traffic was flowing quite nicely. I saw about 50 miles of this. And about 50 miles of this while pacing a Toyota pickup with Kentucky Tags and a Porsche Cayenne with Illinois tags. I'd say I gave the Nero Corsa a pretty good endurance test on this trip. On the way to Santa Fe, the pace was 80mph to 90mph. On the return, traffic was flowing a little faster. Five tanks of gas each way at these kinds of speeds and not as much as a hiccup from the bike!!! At my fuel stop in Tucumcari I decided to cruise town for some Route 66 and Rock Island Railroad snapshots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocker59 Posted September 24, 2008 Author Share Posted September 24, 2008 Not only was Tucumcari an important Route 66 town at the junctions of US-66 and US-54, but it was also an important railroad town. This was the western end of the Rock Island Railroad. At Tucumcari, the Rock Island handed off it's trains to the Southern Pacific. Famous passenger trains like The Golden State passed trough Tucumcari during the golden age of railroading. Today, Union Pacific trains roll through town past the old Rock Island depot. The sprawling yards and shops but a distant memory. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tucumcari,_nm At the next stop, I check out Groom, Texas. It's another little town on old Route 66. Most recently known for the huge cross on the east end of town. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groom,_Texas A cool little Victorian cottage. High Noon in Groom. Not much happening on Route 66 these days... The Britten water tower. The truckstop is long-gone, but the sign remains... From Groom, I rode three more tanks of fuel through the Nero Corsa to get home to Fayetteville at about 10pm Central. A little over 12.5 hours to cover the 775 miles, including the stops for photos. This Guzzi gets a big thumbs-up from me for long-distance sport-touring! What a great trip! I truly love Northern New Mexico. Many thanks to Marcelo and his wife for hosting me on my first stay in Santa Fe! I can't wait to get back on the bike and do it again! 8) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orson Posted September 25, 2008 Share Posted September 25, 2008 Thanks for the pics! New Mexico is one of my favorite states Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest frankdugo Posted September 25, 2008 Share Posted September 25, 2008 great ride!glad that dunlop did you good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VA Sean Posted October 1, 2008 Share Posted October 1, 2008 Great report and pics, Mike. Santa Fe Rider and his wife are great people and very gracious hosts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocker59 Posted October 1, 2008 Author Share Posted October 1, 2008 Great report and pics, Mike. Santa Fe Rider and his wife are great people and very gracious hosts. Thanks Sean! Yep. They're great people! I really love in in Northern New Mexico. I'd sure like to find a way to live out there for awhile. So when are you going to come back to NW Arkansas to do some riding and check out Fayetteville? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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