NM/AZ/UT/CO Tour - Ride Report

Day 1 – August 29th, Dallas TX to St. Johns AZ

The day didn’t start as early as I had originally planned, but I ended up pulling out of Dallas just before sunrise at 6am in order to get an early start on a long day. For the first day, I was planning to knock out roughly 840 miles to get me through the boring parts of West Texas and all the way into Arizona so that I could focus the next couple of days on more exciting riding. The plan was still to avoid Interstates as much as possible, and I think in the end I probably had no more than 100-150 miles of Interstate in the total 2500 miles traveled. I headed up North on TX 289 to Frisco, TX, where I jumped onto US 380 which was to take me all the way west out to I-25. 380 ended up being a good bit more interesting than I had expected, at least up until about Brownfield where it got very flat and boring. It wasn’t the kind of interesting that Utah would prove to be, but the scenery was enough to keep me going as there were enough small Texas towns to pass through to keep things changing. After Brownfield until just before Roswell NM, things were pretty boring. I should have grabbed gas in Brownfield, but since I had only stopped for gas maybe 40 miles earlier, I pushed on. I would make it to Roswell with the reserve light on.



I stopped in Roswell just long enough to gas up, and stretch the legs a little. I didn’t catch exactly where I changed timezones, but it was about 2:30pm CDT when I hit Roswell. Originally, I was planning to spend a little time in Roswell to grab pictures and do a little bit of the touristy UFO stuff, but the clouds building up on the horizon to the west looked ominous enough that I decided to push on and make as much time as possible before the weather set in. The stretch of 380/70 just west of Roswell has apparently been declared a New Mexico “safety corridor”, which means that had some ridiculously low speed limits set through some nice sweeps up, over, and through the first set of mountains that I’d seen thus far. Another feature of the “safety corridor” is that speeding fines are doubled, and there was a very active police presence to enforce those speed limits. In the end, it wouldn’t really matter too much, because just as I got up into the interesting part of the road, it started raining. So, with the rain falling, I took the speed down a few notches and continued on until US 380 and US 70 split to go their separate ways. It was here, right outside of Hondo NM that I decided I needed to pack up the electronics that weren’t water proof, and put the rain covers on the gear.

With everything waterproofed and ready to go, I continued on down 380 through the Lincoln National Forest. Just east of Capitan NM, the weather started getting a little worse as small hail started to fall. It looking like the weather was letting up in the horizon, so I continued on. By the time I hit Carrizozo NM, the rain had stopped. Just outside of Carrizozo is the Valley of Fires, so I took my first picture stop of the day … excluding the stop at the TX/NM border. With pictures taken, it was time to carry on towards San Antonio NM and I-25.



There really isn’t anything on US 380 between Carrizozo and San Antonio, except for passing near the perimeter of the White Sands Missile Range, it was nothing but desert. Just past the entrance to White Sands, there came an interested road sign warning of frequent sand storms. They must be predictable enough, because I passed through two within a 15 mile span of those signs. I still haven’t opened up the airbox on the Busa yet to see how much sand made it into the air filter, but if it’s anything like the amount of sand that made it into my eyes, I’m sure it’ll be a sight. I finally made it through all that and hit I-25 around 6:30-7pm CDT. I took the short 9 mile jaunt up I-25 to US 60, and pulled off there for gas and dinner.

While stopped for dinner, I ran into a couple of Harley riders who informed me of a bike rally up in the Four Corners/Durango, CO area over the weekend, as well as got some route ideas for New Mexico the next time I’m over this way. They also warned of bad road conditions up along US 60 through the mountains, since they’ve apparently been getting more rain than they’re used to in the area, and the result has been a lot of sand and dirt washed down onto the roads, particularly in the corners. With that, and thinking that I was almost done with the day, I headed out West on US 60 looking for Arizona. It must have been the time zone changes, but for some reason I had in my head that I was probably only an hour from where I needed to end up in Arizona, yet the GPS was telling me that I was probably still 4 hours out. Never doubt the GPS I guess … it was right. The sun went down pretty quickly, but fortunately it didn’t get really dark until I had cleared the mountain range and the forest and was on my way through the North Plains and into Arizona. The full moon behind me helped light the roads, and fortunately there didn’t appear to be many night animals around with an interest to try and cross US 60. Just over the AZ/NM border I stopped for gas and water, then continued up US 180/191 for the last 30 miles into St. Johns for the night.

St. Johns looks like a decent sized city on the map, but I’m not real sure where they hid the rest of the city. There was a couple of gas stations, the Days Inn where I was staying, and a restaurant across the street. From there I decided to call it a night.

Day 2 – August 30th, St. Johns AZ to Torrey UT

Today started my confusion with time zones. I thought I overslept by an hour, and so was getting on the road at 9am, but it turned out St. Johns is 2 hours behind CDT, so it was really 8am. Since I thought I was running late, I passed on breakfast in St. Johns, and instead started out on US 180 headed up to Holbrook AZ. The roads where particularly flat and straight, not like West Texas and Eastern New Mexico, but they weren’t overly exciting either. Road surface was good and smooth, so I was able to pick up a little speed when I wasn’t busy taking pics from the bike. The scenery was very nice, as it seemed to help build up to what the Grand Canyon would be later that day. Off in the distance, you could see mountain ranges waiting, and the terrain off the side of the road was turning into the red dirt I’ve always linked in my mind with the pictures I’d seen of the Grand Canyon.



In Holbrook, I jump on I-40 for the longest portion of Interstate travel this trip … the 84 miles from Holbrook to Flagstaff. Along I-40, I stopped for gas just outside of Winslow AZ, and decided that maybe breakfast wasn’t such a bad idea. Trying to keep the stops short, I just hit the McDonalds next to the gas station for a quick breakfast sandwich, then took off. Just inside of Flagstaff, I picked up US 89 for the ride up to the north. My next stop was Cameron AZ where 89 meets 64, and I also ran into several more Harley riders, and a BMW rider from St. Louis MO who were out in the area. Stopped for gas and water in Cameron, then continued on. Not sure the actual temps in the Moenkopi Plateau, but they seemed to be getting on the warm side … maybe mid-90s or so. For all the ventilation I get out of the Aerostitch, I found myself stopping every 70 miles or so for gas and water, just to stay hydrated.



I continued up north on 89 until Alternate 89 breaks off, and then followed that west. I stopped again in Lees Ferry, just on the other side of the Colorado River. Alternate 89 took me right past the Vermilion Cliffs, and up into the Kaibab National Forest. Temperatures began to noticeably drop as I climbed through the ~2000 foot elevation changes from the desert below up into the forest. My original plan was to take 67 down to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, but as I was starting to get concerned over time and the different time zones I was going through, I dropped that part of the route and continued up Alternate 89 towards Kanab, UT.



Kanab UT was my next gas stop. Temps were still on the cool side, but not so much that I needed to start layering up. After the stop in Kanab, I started back up US 89 towards Mount Carmel. This was the first real road construction I’d hit so far, but they were repaving 89 there near the junction between 89 and 9, which had things slowed down significantly, and narrowed down to one lane. Once past the road construction, it was easy going up the sweepers on 89 until I picked up Utah 12 just outside of Panguitch.





Utah 12 was an incredible road, and my favorite up to this point. Winding through the Dixie National Forest, down through Bryce Canyon, the Grand Staircase, and Glen Canyon. Max elevation at this point was in the neighborhood of 9200 ft. After a couple more gas stops, I made it out of Boulder UT just as the sun was starting to set. Considering all the darkness riding I had done the day before, I wasn’t too concerned about this. Fortunately, I was able to make it down the summit and into the sweepers before the animals. For anyone who hasn’t been to an open range … there’s nothing like going through a blind left hand sweeper to get half way through and find a family of four cows walking up the road in the oncoming lane. Fortunately, they obeyed the double yellow and stayed in their lane, but that was just the start. As the sun set, it seemed there were more and more cows, deer, and elk lining the side of the road. I had significantly cut back my speed to where I was only doing 25-30mph, but I decided to kick the bike down a couple gears to make as much noise as my stock exhaust could I was hoping the self preservation instinct of these animals would keep them away … if it did, I’d hate to have seen how many animals I could have had to deal with. Stock lighting on the Busa is also not well suited for this type of adventure. The next two mods I’m planning for the Busa are an electronic deer whistle, and aux lighting. Fortunately, about 15 miles from Torrey, I had a gentleman from California pull up behind me, and he did everything he could to hang back and put his car’s headlights in the areas I really needed lit. My stop for the day was the Days Inn in Torrey, which was conveniently located right at the junction of UT 12 and 24. Total mileage for the day was right around 570 miles.

Day 3 – August 31st, Torrey UT to Walsenburg CO

After the previous night’s adventure after dark, I vowed not to let that happen again. With no time zone changes to worry about, and the 3rd segment of this trip being the shortest, I decided to leave at 8am so that I could get to Walsenburg before dark. Gassed up in Torrey, and except for the problem with the air pump at the gas stations next door to the Days Inn (it sucked air out of my tire, rather than inflate), was on the road after stopping again across the street to get my rear tire properly inflated. All that done, I was on the road just after 8am, headed east on UT 24.



The trip along 24 from Torrey to Hanksville was absolutely incredible. With the morning sun still rising, the shadows, lighting, and colors or the rock formations was just astonishing. I stopped for gas in Hanksville, just across the street from the gas station that is built into the side of a rock, and then headed down 95 towards Blanding. Again, the views from 95 were amazing. 95 had a great mix of high speed sweepers through the valleys, and nice tighter turns headed up and over the terrain. 95 brought me back over the Colorado river … with my biggest regret of the trip being that I didn’t stop and grab any pictures of the bridge, or the view from the bridge. While traveling 95, there seemed to be more motorcycle traffic than anything else, as I passed several bikers heading the opposite direction. Just outside of Blanding I stopped for gas again, and met another interesting Harley rider from Iowa who was headed north up 191 trying to head back home. This guy was hard core … had been on the road close to 3 months now, and had ridden pretty much everything from Iowa west to Seattle, south down to Mexico, and in between.



From Blanding, I took US 191 south to 262, then 262 south over to US 160. UT 262 had some interesting views, but seemed to be more of a work road for the trucks heading out to the oil drilling gear out that way. The speed limit on 262 was still 65, but there were enough undulations in the road to make that not a whole lot of fun in some sections. UT 262 turns into CO 41 there at the border, then hits US 160 maybe 5 miles later.



At the junction of CO 41 and US 160, I headed west in order to hit the Four Corners Monument. If you haven’t been there, it was a bit of a disappointment and a waste of $3.00 for anything other than the picture I got of my standing at the corners. I did meet up with a group of sportbike riders out of Phoenix who had been out and about for the past several days, and were working their way back down to Phoenix.

With the Four Corners area knocked out, I headed back east on US 160 to make it to Durango. Not an awful lot to see here after everything I had seen earlier in the day in Utah. I stopped in Cortez for gas and water, then made my way towards Durango. On the way, I ran into my second bit of rain this trip, but this time stopped immediately to put up the electronics and get the rain covers on. It was kind of pointless … by the time I had the rain covers on, it really had stopped raining, but they would come in handy later.

The first of my set backs came after stopping to put the rain covers on. Somehow, I ended up being one of Colorado’s finest, who consistently would drive 5mph below the speed limit everywhere except the passing zones, where he would then speed up to the speed limit. The end result was a backlog of cars behind this genius, as no one was willing to pass him in the passing areas. I ended up being stuck behind this guy from just west of Durango all the way to Pagosa Springs. I stopped for gas in Pagosa Springs, then just as I’m getting back on the road, I see the signs for construction. Now, I probably should have been concerned when the sign said “Road construction ahead – Prepare to stop – Expect 0 hour delays” … if they have to measure delay in hours, isn’t that a bad thing? But hey, it said 0 hour delay, so I kept on going. In total, there were 3 construction zones that contained almost the entire segment of the Wolf Creek Pass between Pagosa Springs and South Fork. First, the road was reduced to a 5 mile gravel pit. Not just loose gravel on the road; tires actually sinking into the gravel nonsense. Once making it past that, there were two different zones where traffic was shut down to one lane, and sent off road through mud, gravel, and rock for a couple miles at a time. The signs called this a “rough road”, but this qualified as more of a path than a road. After finally getting past all the construction, I’m able to get back up to speed. It’s also not looking like I’ll make Walsenburg by dark. I push on making pretty good time, until Garland CO.

At Garland, I can see that there is definitely weather on the horizon in the mountains between me and Walsenburg. It’s also cooling off, but I decide not to layer on the warm gear yet, as I’m hoping there a stop between Garland and Walsenburg. Unfortunately, that was not the case. US 160 has some nice sweepers up between Garland and Walsenburg, but as daylight faded, so did the temps, and eventually came the freezing rain. The bad combination for me was that the freezing rain and darkness came on at about the same time, and did so in a place where the road has little to no shoulder, and there were no more towns along the way. At this point, there weren’t any areas that I was comfortable turning off to where I could add my cold gear, without running the risk of getting hit by traffic, so I continued on. As I descended out of the mountains and into Walsenburg, the temps came back up, and the rain stopped. You could still see lightening off in the distance, but that was happening north of town, rather than in town. I ended up making my stop in Walsenburg just before 9pm local time.

The best part of my Colorado segment so far was the dinner that I had at the Best Western restaurant there in Walsenburg. They have a bit of everything on the menu, from Mexican food, to seafood, to pasta and burgers. I ended up going with the beef burritos with the waitress’s suggestion, and they were incredible. They also had some kind of flavored tea, which was a great change after hours of water and Gatorade mixed in the camelback. Total distance this day was 587 miles before I decided to settle in for the night.

Day 4 – September 1st, Walsenburg CO to Dallas TX

Waking up Wednesday morning, the temperatures weren’t really any different than they were the night before. Temps were down in the mid to low 50’s, so I layered on the cold weather gear that I wished I was wearing last night, and hit the road to head home. Today’s route would consist of a brief run down I-25 into New Mexico, picking up US 87 in Raton, then taking 87 to US 287 all the way home. After everything I had seen in Arizona and Utah, the trip home was pretty uneventful. I didn’t get a single picture taken on the way home. Other than the headwind I seemed to fight most of the way home, today was all about getting home.



Total

According to the GPS, total distance for the trip was 2,548.76 miles in 4 days, with roughly 40.5 hours of the time spent on the bike moving. All said, I took in 5 states, a few different weather elements, and some of the best roads and scenery that southwest has to offer. I’ve got this to look back on while I do my shoulder surgery in the fall, and a spring trip to plan for to get me through the rehab.



More pictures can be found here.

Man that was a real blast through area that needs much more time to really appreciate. Of course, that seems to always be the problem on trips, never enough time. What's up with that max speed?! Were you stretching the legs of the Busa in West Texas?

Glad you had a good trip and made it back safe. Keep us posted on the surgery and your rehab.

Adios,

Tourmeister said:

Man that was a real blast through area that needs much more time to really appreciate. Of course, that seems to always be the problem on trips, never enough time. What's up with that max speed?! Were you stretching the legs of the Busa in West Texas?

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Yeah ... originally I had the route set at 3500 miles, rather than 2600 miles. Glad I scaled it back some. There was so much I wanted to do out there, I figured the best thing was to do this exploratory route by myself, then I can head back out there with others and spend time in the specific areas that I really like.

As for the max speed ... don't know if you saw my post over on CF about it. Somewhere in Arizona, it goofed up. I think what happened was I had it recalulate a route while I was moving, so I'm thinking the recalc effort caused it to miss a time cycle or two, and so the next time it checked my distance movement, it credited that all to a single time slot and thus the high speed. The odometer is correct, and matches with my paper and computer maps, so that's accurate. I did stretch the legs a little in West Texas/East NM and then again in parts of Arizona, but I'm not one to go THAT crazy on a bike

Good write-up!

I want to get out that way some day on two wheels. There's something sublimely appealing about the mountain and desert regions. It can make you feel kind of small on a personal level, but it also gives you the perception of being part of a much larger, grander world.