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My new favorite road

PS - A few years ago, my across-the-street neighbor (Suzuki Hayabusa) was on that road with some sport bike buddies, when one of them missed a curve and ended up 50 yards down the mountain. Fortunately, nobody was hurt, but it took all day and a boatload of dollars to get the bike towed back to the road and then to Alpine. NOT a place you want to be stranded under ANY circumstances.

Like many roads in the mountains, you better ride with a serious awareness of your situation! Blowing a corner could mean a quick death or spending however long it takes you to die of exposure and dehydration if you are alone and unable to get to the road. Passersby are not going to see you down the side of the mountain. And like Tim said, there typically a not a lot of passersby! Both times I've ridden it, we basically had the entire road to ourselves, with the exception of the deer the second time.

The first time I rode it was on a VFR 800. It was a beautiful clear day at about 80 F. The entire road from just North of the mine almost to Alpine was brand new black top. It didn't even have any dirt on it yet. We saw one truck and one bike the whole way. It was moto heaven! :rider:

On our last trip out there, we were all on big dualsport bikes: 1200 GS, KTM 990, KTM 690. We headed East on US 180 out of Alpine a short bit to the start of Blue River Road. We followed this South along the Blue River to Pueblo Park Rd., and then cut East to US 180 again. There was one water crossing that was not bad at the time. Blue River Road was a nice maintained forest road, very scenic and fun. Pueblo Park Road climbed up over the mountains to US 180 and had a few moderately rough sections, but nothing hard for the big bikes. It too was very scenic and fun.

I believe this is near Emory Pass on NM 90 just West of I-25, shortly before it started hailing and raining...
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The cabin at Hannegan's Meadow
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Apparently my pics of Blue River Road are on my home computer... But it is sweet!

The view at the top of Pueblo Park Rd.
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Alpine would make a great base for several days of dual sport adventure!
 
Went to New Mexico last week and that road was on the route. Unfortunately crappy weather required a route change and so we didn’t get there. Some day though.


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Went to New Mexico last week and that road was on the route. Unfortunately crappy weather required a route change and so we didn’t get there. Some day though.

Bad weather in that area can quickly turn what would normally be an easy ride into a real nightmare... :brainsnap
 
Bad weather in that area can quickly turn what would normally be an easy ride into a real nightmare... :brainsnap



Yeah, we rode 180 in New Mexico instead. It looked rainy in the AZ mountains. To ride a twisty road in the rain is disappointing. You can't really enjoy the curves the way you would on a dry road.



On this trip we rode through 2 snow events and one extremely muddy road. It was an adventure. :mrgreen: But we had fun. We did enjoy some dry twisty roads, but just not as many as we had hoped.

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I ran 191 a couple years ago. I cant recall the day of the week but it was a weekday. I think I ran into 6 cars in a 4 hour period. Lots of shifting through the twisties. Only issues I ran into was some rain showers ahead of me. If there were road cuts into the hillsides it would make rocks fall out onto the roadway. I never saw any popo's on the route.
Saw quite a few sections where you could run off the road and no one would ever see you again!
 
Forgot to say when Bullet and I rode it we passed three Harley's on the side of the road way up on top of the mountain . One of them was looking at the lower part of his bike around the engine :doh: they didn't act like they needed help so we buzzed on by.
 
It currently shows as US 191 all the way up through Utah to I-70 North of Moab. It continues North of I-70, in a round about way, all the way up to Bozeman, Montana.

When they originally did this, I think the part north of Sanders, Arizona didn't exist. At least not as 191. 666 followed what is now I-40 to Gallup and became part of the section that is now 491. But there has been a number of renumberings to the point of numbness. :-) See if you can make any sense of this? Wikipedia
 
They did a series on the History Channel called "How States got their Shapes!" I thought is was very interesting. This could be another series, "How Roads got their names!"
 
I don't know other people's experiences, but the one time I was on that road, I don't recall encountering another car from Morenci all the way to about Hannigan Meadow. We were all alone. It may have helped that it was on a weekday.

Also, just a note about Kyoti's experience. He rode south. Southbound, the twistiest part of the road will be nearly all downhill. My experience with super twisty roads is that, given a choice between downhill or uphill, I always prefer going uphill because having the bike under constant throttle adds control. I'll add that, while some people love switchbacks, I don't; they don't scare me; they're just slow and tiresome, and I enjoy sweepers a whole lot more. And for anybody who doesn't enjoy switchbacks, 191 is definitely the wrong road.

That said, not everybody enjoys the same experiences. While many here love the Twisted Sisters, I much prefer the county roads around Llano, or the River Road near Canyon Lake. Different strokes, folks.

PS - A few years ago, my across-the-street neighbor (Suzuki Hayabusa) was on that road with some sport bike buddies, when one of them missed a curve and ended up 50 yards down the mountain. Fortunately, nobody was hurt, but it took all day and a boatload of dollars to get the bike towed back to the road and then to Alpine. NOT a place you want to be stranded under ANY circumstances.

Tim I only remember one truck in front and then must have exited a side road almost right away. There was a group of vintage Norton's running north while we we south bound got a pic of a trailing one that I will try to post. Other than a few deer and a huge heard of elk not much else to see. Near Alpine we took a side road only to discover snow. Got down to 36 degrees. So pretty chilly. I do not recall a road with more vault toilets. Seemed like one every 10 miles. People must pee a bunch around there.:rofl: Never made it to the end of that road with the snow. Decided to u-turn and head back since the road was so very twisty. Had to do part of it in the dark which made us miss some beautiful scenery I bet.

If you do go off the edge it might be a good while before they would find you.:eek2: The road is not for the faint of heart. Very twisty and many switch backs are NOT marked.:giveup:

Anyone know the name of the green cabins out on the right as your heading south. Looked like a neat place to stay? It was north of Alpine the place I am thinking about. Wish we would have stayed there the night and finished the road in the daylight.
 
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It's a great road. Silverbullet led me that way on my way home from picking up my Tenere in St George Utah . I noticed two things about the roads out there. They're not playing when they post a suggested speed limit for a curve and no guard rails [emoji15] before we hit 191 from the north , bullet said we didn't have time to waste because he wanted to be off the mountain by dark. I thought to myself , how long is the road going up and down the mountain ?!?!?!? I'd never seen anything like that. I'd only been to Big Bend and Arkansas.

I way underestimated the time that it would take to get down the road.:doh: Had no clue that it was that twisty. And yes no guard rails like many roads in Colorado. :eek2:
 
If I recall, the time I did it in my Cherokee, it took me about 3 hours from Clifton to Alpine. That's about 93 miles.
 
Y'all hush, now. We like our 191 just the way it is. Little to no LEO oversight.

Car & Driver did a story on it a few months back and all I could think of was that 191 was about to become the new "Dragon" with every snot-nosed hotshot on a bike thinking they can beat the road into submission, only to find out that they are the one getting the beat down.

But seriously, yes, it is a wonderful road, and yes, it is best ridden S to N. The mine (2nd largest open pit in the world) is also in the process of creating a new Haul Road across the existing 191 so there is some re-routing going on right now, a new tunnel being built, etc, but it should be fine in a few months. In the meantime there will be stopping points near the mine which really doesn't detract from the rest of the road.

My personal preference is S to N to Alpine, lunch at the Bear Wallow, and then N to S on 180 in NM, cutting back across into AZ on 78, which is an excellent twisty ride itself. There are a couple of low water passes on 78 so you need to be careful if it's been raining upstream before you get there. Check the water flow before you start to cross. I can do it on the Wing but just be careful.

ps. Hannagan Meadow is the correct spelling of both words. I camped near there about 25 years ago and was woken from a dead sleep at 4 am by a pack of wolves howling near the campsite. Scared the beejeezus out of me.
 
...My personal preference is S to N to Alpine, lunch at the Bear Wallow, and then N to S on 180 in NM, cutting back across into AZ on 78, which is an excellent twisty ride itself...

78 is a nice road, not as tight as 191 with high speed sweepers. Kinda the Cherahola compared to 191 being TOTD.

Or if heading back to Texas exit 180 at Mogollon and take 159 across the forests all the way to Truth or Consequences. Great road however 50 miles or more is unpaved but big bike friendly with average or better skills. Unless wet or raining then turns nasty.

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Or if heading back to Texas exit 180 at Mogollon and take 159 across the forests all the way to Truth or Consequences. Great road however 50 miles or more is unpaved but big bike friendly with average or better skills. Unless wet or raining then turns nasty.

I found Mogollon on 159, but my maps show 159 as ending not far East of there. It looks like you can connect Loco Mtn Road via Bursum Rd., then head East to NM 59. Then you can run 59 to NM 52 and run that into ToC. Is this the route you are talking about?

I came through that area a few years ago with Rsquared and Jfink. I was on my 1200 GS, Jfink on his KTM 950, and Rsquared on his KTM 690. Everything was great until it got wet... Then the mud was just nuts. It didn't matter if you were on the road or in the grass, it was deep and soft mud. We made it out somehow, but it was slow going and MESSY!
 
I just checked Google Maps and it shows 159 going up and meeting FR 94. There it cuts SE and is real straight for a bit. That is right where we got into the mud! That long straight section runs along the bottom of a valley. The stench of cow poo and wiz was strong... I was NOT a happy camper when I went down in that mess... I was even less happy when it started cooking on the header pipes of the GS :puke: It was bad almost to the point where we came upon what looked like a big hunting ranch (edit: Beaver Head Ranch & Outfitters). Not long after that, it runs into NM 59 which then hits NM 52.

FYI, FR 94 going North from that intersection was fine, even while wet. It was a nice graded gravel road for the most part. That nasty stretch of 159 was basically a two track pasture road and didn't look like it had ever seen a grader.
 
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I found Mogollon on 159, but my maps show 159 as ending not far East of there. It looks like you can connect Loco Mtn Road via Bursum Rd., then head East to NM 59. Then you can run 59 to NM 52 and run that into ToC. Is this the route you are talking about?

I believe that was it. Tried looking at my Spot crumbs but the pings seem to be timed longer apart now so doesn't detail route well. I do quite a bit of my navagating on the fly and just freestyle it when riding solo. No one to complain or answer to when I'm lost, stuck or backtracking. Lol
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You paint a very vivid picture! :rofl::lol2::rofl:

Jfink has a picture of it somewhere. Where I went down was about 10-12" deep... It was so slick and slimy that even with three of us, it was hard to lift my bike because our feet were sliding out from under us. It took me a few minutes to convince the other guys that they REALLY did need to wade in and help me if we were going to get out of there... :lol2:
 
Jfink has a picture of it somewhere. Where I went down was about 10-12" deep... It was so slick and slimy that even with three of us, it was hard to lift my bike because our feet were sliding out from under us. It took me a few minutes to convince the other guys that they REALLY did need to wade in and help me if we were going to get out of there... :lol2:

Bad ...:doh:
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Worse ... :giveup:
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Worst ... :eek2:
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At least my lunch and pie at Pie Town Pieoneer was good ...
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Worst ... :eek2:
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:tab You might be thinking we could have just ridden along the edge of the road or out in the grass... We could have, but it was just as bad as the road. SOFT! Nevermind the issue of thorns... :wary: In the distance it looked like things were going to get better and we'd climb out of this snot. It was not to be. At this point, we had already been slogging through the mud for quite some time. Over that little rise it just kept going. We caught up to a truck pulling a camper and he stopped so we could squeak by him. I stopped to talk to him and asked if he knew how much further until it got better. He didn't know and was not happy about their predicament! They were sliding all over the place as well. It was definitely one of the worst mud experiences I've had on any bike. The fact that I only went down this one time was massive miracle. There were SOOOOO many times before and after where I thought for sure I was going to face plant and somehow managed to save it :brainsnap I was VERY happy when we finally hit pavement.

:tab I'll take deep sand or gravel over mud any day. Mud has been my Kryptonite for a long time... :giveup:
 
...There were SOOOOO many times before and after where I thought for sure I was going to face plant and somehow managed to save it :brainsnap I was VERY happy when we finally hit pavement.

I think the worst thing for me, that you really can't convey in a picture, was the smell. This wasn't just mud, I got the impression that many cows followed this same "road".
 
This was such a fun trip and we never even posted the stuff from the second day of riding. The best part was sharing it with Joe and Roger, great adventurers and just generally fun guys to hang out with when sharing stories and cold drinks around a nice fire.
 
Here are some pics from the next two days of riding.

Joe on his KTM 500 EXC
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Roger's 450 EXC, my 530 EXC, and Joe's 500 EXC.
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Pretty amazing view from the top!
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Roger heading back down
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Chilling outside our hotel room
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Baked and dried cow excrement... :doh:
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The world famous Pie-o-neer restaurant in Pie Town, NM., well worth the side trip!
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The KTM was giving me fits that one day. It was running crazy bad and revving a lot. We eventually cut that day short and headed back to hotel. We went back to the big bikes the last day and visited the VLA (Very Large Array) and then Pie Town. Once I got home and started to tinker with the KTM, I realized the main jet had somehow come loose and fallen into the carb bowl!! No wonder it was revving like crazy!! :doh: Still, it was a great trip with some incredible riding and good memories.
 
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