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You've already been given a lot of great suggestions; I won't repeat them all. Couple o' things I WILL reiterate:

Like everybody said, get out of Texas as quickly as possible. Vernon is barely 3 hours drive, and is as boring as lint once you're there. Go to Amarillo (350 mi) or Dumas (400 mi). Like Jason said, we do it all the time in the car AFTER WORK. On a bike, if you're not used to long hauls, take a lot of long breaks & you can still make Dumas in under 8 hours (I do it in 6 1/2 on the VStrom without speeding) or Amarillo in 7 (roughly 5 1/2 hrs for me).

Or, as Scott suggested, trailer to Raton - an easy 9 1/2 hour drive. You can store your vehicle/trailer at the Summerlan RV park on the east end of town, for a whopping dollar a day. Then jump off from there.

Somebody mentioned 300 miles a day is good, comfortable Colorado or mountainous NM mileage, and I heartily agree. Take your time, take lots of breaks & lots of pictures, and that 300 miles will take anywhere from 6 to 9 hours - strictly up to you, your camera, and your bio schedule. And you'll arrive at your destination not feeling overly road weary.

If you don't have them, invest in Butler Motorcycle Maps - one each for NM and Colorado. They'll show you all the great routes - which, by the way, are many of the same ones everybody mentioned above.

Telluride - Drew & I went through a few years ago. Not horrible, but VERY touristy. We could hardly drive down the street through the hoards of people walking everywhere - all wearing pink golf shirts with sweaters tied around their shoulders. Am I right Drew? Have lunch there at a trendy bistro, then move on. The roads around that area are fantastic. If you stay around Durango or Delores. you'll find that you can make a great loop up through Silverton & Ouray, over to Telluride, then back south to Mesa Verde and back into Durango, in a very comfortable day.

Also, if it works into your route, drive Hwy 149 between South Fork at one end and near Gunnison at the other. Either direction is fun. You'll do canyon running, cross two curvy, high passes, see the headwaters of the Rio Grande, and pass through the historic mining town of Creede - all in about 120 miles. or heck, drive it north, then turn around and drive it again southbound.
 
And to add to Tim's reply the road into Telluride speed limit into was way under what normal conditions would warrant. Also like Tim said in town on the way to the waterfall their are folks like fire ants everywhere you look so you tip toe thru the main street at a snails pace.
 
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I second buying the Butler motorcycle maps. I purchased mine here on TWT thru Mr2mch he has them handy and they will help you to select the roads that are most interesting for you Jarrett. Get both the New Mexico and Colorado ones. They rate roads and high light them as good,better,and best.

Another thing that I touched on before........most roads are much more curvy than it looks like on the maps. In other words travel time will be longer than you expect sometimes much longer than you would think. I learned this the hard way the first time I went to Colorado. Keep in mind there will be tons of picture taking stops, if that is something your interested in. The scenery is off the chain and you will want to document it to share with lived ones and TWT.:photo:
 
One thing I noticed was that NM/CO roads don't seem to be as highly rated as Arkansas roads are.

They are very different, so I really don't see how they can be compared via any rating system. I guess you could rate them on the quality of their pavement, potholes versus nice and smooth. However, in terms of the riding experience, well... that is HIGHLY subjective! I LOVE both, but for very different reasons. Roads in NM and Co can be great fun just from a technical riding experience, but for me they are MUCH MORE about the scenery. Arkansas roads are a bit more about the technical aspect of riding nice twisty roads, the scenery is nice, but not epic. Western North Carolina and surrounding areas are ALL about the technical aspects of skilled riding on seriously twisty paved roads!! The scenery is also quite nice. All three areas are loads of fun, but for totally different reasons. This is just as true when going off the pavement.
 
True.... Oh so true

Butler's rating system does have its limits..but without gettn too complex on the color coding...they do state it could be highlighted for scenic...fun to ride...or both
Each map has its highlights for the particular type of landscape in that area.
Not that theyre comparin CO to AR or NC
Jus comparin the roads in that area

Don't get too hung up on the red/orange/yellow. Just go and enjoy.
 
Let me explain something. Arkansas roads are much more fun than Colorado roads, and for a few reasons. First and foremost, you can ride them harder. On most Arkansas roads, the penalty for failure is there, and you will probably bounce off some trees, but it's not as scary as that 2000 ft drop with no guardrail. You also usually have better sight lines in Arkansas. With all of that, you will have more fun riding the roads in Arkansas.

That said, the roads in Colorado are nothing to shake a stick at. You will enjoy them every bit if not more than the roads in Arkansas. The views are breathtaking, the danger is always there keeping the adrenaline high, and they are still a ton of fun, but you do have to dial it back quite a bit.

Scary? Riding Million Dollar Highway south when they've been blasting and have it shut down one way where you are using some of the minuscule shoulder on the left side with a thousand foot drop next to you. Black Canyon of Gunnison has some hairy turns too. However, I do love riding both places, just know that they are different kinds of fun, so don't compare rating systems between the two based on maps.

Sample: https://goo.gl/maps/3FR18L7ygEw
 
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Well shoot, sorry for the bad link. I guess it's been out of production too long to still be around. Too bad, it's an excellent resource.

Ebay has a few copies; aint't cheap though....
 
Jason nailed it. Colo and NM have all sorts of riding. The Million Dollar Hwy between Durango & Ouray is about the only one that's ever unnerved me. The secret to that road is to ride it south to north. That puts most of the scarier edges (between Silverton & Ouray) on your left. Even so, it's a wide 2-lane & just as safe as any other curvy road, but those drop-offs can be a bit daunting.

Riding along the north side of Black Canyon of Gunnison is a highly twisty road, and slow riding because there are so many sharp curves. But that one to me, isn't scary - just twisty.

Another road with more than its share of hairpins is the road from Leadville over Independence Pass to Aspen. Beautiful road. The biggest problem is that, well, you end up in Aspen which is a mass of traffic these days.

I'm a guy who enjoys roads the sweepers more than sharp curves & hairpins. The south side of the Black Canyon is better for that. Ditto Hwy 149 that I mentioned previously. Or Hwy 50 from Canon (pronounced canyon) City all the way to Salida, along the Arkansas River - the only problem with that road is you often find yourself stuck behind a train of motorhomes.

New Mexico is all about roads with fast sweepers. Those roads are all over the Cloudcroft-Ruidoso area, and that whole northern section that includes Cimarron, Eagle Nest, Angel Fire, Red River, Taos, and all the way over to Santa Fe & Los Alamos. Many of those roads are perfect if you enjoy zipping along at 50-60mph, constantly leaning from one fast curve to the next.
 
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What ever route you choose, I would encourage you to try camping at least one night in Colorado. Let me know what route you choose and I will shoot you some campsites.




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Jarret - I found these videos on YouTube - they should give you a good idea of the mountain roads roads in Southwest CO

Colorado Motorcycle Trip Videos by Robert Merz
Pagosa Springs to Durango
Durango to Silverton
Silverton to Ouray
Ouray to Telluride
 
I'd consider pushing on toward Santa Rosa the first day. I know it makes a long day, but then it makes for more time to enjoy the day where you will be riding the good stuff and not have to worry about trying to hit nearly 400 miles when you are going to be wanting to stop and take pics. Santa Rosa has a lot of decent hotels. We stayed there on a trip a few years back. I think it was either the Best Western or Super 8, I can't recall now. But they had an indoor pool and a great hot tub!
 
For Tuesday, I would head West on US 64 and go back down 518 toward Las Vegas rather than going down through Santa Fe. Google is showing construction on 84 near Santa Fe, and there is just going to be a boat load of traffic regardless. I've done that route and it is kind of boring, even in a truck.
 
If I were planning this trip, I would try something like this map.
234720


Maypearl-Clayton NM 507 miles ~8 hrs
Clayton to Lake City 330 miles ~5.5 hrs
lake city to Ouray 136 miles ~3 hrs I would ride to Black Canyon of the Gunnison and spend some time there and then there are plenty of great dirt roads just to the north and west of Ouray (last dollar road in between Telluride and Ridgeway and 10 to 8 up to Silver Jack Reservior)
Ouray to Pagosa Springs 138 miles ~3 hrs Explore around Ouray again, then head south to Durango and east to Pagosa
Pagosa to Lubbock 450 miles ~7.5 hours
Lubbock to Maypearl 365 miles ~6 hrs

The dirt in the areas mentioned above around Ouray are easy mountain dirt roads that you should not have any problems with traveling and exploring by yourself. There are also easy roads going up to Animas Forks just east out of Silverton which is part of the CoBDR, but something that I think you could handle on your own. There is enough traffic on that section that if something happened, you could get help relatively quickly.

I totally get wanting to ride the whole way, this is my preferred method of taking a bike trip, but the last two times we went up there, we hauled our bike to Santa Fe NM, and better yet, South Fork CO.

Let me know if you have questions or if I could be of any further help.
 
If I were planning this trip, I would try something like this map.
View attachment 234720

Maypearl-Clayton NM 507 miles ~8 hrs
Clayton to Lake City 330 miles ~5.5 hrs
lake city to Ouray 136 miles ~3 hrs I would ride to Black Canyon of the Gunnison and spend some time there and then there are plenty of great dirt roads just to the north and west of Ouray (last dollar road in between Telluride and Ridgeway and 10 to 8 up to Silver Jack Reservior)
Ouray to Pagosa Springs 138 miles ~3 hrs Explore around Ouray again, then head south to Durango and east to Pagosa
Pagosa to Lubbock 450 miles ~7.5 hours
Lubbock to Maypearl 365 miles ~6 hrs

The dirt in the areas mentioned above around Ouray are easy mountain dirt roads that you should not have any problems with traveling and exploring by yourself. There are also easy roads going up to Animas Forks just east out of Silverton which is part of the CoBDR, but something that I think you could handle on your own. There is enough traffic on that section that if something happened, you could get help relatively quickly.

I totally get wanting to ride the whole way, this is my preferred method of taking a bike trip, but the last two times we went up there, we hauled our bike to Santa Fe NM, and better yet, South Fork CO.

Let me know if you have questions or if I could be of any further help.
Just one question, when do we leave? :)
 
We are going somewhere this summer/fall, we just aren't sure where. We discussed finishing the COBDR from Buena vista up to the Wyoming border, but we need more than 6 days. Let's discuss on our next ride.
 
I can't really improve on the great riding suggestions you've already heard. FWIW...There are better places to overnight than Trinidad. Being the first"wet" town on the interstate has taken it's toll. Telluride is nothing special as mountain communities go. I spent a week there last summer just to get a feel for it's flavor. It's beautiful country to ride in but I didn't leave anything in town that I need to go back for. Ski towns generally have a different feel to them than the smaller valley communities. Guess it depends on what someone is looking for.
 
I can't really improve on the great riding suggestions you've already heard. FWIW...There are better places to overnight than Trinidad. Being the first"wet" town on the interstate has taken it's toll. Telluride is nothing special as mountain communities go. I spent a week there last summer just to get a feel for it's flavor. It's beautiful country to ride in but I didn't leave anything in town that I need to go back for. Ski towns generally have a different feel to them than the smaller valley communities. Guess it depends on what someone is looking for.

Overnight in Gunnison. Telluride traffic in town when we were there was a crawl thru town picture Mopac in Austin at rush hour. Tourists like fire ants walking everywhere and cross walks all over so getting around or thru town a good work out on your clutch hand.
 
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