November 1-8, 2016 Springerville AZ

Tuesday the 1st was a moving day.  We stated with a morning walk, something we haven't done much of lately. Then a quick run to Safeway in the van, so that we didn't have to take the Beast and the toad into a small parking lot.  Once we returned, it was time to close up the coach and hit the road. We took I-40 East to Holbrook, where we caught SR 77 through Snoflake and Show Low.  Then it was SR 260 over to Springerville. From here we will ride into New Mexico. We stayed at the Casa Malpais RV Park.  Not only are hook ups nice after dry camping, it also gives us a safe place to leave the beast and all the rest of our circus while we take a 2-day ride later in the week.

  Wednesday started with another walk, out through the Game and Fish area behind camp

 Ride 1:  The first stop of our ride today was the Post Office.  Yesterday we picked up a mail packet that included our ballots.  Today we mailed them.  Then it was south on SR 180 , up the winding hills and down into the forests around Alpine. The highway then heads a little east and into New Mexico. It is a scenic, twisty route, with some nice views.

 Over look on SR 180 in New Mexico

We took a right on SR 78 and headed back west.  The beginning is deceptive, with it's warning sign saying that it is not recommended for trucks and semi's.  Deceptive because the first 10 miles are really flat and straight.  However the next 20 miles...awesome!!!

 We then headed north on SR 191, the Coronado Trail AKA the Devil's Highway. We rode from south to north which I have heard is the better route, riding wise. But the non-riders say that north to south is more scenic.  We'll try that next time. Either way the 25 MPH speed limit indicates how tight the turns are on this 90 mile length of highway.  If you ride, this is a 'must' on your bucket list!!

 The mining complex at Clifton and Morenci is ginormous!! And the road goes right through it!! The ore runs on tracks overhead, you go under equipment, through tunnels and past huge trucks.  It is amazing!

The Coronado Trail is a ninety mile ridge ride that we will definitely do again.  But Wayne wants racing slicks!!  ;-)

We spent Thursday hunkered down as rain and lightening storms come through most of the states of Arizona and New Mexico. By Friday we have a mild case of cabin fever, so we jumped in the van and drove through the rain to Pie Town, New Mexico. The town got it's name because in the 1920's Clyde Norman started making and selling dried apple pies.  Folks would take the route through that "Pie Town" just to get a pie! The name stuck and now it is the location of the September Pie Festival

 We got to Pie-O-Neer just in time for lunch, so we had pie!  The Pecan Oatmeal was marvelous, but a whole Berry, Berry, Blueberry had to come home with us!

 We took the long way home because US 60 was just too boring,  SR 32 was a great replacement.

 The weather was windy and the clouds were low

.I was hoping the weather would clear up enough to allow us to pack the bikes, but by the time we returned, the skies broke open again and rained the rest of the night.

 Ride 2, Day 1: Although it was a little brisk, we managed to be up and get the bikes loaded for a 9am departure.

 We headed out through Eager and caught SR 261 to Big Lake, which due to the drought and the time of year is not all that big right now.  The road goes up to 9200' and winds through massive open meadows.  The snowmobiling must be outrageous!

 Wayne at Big Lake.  We then continued south on NFS 249, through rolling hills in the woods. Once in Alpine we continued on the same route we took on Wednesday this time not turning off, but continuing on to Silver City.

 I've heard of the Mogollon Rim, but it appears there is a town in New Mexico with the same name. Next time I'd like to go out and see it.  BTW this is how it is pronounced--Mogollon (mug-ee-OWN).
After lunch in Silver, we decided to skip a section of road that we did in 2014 when we were in the area, deciding to save time.  We lost an hour when we came into New Mexico and now it looks like we could be racing the sun, so a more direct route is chosen.  But we still got to do Emory Pass, SR 152.  Wow, another road for your bucket list!! Curves are calling!!!

 When we got to the top of Emory Pass, the clouds were looking pretty low, but we never got rained on and in fact about 10 minutes after the pass we popped out from under the clouds and had sunshine the rest of the way.

 We spent the night at the Caballo Lake State Park. $14 a night for a water/electric site with a covered table.  What a deal. We managed to get camp set up and dinner made before sunset at 6:15.  It's time change night, the sun will set at 5:15 local time tomorrow.  Good thing we came today!

 Sunset colored the clouds

 Our site

Spectacular sunset.  Later we would watch a lightening storm beyond those mountains.  Mother nature's light show.  Once the sun set, all the moisture that was still in the air from all the rain they had the last couple of days decided to condense on EVERYTHING. We moved everything under cover, but that didn't help.

 Ride 2 Day 2:  The tent looks like it rained, but it didn't! But we couldn't hang out long enough for it to dry, so once we got the drops off, we decided to take it home and dry it out tomorrow.

We decided to breakfast in Truth or Consequences, Denny's was calling. Afterward we had a couple of guys on motorcycles stop and ask our opinion. Chad and his Dad are thinking about opening a motorcycle campground in the area and wanted to know what we thought.  Obviously we must have looked like campers... We told them we thought it was a great idea and told them about the MC/CG in Tok Alaska we stayed in this summer.  I hope they go through with it, the roads in that area are a lot of fun.

 Chad's Dad convinced me to alter our route to include SR 52 through Winston.  He said there was only 8 miles of dirt. He lied, or we missed a turn because we did 48 miles of pretty good dirt road.  With all the rain, there were lots of run off across the road, but the surface was in good shape.  I think if we had tried to cross the Mogollon Mountains on dirt we would have had problems, but this was ok.

 No, those are not lemons, or tennis balls.  They are some kind of melon like thing.  We have found it in dry washes in the Why area, but this was all over the hillsides along the road, and sometimes all over the road, where the rains had left them.

 The dirt ended at the VLA .  The Karl G. Jansk Very Large Array, one of the world's premier astronomical radio observatories, consists of 27 radio antennas in a Y-shaped configuration on the Plains of San Agustin thirty-five miles east of Pie Town, New Mexico. Each antenna is 25 meters (82 feet) in diameter. The data from the antennas is combined electronically to give the resolution of an antenna 36km (22 miles) across, with the sensitivity of a dish 130 meters (422 feet) in diameter.

 From US 60 we took SR 12 south to the Village of Reserve.

 Then it was back to US 180.  We headed north past Luna Lake.

 LL is a pretty little lake

 Our sturdy mounts

 Once we past Alpine we decided to retrace our route by turning onto NFR 249 and then on SR 261.

 We stopped at the look out to enjoy the view of Springerville and Eager, and the Little Colorado River valley.

 Cinder Cones in the valley are reminders of the volcanic activity that was prevalent in this whole area.

Now it is only 15 minutes to camp, where we unload some of the gear, put the bikes in the trailer and then relax for the evening.  Tomorrow we will do chores.  Wayne needs to change his rear tire, I need to do laundry and we need to remember to put that wet tent up to dry. Tuesday will be move day.  Check back to see where we go next!

October 29-31, 2016 Flagstaff Arizona

After returning from Alaska, Wayne and I spent time with family and friends. Now it is time to head south in search of better weather. We left Washington and stopped in Bend Oregon to visit our friends Dave and Loretta. The first ride was going to be a dual sport ride through the mountains around Sisters.  However the snow had come, so we headed back down in elevation.  Dave took a left and we ended up on some wonderful single track.  Yes I on my heavy DRZ and Wayne on the Big Pig BMW F800GS scooted around on some great smooth single track.

Wayne opted to ride his KTM for the rest of the trail rides.  Dave kept him busy, we spent about a week in Bend and had a wonderful time.

 But as the snow in the mountains proved, it was time for us to head south.  As we were headed to eastern Arizona, we decided to take I-15 south thru Utah. It was great to see all the changes, and some places have changed a lot in the 4 years since we left the state.  But I love fall in Utah!

 We crossed the mountains on US 20 and then headed down US 89 thru Kanab. The red rocks were spectacular, and so typical of southern Utah.

We followed US 89 east as it skirted between Lake Powell and the Grand Canyon.  We continued south to the ORV riding area of Cinder Hills.  We like to camp at ORV areas as they almost always have wide open camping, where moving the 65' long outfit we have isn't usually a problem. Plus it's free!

The sun woke me up that next morning so I thought it was really late.  Sunrise had been about 7:30 while we were in Bend.  Now it's about 6:30 so it was light out at 6:55 when I woke up! We will be street riding for the most part, until we get somewhere that we want to stay at for more than a couple of days.  Getting the dirt bikes out is a longer process than just the street bikes.  I'll have to remember to take a picture of what the 'stuffed' trailer looks like, fully loaded!

Day 1:  We went on a loop that stayed to the east, rolling along on 2 lane back roads, and tribal roads once we got on the reservation. There we headed north, then back to the west, through Tuba City and back to US 89 to camp.
225 miles

 Day 2: We are camped 1.5 miles from the pavement, so this day we headed out the back way.  The sign said that the road did not connect with the National Monument road, but it used to, so I wanted to see if we could get out that way.  Sure enough the Forest Service has gated off the road, no taking the motorhome out this way.  But for once I was happy to see that the quads and side-by-sides had disregarded the gates and created a way for us to get through.  On the other side is a paved road, that connects the Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument and the Wupatki NM. We started by going left and going to the Lookout where we could see Sunset Volcano.

 Sunset last erupted sometime between 1040 and 1100 AD, and is the most recent in a six-million year history of volcanic activity in this area. By 1180 the area was home to thousands of puebloan people farming on the Wupatki landscape. By 1250, when the volcano had quieted, pueblos stood empty.  The people had moved on.

 This is Wukoki.  It is visible for miles and from a distance resembles an old castle.  It was occupied from approximately 1120-1210

 Wayne learning the history of the area

 The view is awesome, you could see your enemies coming from any direction.  Very safe.

 The people must have been very short, this is a door next to Wayne.  Of course researchers think the main doors were in the roof, maybe this was a doggy-door!  ;-)

 Mother nature has delivered more building supplies.  Just break up the slabs, and instant building material!

 This is the main house at Wupatki. There are several smaller ones around it.

 This is one of two visible circles built in the area.

The paved road continued out of the park and we turned north on US 89 to Cameron. We turned west on SR 64 and headed to the Grand Canyon.  This is the second time we have been in the park in the last couple of years, so this time it is more as a pass through, than a destination. We did stop at one of the Navajo Nation Park's overlooks.  This one is above the Little Colorado Gorge.

 The park includes the confluence with the Colorado River.  Although not nearly as wide as the Grand Canyon, the deep, precipitous cliffs of the Gorge are colorful and spectacular.

 We continued on, into the Grand Canyon National Park.  Here we stopped to look at the view.  Last time we were here, we spent the day hiking along the edge closer to the Visitors Center so this view was new.

 Mother Natures glory

 My dad calls the Grand Canyon "The Big Ditch".  Yep, it's pretty big!!  We followed SR 64 out of the park and headed south.  When we got to US 180  we took it through Fort Valley and past Arizona Snow Bowl Ski Area.  Yes, they get enough snow to ski here, who knew!!  Then it was back to camp.

198 miles

 Day 3:  We wound our way through the east side of Flagstaff, through the neighborhoods and past golf courses.  We finally got to Lake Mary Rd which goes south past the dry Lower Lake Mary and the muddy Upper Lake Mary as well as Mormon Lake on it's way to SR 87. As we went past Happy Jack we spotted many possible camping areas.  The only problem is the elevation, at over 7000', snow will soon be coming.  Maybe in the spring...

 Before we got to our turn off on SR 260 we had to wait for a pilot car to get past some shoulder work. Once by we headed off to Camp Verde for lunch at the Verde Brewery.  Wayne tasted 3 beers before picking the stout. (both brown ales were sour) Lunch wasn't anything to write home about so once done we headed to Jerome.  We have been to this cute little mining/artist town a couple of times now.  Wayne wanted to get some stickers from one of the local musicians and you know us, any excuse to ride the twisties,,,

Then it was back on US 89-A through Sedona.  We have never been this way, it goes north through Oak Canyon and is very beautiful.  Too bad the guy in front of us for the first 3rd was spending so much time looking that he couldn't maintain 40 MPH.  I was SOOOOO happy when he pulled over and let the whole line of us by.  Being in front of the group I let Wayne lead up the tight twisty road... until we caught the next group of slow vehicles.

 So we pulled over at this look out and let them all get ahead of us.  This is the north end of Oak Creek Canyon.

I think the real reason for the lookout is to give the tourists a chance to buy the local hand made goods.

From here we continued north to Flagstaff.  We could have gone around, but I decided to take us through the Northern Arizona University Campus.  What a pretty campus.  From there we worked our way east and caught back up with US 89 and took it north to camp.
203 miles

What a great stop on our adventure. We have a couple of other camping locations to look at if we decide to came back this way again, and I hope we do!