ROAD TRIP 2014

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ROADTRIP 2014



This road trip would be a little different, first off Steve was having some back issues so instead of cancelling out he decided to drive his vehicle and pull his bike. This was fine with me but I was going to ride mine. This trip would take us south to the Mexico border than along it to big bend Natl Park. From there we would shoot over to New Mexico and just spend several days riding parts of that state that we had not ridden before. And than head back to Texas.



The ride started like all the rest, at first light, our first stop would be for breakfast at the blue bonnet café in marble falls, this place has excellent food and is usually pretty crowded on the weekends but we were going to hit it during the week and got lucky, no line at the door. We did make one stop just before marble falls at an old house I had always wanted to get a picture of and have read about the house being the most photographed house in the state. It is an old two-story rock house that has been abandoned for as long as I can remember.



After breakfast we continued south on 281 until we hit round mountain-sandy road turn off and took it over to Fredericksburg. This road parallels 290 and is a much prettier road to ride. After getting into Fredericksburg we filled up with gas and continued south on 16 to Kerrville and than west on I10 to somewhere around junction where we turned south on 377. This is where we got turned around some how and missed the road, but it was a good miss because we saw some nice sights before finding the road we wanted to be on that would get us to Del Rio for our first night. The ride to Del Rio was nice but not a lot to take pictures of so I didn’t bother downloading my cameras that night.



The next day had us headed to Langtry; we would parallel the border with Mexico on highway 50 which would take us to lake Amistad natl. rec area, the lake looked almost dried up. I had been in this area riding in 2004 and seen the lake full. How people navigate around that lake is beyond me. There are so many canyons and creeks that I think I would be lost for days and might even end up on the Mexico side. We made sure we had full tanks of gas before leaving Del Rio. When I was in this area in 2004 there was very few places to get fuel. Steve had a 5-gallon can of fuel on his trailer but I didn’t want to push it. Comstock had a gas station but it was hit or miss if it had fuel, and we weren’t sure about Sanderson so we might need that 5 gallons before the day was done. We made a stop at Seminole canyon state park. We visited the visitor center and took some pictures of the canyon from there, bought some souvenirs and than continued to Langtry and judge Roy Beans place. He was the law west of the Pecos. That being, the Pecos River. I enjoyed Langtry itself it is almost a ghost town and probably would be if not for the Nat’l Historic site of judge Roy Bean. After looking around and taking some pictures we hit the road again and it was starting to get hot out. I almost asked Steve if he wanted to ride his bike for a while and I would drive his hummer with the ac on. But I still preferred to be on two wheels. The part of Texas we were in is desert lots of rocks and sand and if it’s a plant it will stick you and if it’s a critter it will bite you. A couple of hours later we pulled into Sanderson and found a convenience store with a gas station and it was reasonably priced. After filling up and stretching our legs we decided it was time for lunch, we found a locals hangout and got some food, it was edible but that was about it. While eating we met a lady that began telling us about her town and the chickens she raised and how the coyotes a bobcats was getting her chickens. After about an hour we hit the road again. Our next stop would be big bend Nat’l Park we hopped. We did make it to the entrance to the park and luckily there was a gas station and visitor’s area there. We filled up both vehicles and drank a couple of bottles of water and ate an ice cream while we relaxed. We planned on camping up in the basin area figuring it would be cooler there, it was over 100 in the valley where we were and it didn’t feel any cooler when we reached the campgrounds, I pulled over and Steve pulled up beside me and we talked about if we would be able to get any sleep in this heat. We both decided that we would try to get a room at the lodge on top of the mountain. When we got to the check in are they had 1 room left with two beds, we took it for two nights.



After checking into the room and getting settled in and cleaned up we went to the restaurant that over looked the window to the world, it is so called because you are looking between two mountains out across the vast expanse of the big bend. You can see forever on a clear day and the sunsets are awesome. After supper I walked back to the room and plugged in my chargers to rejoice my camera batteries. And than down loaded all the pictures and videos from my SD cards into my mac. I than grabbed my camera and tripod and went back to the patio of the restaurant where everyone gathers to watch the sun set at the window to the world. I was really hoping to get at least 1 picture of a bear but we didn’t see any on this trip. A few of the visitors we talked to said they had seen a bear and on our last day as we were loading Steve’s bike back onto the trailer we heard a siren, and I told Steve that I bet a park ranger was trying to scare a bear some where. About 5 minutes later a ranger drove by and told us to be careful that he had just chased a bear out of the lower parking lot. Well there was my chance to get a picture. I knew he would be in sight but I had hoped that we would see it on our way out but it would not be so. But I have gotten ahead of myself.



The first full day in big bend had us unloading Steve’s bike and eating some breakfast. The plan was to ride to terlinqua, a ghost town that has some neat history. It was about an hours ride because the max speed limit in the park is only 40 mph, and terlinqua sits just outside the south end. We then decided to try to ride to big bend ranch state park but just about 30 miles down the road Steve’s back was acting up and he had left his meds back at the lodge so we turned around and went back. After he took his meds we transferred to the hummer and decided to go sight seeing off road. We found the old mercury mine and took some pictures and several other areas of interest. We finally after about 3 hours came back to pavement at Santa Elena canyon. We parked the truck and walked the short trail to the Rio Grand River. There was a family there, playing in the water but other wise that was it. You could look across the river and see Mexico, at least the shear cliffs that were a couple of hundred feet tall. I took a few pictures and than we headed out on another road that we didn’t know where it went. But after a couple of hours we were back in terlinqua, we decided to go to Marfa about 100 mile away and see if we could get lucky and see the mysterious Marfa lights, I would try to explain these but you would be better off searching the internet. We did not see any special lights on this trip but the first time I was here in 2004 we saw all sorts of strange lights out in the desert. They are in the shape of a ball and different colors the majority of the ones I seen were orange and blue. Marfa erected a special viewing area to sit and hopefully see the lights, which have been recorded back a few hundred years. We did however get treated to a fantastic light show from an electrical storm and than a beautiful sunset. About 10pm we left and went looking for some supper but all we found open was a convenience store and had to settle for a couple of hotdogs. We got back to the lodge quite late and slept in the next morning, we would be leaving for New Mexico today.



The plan was to ride north and than cut west to Carlsbad NM. Where we planned on spending the night so that we could visit Carlsbad Caverns, we found a hotel and settled in even though it was still kind of early in the day. Cleaned up and relaxed before heading out to get some supper. After supper I downloaded all the photos I had taken at big bend and set my batteries to recharge. The next morning we ate breakfast and packed up, we had about a 30 mile ride south to get to Carlsbad caverns natl. park and once there we had another 6 to 8 mile ride to get to the entrance of the caverns. The ride was nice going through some canyons before opening up on a large expanse of open desert. It was getting hot out so we parked and went into the building and looked around and grabbed a bottle of water. We got our tickets and proceeded to the elevator which took us over 700 feet into the earth. When the door opened up the temperature was probably 40 degrees cooler down there and it felt great. We spent probably 3 hours wandering around the cave, it is huge the biggest I have been in and was well marked with display information. I really enjoyed just taking my time and wandering around without a tour guide constantly telling me to stay with the group. The only bad part was my camera was not functioning properly, I later found out that I had some how turned off the flash and didn’t know it. We finally made our way back to the elevator and could feel the temperature rise as the elevator rose. I was not looking forward to getting back in the heat, as long as the bike is moving the heat is not bad its just when I’m standing around or sitting on my bike in traffic. We headed north on US285 until it intersected with 54 and 60 and we went north east on 54 until we reached NM219 which would take us north across I40 and into Las Vegas NM. This part of the ride was pretty boring straight roads and flat land as far as you could see. We finally made it to Las Vegas and I decided to go into town instead of around it like we had in the past. I’m glad I did. It is a nice little town with a nice park in the center. We found some parking spots and got out and walked over to the park, it was green and peaceful, no cars trying to hot rod around the square or loud music playing, the grass was soft and cool. I could of laid right there and took a nap. Lots of shade trees to keep the sun off you, and the buildings that surrounded the park were all probably from the late 1800s to the early 1900s. This was a very nice and relaxing town, unfortunately we wanted to be in eagle nest before dark and had a ways to go still. So back on the road and we had been on these roads before so we knew where we were going and made good time. We were able to get to the campgrounds just before dark and ended up with the same campsite we had the year before. We set up camp and than took the hummer back into eagle nest for some supper. We had made plans to be in this spot for three nights before heading back to Texas.



The next day we got up and rode into eagle nest for breakfast. There is a little mom and pop spot that serves a really good breakfast with great local atmosphere. Mountains, and a small lake surround the community of eagle nest. It is pretty much just a one street town. After breakfast the plan was to ride the enchanted loop, which goes thru and around the mountains and gives access to the towns of Angle Fire, Taos, Questa, Red River and Eagle Nest. It is a beautiful ride that we have done a few times but continue to enjoy it. Luckily Steve’s back was feeling better and he rode his bike. On this ride we actually went up a road that we hadn’t been on before which takes you to the Taos ski resort. This was a nice road. The first interesting thing was a small community that we came to that had a lot of its buildings made out of adobe. The streets were narrow it would seem hard to get 2 vehicles side by side on them, after making it thru town with no mishaps we continued on, stopping every now and than to take some pictures. This road meanders thru the valley slowly rising in elevation with mountains on both sides and a stream running next to the road, the valley couldn’t have been more than a hundred yards wide. After about an hours ride we finally came to Taos ski village, which was the end of the road. We turned around and head back out to continue or ride on the enchanted loop. Between Questa and Red River you have to be on the look out for a group of big horn sheep and make sure they aren’t in the road, we didn’t see them in the road or anywhere else. I sure would of liked to get some pictures of them. We made it to Red River, this town was a mining town in the 1800s and now it is a ski resort town. This town is surrounded by mountains and has a beautiful crystal clear stream running thru it. When you walk across the bridges or stand in high spots on the bank you can actually see the trout swimming. This year we decided to ride the ski lift to the top of the mountain. It was a nice ride but got kind of chili, while we were up there weather started to change so we decided to cut it short and head down. We got rained on a bit and no mater how hard we tried we couldn’t get the lift to move any faster. The view from up there was great and I took several pictures of the surrounding mountains and a ground squirrel that was hang out near the lodge up there. After we got down we decided it was lunchtime so stopped at a restaurant right near the lift house and had some lunch. We than stopped by a fly fishing shop and bought some 5 day non resident fishing lic, the park host told us the night before that the stream going thru camp had just been stocked with trout and we planned on trying to get some for supper. We both brought our fly rods on this trip so when we got back to camp we set them up and off we went, I believe we ended up catching several but only kept four. I cleaned the fish down by a part of the stream we didn’t use and let the waste wash down stream, I didn’t want to bring any bears into camp, the host said that he was making his rounds a few nights ago and walked up on a bear walking thru the camp near the dumpster which is bear proof if shut properly. Since I cleaned the fish Steve was going to cook them, I am not much of a fish eater but I love to catch and release them, but Steve did a good job cooking them so I ate some. After supper I just wandered around camp and took some pictures until I couldn’t find anything else to take pictures of.





The next day we diced to take the hummer and drive up to the Whittington center which is an NRA property and sport shooting shop. We stopped in Cimarron for breakfast at the old ST James hotel before heading to the center. The drive up was uneventful, while at the center I bought a few shirts and a hat and ended up joining the NRA on a 3 year membership but have since upgraded to a life membership, we looked around at the gun collection again like we did the year before and than decided to head back. One of the guests in the camp grounds had told us about a road that cuts across from the one we were on to the enchanted loop and it entered just north of Questa. I was driving back so when we came to the road I asked Steve if he wanted to go cross-country since it was his vehicle. He said sure so I made the turn and our 4 hour journey begun. The road was not in bad shape and the scenery was beautiful. I figured we would see some wildlife but other than some birds we didn’t see anything. We passed some beautiful mountain meadows and crystal clear streams, there were several spots I would have loved to build a cabin and lived. The road just meandered through mountain valleys and wildflower meadows; I just couldn’t believe we weren’t seeing any wildlife. We went through part of the Nat’l forest and an area that said restricted travel due to elk calving. We didn’t even see anything there. We stopped at a small store at the entrance to a campground and spoke with a lady there who said that the night before a bear had ripped the door off her building. She was actually surprised that we didn’t see any elk in the calving area. The calving area was a large area covering probably a couple of thousand acres and we didn’t see it all but we could see a large portion and the only wildlife I seen was some birds. After drinking a soda and eating a candy bar we continued our journey and I was actually glad Steve had decided to bring his hummer other wise I would have missed seeing this beautiful country. The road wound its way back up in the mountains and there were a couple spots I got out to take some pictures. We started to descend the mountain and came out on a paved road and turned south, hoping this was the road that would take us to Questa. We were on the right road and stopped in Questa for fuel and than proceeded onto Red River for lunch. After lunch in red river Steve decided he wanted to rent an ATV and explore the trails in the mountains so we got a side x side and off we went this was a nice ride. I told Steve next time we need to bring our own and spend a few days up in the mountains camping. Steve only rented the ATV for 4 hours but that ended up being plenty of time to see some of the things we wouldn’t of been able to see from the motorcycles. We got back to the rental area and turned in the vehicle and than went back to eagle nest. We had plenty of daylight left so I figured I do some fishing. I caught several more trout but released them and then went back to camp and relaxed, just before dark we decided to go into town and get some supper. On the way back to camp we came to the pull of area that has a picture of the mountain peaks and their names on it and just above this area is a grassy knoll that had several deer grazing. I was able to get a few photos of them, they weren’t worried about us, and just continued to graze.



The next morning we woke up and it was pretty chili some would even say down right cold, in fact I almost didn’t want to get out of my sleeping bag. But we had to pack up and head south, I made some coffee and then started to roll out of his bag, after the fist cup of coffee was done we started to pack up camp. And reload everything in the hummer or onto the trailer after we got Steve’s bike on there. We had everything loaded and than we cleaned up the campsite making sure we didn’t leave any trash. The trash we did have we dumped in the dumpster on our way out of camp. I noticed that most of the people in the campgrounds hadn’t even started to stir. I thought how sad they are missing the best part of the day. We worked our way through the mountains on a twisty road that was mostly in the shade due to the sun still being low in the sky, but I was happy every time I hit a spot of sun because it was cold on that bike. We hit Taos and the traffic was just starting to get busy, the bad part of Taos is the streets are to small for the amount of traffic they have due to all of the tourist. But I don’t think I would want them to change it. After we got through Taos the roads where pretty empty. Going south on the highway towards Santa Fe you are surrounded by mountains with the Rio grand river on the west side of you. You can rafters running the river along with kayaks and canoes. By now the sun was up high enough to warm me up and it felt good. We stopped at a roadside rest area that had a visitor’s center and went in just to see what was there. We continued on south and came upon a hotel casino resort I figured it would be a good place to stay. I really wanted a shower; we had been camping for 3 nights and just barley able to wash up. So we made it a short day, we got lucky and got a room that over looked the parking lot so I could check on my baby. After we cleaned up and changed into some clean cloths we decided get some lunch and than hit the casino and spent about 3 hours there. We started out loosing and I thought this wont be much fun. But than our luck turned around and we won back what we had lost and than some. We decided to go back to the room while we were ahead, while there I downloaded all my SD cards and charged up my cams. Steve fell asleep so I decided to hit the casino again and won just over 500 bucks on the slots, before heading back. The following morning we decided to sleep in. After breakfast I went back to the casino with 200 bucks to loose and ended up winning another 300. On top of the 2 hundred that I went in with. I like this casino. I left while I was ahead and we checked out of the hotel and headed south towards Roswell. We took our time getting to Roswell, we new we would make it before dark. We stopped at fort Sumner and went to the Billy the kid museum again we had stopped here on prior trips but since we were going thru town anyway we figured it would be a good leg stretch stop. We spent about 2 hours here before moving on, we were heading back to Texas and hot weather with humidity so we weren’t in much of a hurry. We spent the night in Roswell and than from there we drove straight through to Killeen, our home.



We got home after dark and just left things as they were and unloaded the following morning. I always hate it when my trips come to an end, they only good thing is I can start planning for my next on.

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Comments

[Mona S]

Beautiful!!!
Your pictures are so beautiful!!!!