My parents came out Thursday night. They had a real tight connection between Atlanta and Albuquerque and barely made it themselves. Their checked luggage did not make it. So, we had to wait for the first Friday flight from Atlanta to bring the bags. This was nice, because we got to take them to Frontier to experience one of Albuquerque’s best restaurants. We also got to have a nice leisurely start to our weekend on Friday morning. We got the bags early Friday afternoon, and headed out at around 4:45pm.

Tamara and I rode the VFR and my parents rode the VStrom. We took off towards the Jemez Mountains. Since we left so late and had to get to Taos that night, we did not stop to take any pictures. Once we got through the Jemez and into Los Alamos, I missed my turn onto NM-502 and we ended up driving through the residential areas of North Los Alamos. My Dad’s GPS smart phone told us to take Rendija Rd to get back on track. A few miles down the road we found that it was unpaved. We pushed on through it though. Then, right when we thought we were almost at the end of the road, we found a locked gate blocking our way. We looked around for a path around the gate, but it was surrounded by barbed wire fence… We trekked our way back out of there (which seemed much faster than the way in), and back into Los Alamos to find NM-502. This took us to NM-30 and into Española. We picked up NM-68 and rode through dusk into Taos.

We got into Taos around 9:15pm or so. The city’s fireworks show greeted us and we stopped on a side road to watch the last 45 minutes of it. After it was all over, we were beginning to suit back up for the short ride to the hotel. Then, a wave of traffic started coming towards us as everyone from the fireworks show was going home! We picked up the pace a bit and squeezed into the traffic before it got too bad. It was like leaving a music concert at a pavilion all the way to the Best Western. The hotel was just outside the Taos Plaza. Luckily, there was one bar open and they had some food for us. The kitchen was closed, but they had chips/salsa and pretzels for us. We ate, drank, and enjoyed a blues/funk band that was in town for the night. Just around 1am, we went back to the hotel and fell asleep before our heads could hit the pillows.

The next morning, we got up and ate breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant. We got on the road around 10am, and headed north towards Questa on NM-522. From there, we began our journey on the Enchanted Circle. It is a beautiful ride that twists and climbs up through Red River, to the top of Bobcat pass (elevation: 9820′), down into the Moreno Valley and into Eagle Nest. We stopped for a nice break in Eagle Nest where we refueled, took photos of Baldy (which is on Philmont’s land), Wheeler Peak, the valley, and Eagle Nest Lake. My Dad reminisced about stopping here as a kid with his family after hiking at Philmont and continuing west for a sailing trip with their beloved Lollipop. It was a gorgeous valley surrounded by 12,000′+ peaks. From here, we headed south on US-64 to Palo Flechado Pass. There were a few convoys of vehicles on this tight-turn section of US-64, and we made a few risky passes to get away from them. We had some fun on the road though.

The Enchanted Circle led us back to Taos. I was just about to head south to the High Road to Taos when my Dad said, “Hey, let’s go to the gorge.” We had left the Rio Grande Gorge out when we departed due to leaving so late in the morning. I was not sure how much time we would have spent on the Enchanted Circle. So, we headed BACK through Taos. This was a mistake, because the Taste of Taos wine festival had the town full of traffic. It was well worth the wait once we arrived at the gorge. It is a deep, narrow box canyon that has been formed by the relentless Rio Grande. Just west of the gorge on US-64 is a rest area at which we stopped. We walked a little ways down the west rim trail, took photos of the bridge, and headed back to the rest area. We re-hydrated, suited up, and headed back into the Taos traffic.

Just south of town, we took NM-518. This is the High Road to Taos in reverse. It winds up over the Sangre de Cristo mountains and into a valley full of orchards and farming. From there, we took NM-75 back to the Rio Grande and NM-68. We stopped for a late lunch at Embudo Station. This little restaurant and inn sit right on the Rio Grande. We dipped our feet in for a refreshment before eating. Leaving from there, we headed back to NM-75 to take NM-76 south to NM-503 and completing the High Road to Taos (in reverse). 503 goes through the Nambé pueblo before hitting US285/US84. We rode the highway into Santa Fe, found our hotel, and enjoyed a wonderful dinner at The Ore House on the Santa Fe Plaza. We went to bed much earlier, but slept in anyways.

Sunday, we got up around 9am or so. We did not like the hotel restaurant’s breakfast options, so we headed into the Plaza again. We found a great diner right next to The Ore House called The Plaza Cafe. Afterwards, we headed over to the Loretto Chapel to see the Miraculous Staircase. It is quite an amazing structure. We snapped a few photos of the St. Francis Cathedral. Then, it was back to the hotel to pack up. We left Santa Fe at 11:45am and decided to take the interstate home instead of the Turquoise Trail just to be safe on time as my parents’ flight was at 4:30pm. The trip ended up being roughly 450 miles or so. It was a nice pace for a two day weekend since we were cut short at the beginning of the trip and had to get home early afternoon on Sunday. The roads and scenery were spectacular! You can see all of the photos here: http://photos.tonyfugere.com/gallery/v/trips/2008/july_4th/

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Last week, I took delivery of my newest toy. It is a 2002 Suzuki VStrom (DL1000). My Dad sold it to me after upgrading to a 2003 FJR1300.

Late Sunday afternoon, Tamara and I decided to head up to the Jemez to check out some of the natural springs. The route was a pretty simple 125 miles and about 3 hours of driving time through the beautiful Southern section of the Jemez National Forest.

NM-4 is the road that winds up through the Jemez. It starts out as wide sweepers through the Jemez Pueblo. The first stop was just north of the Pueblo at a neat picnic area with these gigantic red rock formations.

After filling up with water, we pressed on North towards Soda Dam. This dam was created from the minerals in a natural spring located beneath the Jemez River. There is an in-depth description of Soda Dam at the USDA Forest Service website.

A unique feature of the road here is a very dangerous cattle guard. The guard is in the apex of a semi-blind, wide sweeper that leads you past the dam. There are no signs warning of the guard either. From both the north/south-bound directions, the guard will sneak up on you. Be careful when leaning through this turn. Soda Dam acts as a great landmark to remind you to slow down! Click on the photo below to see the cattle guard at full resolution. It is directly beside the boy and father silhouette holding hands on the right-hand shoulder.

We got to Battleship Rock around 6pm and made a 2.5 mile to the McCauley Warm Springs. The hike was moderate to strenuous since we ended up on the wrong trail that cut straight up the mountain instead of switching back and forth. I think it had to have been a trail cut by firefighters from past wildfires. It eventually ran into the correct trail though!

The entire area was covered in pines and large black boulders that must be remnants of the volcano explosion at the Valles Caldera just north of here. The trail was beautiful and smelled of pine most of the time. There was a lot of fire damage, too. Logs that were burned and trees that were badly damaged. There were a lot of young plants sprouting up from the ground. Trees, grasses, an interesting lace type of plant, and others were flourishing.

The springs were atop a relatively flat spot of the mountain we were climbing. There was a large pool at the top that flowed down into another large pool that appeared to be cleaner and used for bathing. The upper pool was covered in algae, and we decided that it must not be for bathing… The water was crystal clear and there were tiny fish (less than half an inch long) that nibbled on us while we swam.

This pool was artificially dammed to get the pool to its large size (as seen on the top right of the photo above). The water was almost luke-warm. The spring feeding it must not be getting the same heat as other hot springs in the area that are supposed to be 100°F+. The creek continued downhill to the Southeast and eventually led into the Jemez River.

We left the warm springs around 7:30 or so and hiked through the sunset and into late dusk. We ended up taking the correct trail that we should have taken on the way up and it was much easier to hike. However, it did scare us a bit as we were approaching dark on an unknown trail. It appeared to be heading the correct direction, and I could hear the river which would’ve led us to the parking lot. We arrived at the bike just in time to be the absolute last guest to leave (the last car was pulling away as we got to the parking lot). We got to see the moonrise over Battleship Rock though!

(Click for link to Google Maps)

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