New Mexico
January 15th to 17th
Bill Flannery led a ride to Columbus, NM, Cloudcroft, NM and Alamogordo, This is his report.
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We had a total of four riders on this ride (Bill Flannery, Darrell Conklin, Chip Llewellen and Patrick Sterling) and we had a blast. Lots of great scenery, roads, riding and laughs. Below is a short report:
Wed, 1/15: Vail, AZ to Columbus, NM: 296 miles
The morning started out chilly but warmed up well enough by the time we met at the Roadrunner Market at 9:00 am. We enjoyed a wonderful lunch at the Sky Islands Grill near Portal and after lunch took a short hike up to a beautiful viewpoint outside of Portal. We landed in Columbus, NM for the evening at the small but quite nice Los Milagros Motel and enjoyed a few beers and a great dinner at the nearby Borderland Cafe.
- Route: https://maps.app.goo.gl/Fd6khxqp9KS2BxVe8
- Relive Video: Day 1 Cloudcroft, NM ride: Tucson to Columbus, NM | Relive
Thurs, 1/16: Columbus, NM to Cloudcroft. NM to Alamogordo, NM: 215 miles
We started the day with a fantastic breakfast at a great new cafe behind the Los Milagros Motel. We decided to avoid as much of the I-10 freeway as possible so continued to ride toward El Paso on Rte 9, then headed North on Rte 28 then through the very scenic/spectacular Dripping Springs Natural Area. Unfortunately, the ride leader at the time (Flannery) messed up and missed stopping at the actual viewpoint area for pics. There's always a next time and will definitely stop there the next time we're in the area.
We then visited the White Sands National Monument. It's like being on another planet when riding through this area. We were informed at the Visitor Center that the road was in poor condition about 8 miles into the White Sands area and we confirmed this when we hit the 8-mile mark. The gypsum road surface became wet, slippery and bumpy. We followed car tire tracks as far as we felt comfortable going while experiencing some "unique steering inputs" along the way. We stopped at the 8-mile mark and walked out on some of the dunes. What a fascinating experience indeed.
We then headed up to Cloudcroft, NM and visited two beautiful viewpoints along the way: Tunnel Vista Observation Site and the Trestle Vista Observation Site. The history of the trains going to and from Cloudcroft is amazing. The original plan was to stay at the Dusty Boots Motel in Cloudcroft, NM for the evening which is at 8,678-foot elevation. However, the weather forecast called for very cold temps and a high probability of snow the next morning. The decision was made to ride back to Alamogordo, NM with lower altitude and warmer temps. This turned out to be a great decision as it did snow in Cloudcroft the next morning. We enjoyed an absolutely awesome cup of hot chocolate at the Dusty Boots Cafe before heading back to Alamogordo.
We landed at the Days Inn in Alamogordo for the evening and enjoyed a great dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings next door.
- Route: https://maps.app.goo.gl/ngMBsL8KEbZtw9wX6
- Relive video: Day 2 Cloudcroft NM ride; Columbus to Alamogordo | Relive
Fri, 1/17: Alamogordo, NM to Tucson area: 350 miles
- Route: https://maps.app.goo.gl/AZFuYCqTuDDrUtyD7
- Relive video: Day 3: Cloudcroft, NM ride; Alamogordo to Tucson | Relive
The group all wanted to get back to Tucson area by early Friday afternoon and this meant we'd have to ride a lot of freeway along the way. We all avoid freeway riding as much as possible as it's simply not a lot of fun. However, on the Friday freeway ride home the ride was made even less enjoyable as we encountered severe winds. Winds were primarily head winds with a few cross winds thrown in to keep us on our toes. Fortunately, we stopped at the very unique, "interesting" Adobe Deli near Demming for a great lunch which made the day's ride acceptable overall and was a great way to end a fantastic three-day ride with a great group of friends/fellow SEAT riders.
As a side note: This was the first long ride for Bill Flannery since his left hip replacement surgery on 10/9/24 and it was awesome for him to ride pain free for the first time in multiple years!
