We've just traveled as far west as ever on the trike, to near San Diego, Ca, taking 9 days on the road, visiting National Parks, Monuments and other areas of interest. We are attempting to complete the National Parks Tour, which entails visiting 50 National Parks/Areas in at least 25 different states. No, we didn't complete the Tour yet. The rules are really quite generous, allowing a full year from the start date to complete. We actually started the Tour in the Big Bend NP last month.
Our first day of travel took us to visit kin, NE of Abilene, Tx. After a good meal & a free nights rest, we continued on to Carlsbad Caverns NP, Carlsbad NM.
We listened to the history of the park, toured some exhibits, took the elevator down 700+ ft to the first level. Meandered around that large cave, then to keep on schedule, we needed to head south. Some pics of the area on the way out:
We were headed for the Guadalupe Mountains NP, just inside the Tx/NM line. Not a lot I can say for arid west Texas, but we've been there.
Yup, just lots of mostly bare rock mountains. We left GMNP headed south for El Paso, Tx where we overnighted.
Day 3 of our travels had us headed to the White Sands National Monument, a few miles south of Alamagordo, NM. For some reason, we have no pics of the area... but did remember to get the Stamp in our NP Passport. In our defense, I never expected that small place to be so busy, but they had personnel directing vehicles to parking in their small lot. A lot of large RV's...
We left there in a hurry to get across state to see the Gila Cliff Dwellings NM, north of Silver City, NM. We took NM-15 north from Silver City, and riding this 30+ miles of primitive asphalt (no striping, few road/curve signs) made this entire trip worth it. Those cyclists that have ridden the Dragon at Deals Gap, NC... it's similar in curves, but going from lowlands to snow still near the road, then break out on top of a mountain & see the lower peaks, valleys and rivers spread out, truly a beautiful part of the country.
Some pics are in order here, more so than any other area we've visited.
From Gila we headed back to Silver City to overnight, and visit with kin we hadn't seen in years. A very good day.
Day 4... was a lazy start, near 8.30am, headed for the Saguaro NP in Tucson, Az. Leaving Silver City going south out of the mountains, sure made us shed our jackets. Really warm weather thru Arizona. We got just a few pics of the saguaro cactus at the east side park. (There's another Saguaro NP on the west side of Tucson)
This was the only Park we visited this day. We devoted the rest of the day for travel to Flagstaff, Az and visiting the Grand Canyon on the morrow.
We left Flagstaff near 8.30am ... I think.. the time changed to DST... but Arizona doesn't do DST...
Regardless of the time, it was darn cold in the mountains. Snow on the mountains, all the way down to I-40 where we were headed west.
Getting to the Grand Canyon was sort of a let down. The crowds... First indication was the entrance, 5 lanes wide, and still sitting in traffic. Then finding a parking spot.. then the hike to the (to me) over commercialized visitors center, with bikes, burros, and helicopter options to see the canyon, just no option for a scenic drive along a short distance of the rim. For those of us that don't walk well, that would have made all the difference. But, we did brave the crowds long enough to get the Passport stamped.
Leaving there, since we were so close to the Hoover Dam & Lake Mead, that was our next logical stop. We drove over the new bridge, then down to sightsee over the Dam. Quite an effort to build.
Got our Passport stamped at the Lake Mead visitor's center, then headed into Las Vegas to overnight. Yeah, I'm a grinch... wouldn't let the wife go to the casino...
Next day, we headed south on US-95 to NV-164 west, billed as the Joshua Tree Highway. We did stop at a particularly large tree, @ Walking Box Ranch Rd, for a quick pic
From here, on into California to visit the Mohave National Preserve. Lots of Joshua Trees there also. We traveled south in the park to Kelso, picked up our Passport stamp, then continued south to I-40 east back to US-95 south and I-10 homeward bound.
We did make one additional Passport stop on the way home, the Chiricahua NM south of Wilcox, AZ. A quick trip 45 miles south & back, no pics of the area. But, it was a pretty place, lots of trees, nestled back in some hills with many campers at their full to capacity campsites.
All in all, with detours thru Lubbock & Abilene area to visit kin on the way back, we ended up with a grand total of 3,547 miles.
And sore butts........
as always, comments are allowed....
