Day 19: Ride for the Sopapillas

 The final stage of the Ridge of the Rockies tour took us 80 miles from Santa Fe to Albuquerque via NM 14, the "Turquoise Trail" scenic route running east of Sandia Crest. I said yesterday that the Sangre de Cristo mountains are the southernmost section of the Rocky Mountains. The southernmost significant peak in that range is Thompson Peak. By riding southwest from Santa Fe we were leaving Thompson Peak and the Rockies behind. 

However there are some unexpected, to me, uplifts down toward Albuquerque. The first is the Ortiz range (not "Madrid Mountains" as I mistakenly remembered during the ride) just south of Madrid which has a top elevation of almost 9,000'. The second is the Sandia range including Sandia Crest topping out at 10,680'. Both ranges are the result of the Rio Grande Rift. A rift is where the plate is pulling apart, and the North-South course of the Rio Grande is following this rift from Colorado to Mexico. So perhaps the last three days of our tour could be called "Rift of the Rockies" instead of "Ridge of the Rockies". The Sandia range was uplifted in the last 10 million years; that makes them a similar age as the Grand Tetons, and might explain why the west face toward Albuquerque is so dramatic.

 

 We left Santa Fe on the southwest side of town using roads that did not exist when I lived there in the 1980's.  The 1-2% down grade with tailwind gave me the feeling that Santa Fe had seen enough of me and wanted to roll me out of town, which I did with a pleasurable 25mph average for 7 miles. This photo is looking back toward the town and the mountains behind that were included in yesterdays post:

The land to the southwest of Santa Fe is pretty flat as it follows the Santa Fe River to its junction with the Rio Grande.

The signs announcing that this was the "Turquoise Trail Scenic Highway" had me shaking my head in amazement, especially when we were riding by the State Penitentiary. Talk about hype!

But after many miles the traffic started to thin and we entered a more artsy area that was more scenic:

The road getting a bit narrower:

Typical vegetation in this part of NM:

The first rest stop was at a monument for the "Garden of the Gods", which I guess is referring to these rocks:

And a plaque:

 

Looking south across the arroyo that goes thru the little town of Cerrillos:

The Ortiz Mountains on the far side of Madrid

The church in the small town of Cerrillos:

I think I took this picture because of the rocks, but who knows?

This sign says "Founded 1891 - 1957, Re-established 1970". The re-established part makes sense, but how exactly does a founding occur over 66 years?

Looking back down the road, just for fun:

Ortiz mountains again. The longest climb of the day was getting over the shoulder of this range to the right of what's shown below.

After the climb we could look over the Rio Grande Valley to the north of the Sandia mountains:

Rod B and John G, the remaining fast riders on the tour. They took it easy on me for a few miles so that I could have fun pulling them down the hills as I am wont to do.

Speaking of hills... The distant ridge here is the east side of the Sandia Crest:

I think this is down hill after climbing over the shoulder of the crest. But its hard to tell - it might be up hill! At any rate you can see what kind of road we were on as we got closer to Albuquerque:

And what kind of road we hit once we got into town:

Completed route map with rider signatures:

Final banquet dinner with good food and sopapillas. That made all the city miles riding through Albuquerque worth it!

The finishers were each given plaques for our home self aggrandizement wall, with alternate pictures to mount if we didn't like the socks in the one they choose:

My actual stats are a bit higher than the standard expectation on the plaque. Over 19 days riding I had 1,937 miles and 98,100' climbing. Susan N made me a label to stick over the standard stats but we'll see what that looks like.

Thanks for following (or reviewing) the tour! 

-Robert