The course today was 77 miles from Taos to Santa Fe mostly using the Taos High Road scenic highway. The amount of climbing - 6900' - wasn't too bad by itself but on a per-mile basis was higher than any other day. The combination of climbs and descents was more like the roads I ride in my Madison County NC home. And especially the tiny road we took out of Rio Chiquito reminded me the Cutshall Town road in the Shelton Laurel area.
Between the climb to over 8500' going out of Taos, to Nambe where the elevation was 5800', we crossed four of the seven NM life zones. From highest to lowest: mixed conifer, ponderosa pine, piñon-juniper woodlands, and grasslands.
First rest stop at 8500':
An inquiring mind:
After descending out of the Carson National Forest lands we went through several small communities and the Picuris Pueblo. Along the way I saw a couple of land grant signs like this one:
The Spanish/Mexican land grant history is pretty interesting. Although the Las Trampas grant no longer exists as an administrative entity, about 35 other grants in NM do still have acreage and boards of trustees. The land grant system allocated large tracts of land, providing title of small valley parcels to each individual in the community but placing the majority of land into a common trust for the benefit of all. Needless to say when this system intersected with the US takeover of New Mexico in 1846, titles and such got sketchy and, as typically happens, the poorer part of the population got ripped off through legal shenanigans. In the case of Las Trampas this happened around 1900. Most of the common land ended up owned by a timber company which traded it to the US Government in the 1920s for land in the Grants NM area. The US Government included the Las Trampas common land into the Carson National Forest which is what we see today.
As we cut across the valleys carved by small west-flowing tributaries of the Rio Grande, the southern end of the Sangre de Cristo mountains came into sight. As I stopped to take a photo the most important vehicle of the tour came by: the lunch truck!
Clear shot of Pecos Baldy and the Truchas Peaks:
The ridges were interspersed with wetter bottomlands:
If the ridge was high enough we'd get into the Ponderosa Pine life zone. It smelled SO GOOD in the morning sun. This is the olfactory delight that pine air fresheners are trying but failing to reach.
When are we going to get scratch-and-sniff screens to read blogs on?
More bottomlands and a view of the Truchas Peaks from farther south:
From the PeakFinder app:
Northeastern view:
Southeastern view
After riding through a small group of adobe homes, we plunged off the high plateau. The sign half way down the hill schooled me that I'd just been through the town of Truchas:
Looking across the Rio Grande valley to the Jemez Mountains, the most prominent feature of which is the Valles Caldera, an ancient volcano. The sand-colored land in the mid-range is the Nambe badlands:
At the bottom of the descent from Truchas we turned onto a dinky road to cross the Rio Chiquito which had a nice looking valley:
The dinky road:
A settlement along the road
Bottomlands below the settlement:
For perspective, the Jemez Mountains and Nambe badlands again. You can see this picture was taken from a lot lower elevation.
An erosion feature in the Nambe Badlands:
After taking that photo, I arrived at the lunch stop and partook of an egg salad sandwich. From there the road continued to descend to the west until reaching the main artery - US Highway 285. And from there the route rode up the US 285 frontage road for 8 miles. The main attraction on that stretch of road these days seems to be casinos. Back in the day it was Camel Rock, which I'm happy to report hasn't fallen over yet:
Since I was familiar with the roads around Santa Fe from having lived there, I departed from the PacTour route in Tesuque by taking the quaint Bishops Lodge Road into town instead of more highway frontage. I thought the new Tesuque Elementary School was striking because it looks great and its new. I sure wish more school systems would follow this example and build nicer looking buildings.
At the top of the Bishops Lodge Road climb, I rejoiced as I caught sight of our old stomping grounds - the hills behind Santa Fe. Monte Luna (left) and Monte Sol (right)
Mount Atalaya:
From the PeakFinder app which does not use the Spanish designations:
Like Day 13, today's 112 mile route from Chama to Taos New Mexico was not at all direct. Instead of heading southeast to Taos, we turned in exactly the opposite direction and rode north over the Combres Pass into Colorado, roughly following the tracks of the 3' narrow gauge Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad to Antonito. Then we turned south to ride down the San Juan Valley and across the Taos plateau on US 285 before rejoining the more direct route on US 64. US 64 crossed the Rio Grande river on a very high bridge over the gorge then delivered us into Taos.
It was a great day of riding because the first 90% had everything a cyclist could wish for: very low traffic volumes, the few drivers that were there were polite, the roads were smooth, the skies were clear and there wasn't much wind. But... it could have been warmer during the first hour or two. And the last 10% --- getting into Taos proper --- had a lot more traffic as you might expect.
The last factor making it a great day was the environment, a taste of which is provided below.
The first light illuminates the mountains north of Chama (elevation 7825'). For some reason this light always seems the purest. Temperatures were in mid to high 30s.
We climbed 1500' on an easy gradient to the Colorado Border and the first rest stop, I was certainly
warmer inside my many layers, but I thought I should keep those warm
clothes on instead of shedding. (Side note: at the rest stops there is a net bag for you to
place your superfluous layers of clothing. The bag will get to that
night's motel and all you have to do is remember to grab your stuff when
you arrive.)
Damn Tourists!
After the rest stop was an flatish stretch then we saw that more was to come. You can see the climbing road cutting across the midsection of the hill below:
A bunch of us got grouped together when a one-lane road project had a red light, On the left you can see a small sample of the dead spruces I discussed yesterday.
After another 700 feet of elevation gain we reached Combres Pass. At the same place we crossed the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) and the scenic railroad tracks.
In a meadow after the pass I saw a coyote running briskly along in the distance. It was aware of me and looked up as if to say "Do I need to worry about you?" Deciding no worries it went on about its business, which I suppose was relocating to better hunting grounds.
An incredibly beautiful valley opened up. Looking west:
Facing eastward, you can see the scenic railroad tracks trundling along:
After a final climb to 10,250', we dropped into the valley of the Conejos River. We followed the river (which looked to be a fine fly fishing spot) until the canyon opened up into the San Luis Valley (which I mistakenly called the Alamosa Valley). Turning south we ran into the start of a one-lane road construction project right at the NM border which was also where our third rest stop was located. In the distance was a magnificent mountain dome:
Closer view:
This sign gave me its name and warned of elk in the area.
The road climbed around the shoulder of the mountain
After cresting that shoulder we had a very fast stretch on new pavement to the lunch stop. It was extra great because that one-lane road construction project meant that the cars came by in pulses separated by 5 or 10 minutes. During those separations the road was ours.
Eventually we reached US 64 and turned south east and into Taos County:
Big skies with the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in the distance. Taos is at the foot of the ones to the right.
The Sangre de Cristo mountain range is the furthest south range of the Rockies.
I kept waiting for some sign of the Rio Grande gorge which I knew we must cross to get to Taos. Instead I started to see sculptures:
And sculpted buildings:
Known as "earthships", these semi-underground houses seemed to be part of a community which must have building restrictions since there were no "normal" houses in the area.
South facing side of above
South facing side of above:
West side of above
South side of above
Finally we reached the gorge
And its bridge
Bridge shadow in the gorge
Looking upstream
A couple of short movies of the water flow. The size of this "grand" river left my fellow riders unimpressed.
