tazmocycle Posted June 23, 2016 Share #1 Posted June 23, 2016 susan, my granddauther (14 yrs) and I are hoping to head out west from AL soon and hope to see a good bit for several days. have a sister in aburq. NM and hope to get to the grand canyon too. hoping I can remember the roads I took from Las CRUCES to Tuscon thru the area they grow all the chile peppers. going to grand canyon from there, maybe hit edge of CA, so susan can put that state on her list. try to follow rt 66 back up to OK on way back home. if you know of some great places we need to stop at, let me know and i'll try to put it on our list! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bongobobny Posted June 23, 2016 Share #2 Posted June 23, 2016 WOW!! Have a GREAT trip Taz!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sylvester Posted June 23, 2016 Share #3 Posted June 23, 2016 Enjoy and watch out for the heat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
videoarizona Posted June 23, 2016 Share #4 Posted June 23, 2016 Taz, Take either I-25 north or State rte 185 north out of Las Cruces to Hatch, about 35 miles. The Hatch Chili express store is on 657 Franklin street. Supposedly there is a Hatch Chili Store in Las Cruces near I-10 and South Hotel BLVD...don't know for sure. If you go to Hatch, Continue on Rt 26 (Franklin Street) south and west out of town. Nice shortcut back to I-10 at Deming, NM. Or you can get back on I-25 and head north to Socorro and catch rt 60 west into Arizona. Stop at Pie Town. Famous for pies. Outside of Springerville, make a left and head down rt 191 (Devils Highway). Be advised it is a very dangerous road. That will take you through the largest copper mine (You drive in middle of it) and into Safford...then down 191 to I-10 and into Tucson. Or...from Hatch...come down Rt26 as mentioned earlier and hit I-10 and ride it into Tucson Area. Let me know when you get near. If I'm in town, you are welcome to stay with me in Green Valley...about 30 miles south of Tucson...and there is a short cut you can take from I-10 that saves a tiny bit of time but you may want to stay on interstate if hot out.... From Tucson, I can show you various ways to get up into the mountains through Globe, Lake Roosevelt, Payson, Pine...etc., and into Sedona then up to Flagstaff. From there, the Grand canyon is easy as is Bryce Canyon and more. Just let me know. Cell phone/text is in my profile.. david Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cecdoo Posted June 23, 2016 Share #5 Posted June 23, 2016 Enjoy that ride Taz, sounds like a great time! Be safe and keep us updated. Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10spd Posted June 23, 2016 Share #6 Posted June 23, 2016 WOW!! Have a GREAT trip Taz!! What he said!! Have a great ride Taz!! Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cowpuc Posted June 23, 2016 Share #7 Posted June 23, 2016 Dont miss laguna burgers on the west side of Albuqurkee. Dont miss Jerome AZ - then take 89a thru the canyons - thru Sedona and into Flag.. You didnt mention if you have plans to do both sides of the Canyon so I will just stick to the South Rim.. "Flag" has 3 mountains they are pretty proud of - just ask any native Flagonian.. On one of those mountains is a Planitarium - really nice ride up that mountain and great place to spend a night tent camping in the bushes - AWESOME NIGHT VIEWS!! Not far from that area is a park with Joshua Trees that are thousands of years old - I cant tell you how to find either cause I found em just out exploring but I am sure any local can tell you how to find em.. Just ask about the Planitarium and where the Joshua Trees are! You leave the east gate of the south rim - shoot over and catch the Wapaki and Sunset Crater National Monuments - AWESOME places and usually overlooked - Indian ruins are amazing!! If you make it to Needles,, there is a Denny's there that will give you ALL the ice water you can drink and let you catch a snooze in one of their booths and their Air Conditioning is GREAT!! If your gonna cross Death Valley and you happen to have a full moon - do it at night BUT take extra gas.. That place is AMAZING at night in a good moon light.. If that sounds like fun and you dare to do it, I would suggest that you plan ahead and figure out a way to turn your headlight off while riding - may sound crazy but a full moon on Death Valley is like broad daylight,, you can see for miles,,,,,,, almost like being on the moon or something... If your going to be tenting - watch out for these things called "Goat Heads".. They are like sand burrs only they have three very stout pokers on em that can actually go thru a tire that is half worn.. Just be careful where you lay your tent.. How ya getting over to California and how far ya going in? Personally, if it were me I would go up around the Canyon and stay as far North as possible if I were thinking much farther than Needles - Sonora Pass/Yosimite is AWESOME and would get ya out of a lot of heat.. Last I heard they were talking 120 degree temps out there,,, pretty warm!! Either way though,,, dont forget good sunscreen if your light skinned, SUN SCREEN CHAP STICK MANDATORY (works GREAT on nose, ear tips and above eyes where normal sun screen leaks down and blinds ya) or your lips will look like califlower and be VERY painful. Carry a gallon or two of drinking water on the scoot and easy to get at - STAY HYDRATED - DRINK LOTS OF WATER and pour it over your heads once in a while. KEEP A CLOSE EYE ON YOUR GRAND DAUGHTER FOR OVER HEATING - ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE A HELMET WEARER AND/OR IN STATES REQUIRING HELMETS = BLACK HELMETS WILL FRY YOUR BRAIN BROTHER!!! Get in the habit of talking to each other a lot - pay attention to her speech and listen for slurring and lathargicness when in the sun!! Take salt tablets for water retention.. If either of you get overheated or show symptons dont just run inside of air conditioning - find or make some shade out of your bike cover and spend a few minutes in the shade before hitting the air conditioning.. Make sure your tires pressures are up to par each morning - desert heat eats tires.. Gotta LOVE the desert - NO finer riding in the world (IMHO) but it can be dangerous and it dont take much of an incident for things to become critical really fast.. I am Taz but wishing you and your precious grand daughter nothing but the BEST adventure EVER out there!!! Have fun, stay safe and bring us TONS of pictures of your upcoming experience!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tazmocycle Posted June 27, 2016 Author Share #8 Posted June 27, 2016 we're going in the cage, so no worries about roughing it. grandson went to Washington with other granma, so we are taking his sister with us to get her out to see some of world she probably never get to see. trying to get to most states and attraction we can in 10 days. hope to get to san Antonio, TX first and see whats there worth seeing, maybe some of the less seen by tourist. then head on to Tuscan by las cruces. I remember going up to hatch and then back down to I10 and back to deming, but may go to pietown(heard about it on foodtv) and taste them! we want to go to Sedona to see horseshoe and other sites. thanks for the imfo and advice, hope to keep y'all advise on this thread as we go along. hope we can meet some, and maybe meet some new ones, Don. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bongobobny Posted June 27, 2016 Share #9 Posted June 27, 2016 Plan on spending MANY hours walking the Riverwalk in San Antonio!! Also, If you happen to indulge in a Margeurita there, you will afterwords view regular sized ones as very puny!! There is one place that makes a 64 oz one, yup, a half a gallon sized one!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cowpuc Posted June 27, 2016 Share #10 Posted June 27, 2016 Plan on spending MANY hours walking the Riverwalk in San Antonio!! Also, If you happen to indulge in a Margeurita there, you will afterwords view regular sized ones as very puny!! There is one place that makes a 64 oz one, yup, a half a gallon sized one!! and even though the signs on the river walk just say "NO SWIMMING",,,, dont be fooled into thinking its ok to wade a little or take your shoes off and let your doggies cool off in that trout stream - either of those will get cha in trouble too... Quietly standing in the Alamo and listening for the ghosts of Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie is 100% totally legal though. Big Bend NP is also worth the trip, IMHO:usa:.. If ya do Big Bend, when ya get to the gas station take the roadway to the west and you will come to this Rio Grande river little boat launch area - before you get to the border crossing - really neat little spot with high cliffs on the Mexico side,, there you can legally stick your feet in the stream!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
midnightventure Posted June 28, 2016 Share #11 Posted June 28, 2016 I was riding through N.M. a few years ago through what looked like basically dry flat land. Saw a bunch of cars parked out in the middle of nowhere. Turned out to be a bridge over the Rio Grand Gorge. A pleasant surprise and worthy of stopping and taking pictures. Went on east through Taos and ran into some mountains I wasn't expecting. Slowed me down but fun anyway. Then I went north on I25 to Raton. Just east of Raton is a little town called Capulin. There is an extinct volcano called Mt. Capulin close to there that is a national monument. Another pleasant surprise. Narrow road winds around and around up to the top. One of the few places that I had no desire to exceed the speed limit. If any of these are close to your route they would be worthy of visiting. Of course with the wide open spaces in the west there can be a lot of miles involved getting somewhere. I was just in California in a rental car heading for Yosimite. Got to 8 miles from the entrance and ther was fire blocking the highway. I had to drive 190 miles to make that 8 miles. If I had been riding my Tenere I think I could have found a shorter route but driving a rental the 190 miles seemed the best way. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_Grande_Gorge_Bridge https://www.nps.gov/cavo/index.htm The picture of Capulin doesn't begin to show how high it actually is when your on top. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankd Posted June 29, 2016 Share #12 Posted June 29, 2016 If you end up on I-40 just west of Amarillo, TX, there are some half buried Cadillacs on the north side frontage road. It's free to see and might be a good place to stretch your legs. Of course, the western half of Colorado is great to see. Santa Fe NM has a lot to see---if you go there make sure you walk through the church with the staircase that's near the town square. Old Town Albuquerque is good to see--it's just north of Rte. 66. Remember there have been fires out there and things are a little smoky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gray Ghost Posted June 29, 2016 Share #13 Posted June 29, 2016 There are some good things to do and see along the area you are going through. Some of the things we saw/did out there: The Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo, TX. A neat place to look and visit, but one of the worst steaks I have eaten in a restaurant. The Cadillac Ranch west of Amarillo was interesting, the amount of trash left by visitors was disgusting. Midpoint Cafe in Aiden, TX had excellent pie and is a good stopping place with a bit of route 66 history Blue Hole park in Santa Rosa NM, a very deep swimming hole Santa Fe, NM lots of neat stuff there and good food. Standing on a Corner statue in Winslow, AZ if you are an Eagles fan this stop is pretty much obligatory. Snow Cap Drive In in Seligman, AZ, good shakes a very interesting place. Seligman has some other shops that are worth the visit for route 66 kitsch Hoover Dam near Las Vegas London Bridge in Lake Havasu City, Az Peggy Sue's 50s Diner east of Barstow, CA, good food and memorabilia Wigwam Motel in San Bernadino, CA you can actually spend the night here in a concrete wigwam. Enjoy your trip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tazmocycle Posted July 25, 2016 Author Share #14 Posted July 25, 2016 WELL! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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