The entry is for Sunday, 15 May:
Today's ride took Gerry and I from Holbrook, AZ to Silver City, NM, approximately 345 miles. After a short section of I-40 east from Holbrook, we visited the Petrified Forest National Park. The northern section of the park is adjacent to the Painted Desert which was colorful in the morning sun as you can see in the photos posted. The southern section of the park, south of I-40 is the Petrified Forest part of the park. I have posted a few photos of petrified trees in the Blue Mesa and Crystal Forest sections of the park. The park itself includes about 25 miles of roads that take you from scenic spot to scenic spot. We entered the park on the north side and exited to the south at Rt. 180.
Whenever I visit a national park I am reminded how important it is to designate and preserve park land. We are very fortunate in this country to have so many beautiful national parks . Visiting them all is definitely on my "bucket list."
After the national park visit, we headed south and east on Rt. 180 to Alpine, AZ where we stopped for lunch and fuel. From Alpine it was up into the mountains along Rt. 191 which is known as the Coronado Trail. This part of the ride was about 100 miles of challenging mountain roads comprised in the first section about 60 miles of mountain sweepers followed by 40 miles of twisties and switch backs that included large elevation changes in short distances of road. Thankfully, there was very little traffic on this road which made the ride more enjoyable and safe. We went over Rose Peak at elevation 8766 and stopped to take a photo of the mountain vista which I have posted.
In the latter part of the mountain ride we passed by the Phelps-Dodge Morenci open pit copper mine. This is one huge hole in the ground as you can see in the posted photo. What a contrast to the photos of the untouched terrain proved by mother nature.
After the mountain section of the ride, we headed east on Rt. 78 to connect up with Rt. 180 again in NM. From this point, Rt. 180 took us all the way to Silver City, NM.
I forgoet to mention in my earlier posts that I drank my own Kool Aid from last year's reflection on the trip and installed a plug-and-play satellite radio on my bike. It works great. I have great music to my liking all the time in all locations, including Tecopa Hot Springs, CA where there are no typical communcation services. A different way of life for sure.
I'm with you on visiting all the National Parks being on the bucket list.
ReplyDeleteThat and learning how to do the "Thriller" dance...
Have you discovered the Passport Book for the National Parks? That little blue book at all the visitor centers. Very addicting as each park has it's own passport rubber stamp with the date on it so you stamp your book at each park. It will take you to some places you never would have gone otherwise.
At the end of each blog post, can you tell us what's on deck for the next couple of days?
tarface23: Thanks for following again this year and commenting.
ReplyDeleteDid not know about the Passport Book for National Parks I will have to look into it when I have a chance.
Yes I will try to remember to give a look ahead on what is coming up.
When I first got my passport book, I sent self-addressed stamped envelopes to many of the parks I visited before I had the book. I included a piece of white paper and the date I was there, and they almost all changed their date stamp back to the date I visited, stamped the paper a couple times, and returned it to me. Very cool.
ReplyDeletetarface23: Thanks for that tip on the back-dated blank paper park stamp. Great idea!
ReplyDeleteBruce