Mar/Apr '20 Premium Content New Mexico: Land of the Ancients Some of the earliest humans who migrated to North America occupied the high desert region of Northwest New Mexico. Remnants of ancient structures and other historical artifacts bear testimony to the presence of the Ancestral Puebloans, a pre–Columbian Native American civilization dating to about A.D. 100. The area
May/Jun '19 Premium Content Gallup, New Mexico Shamrock Tour®: Heartland of the Ancients Northwest New Mexico is home to several of the state’s 23 Native American tribes: the Navajo, Jicarilla Apache, Acoma, and Zuni are among those who reside in the region. Despite westward expansion in the late 1800s and the federal government’s efforts to “Americanize” the native people, Indian culture
Mar/Apr '17 Premium Content New Mexico Backcountry Discovery Route: The Desert Crucible The purest art of creating Damascus steel, that extraordinary blade with the wavy design seen in antique knives and swords from the Middle East, is lost to mankind. Speculation suggests multiple layers of metals were forged, folded, and welded together to form a single blade of exceptional quality. Certain aspects
Nov/Dec '16 Premium Content Continental Divide, Part 2: Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico Our route out of Rawlins, WY, takes us through the city’s center before turning south and heading out of town. It is a great day for riding, with mostly clear skies and cool temperatures, as we enter the Medicine Bow National Forest. Not far from the Colorado border we
Jul/Aug '15 Premium Content Trans-America Trail, Colorado to Oregon: Detours, Broken Bones, and New Friendships As if on cue, my new riding partner, Luke Swab, rolls into Fairplay, CO, on a Yamaha WR250R, where I am waiting to meet him by the side of the road. I’m relieved, yet I’m apprehensive to have a riding partner. The first half of the journey had
Classic Roads Premium Content Route 66 West: Riding the Mother Road Today, when people think about Route 66, they see visions of dramatic expanses of southwestern desert and the adventure of exploring the wide-open country. At its peak, the stretch of 66 through New Mexico, Arizona, and California was a bustling highway as Americans moved west to seek their fortunes. Then
May/Jun '15 Premium Content Trans-America Trail, Tennessee to Southern Colorado: Banjos, Tears, & Corn Nubbins I have arrived in Tellico Plains, TN, and the official starting point of the Trans-America Trail (TAT). It took thousands of miles just to get here, but as I prepare to make my first turn onto the trail, I feel a weight and a reality of what I am about
Jan/Feb '15 Premium Content Arizona and New Mexico: Southwestern Diversity “To those devoid of imagination a blank place on the map is a useless waste; to others, the most valuable part.” Author, Aldo Leopold As motorcyclists, we are by nature attracted to the lines and dots on a map. However, those blank places that Leopold referenced are what make a
Nov/Dec '14 City Escape: Albuquerque, New Mexico > This loop ride north of Albuquerque, with its rugged natural beauty, pre-historic Native American ruins, and the “Atomic City,” will not disappoint. It features curvy ribbons of asphalt, expansive vistas, and numerous reasons to drop the kickstand. The moderate southwestern climate makes this route ride-able virtually year-round with the
Sep/Oct '12 Premium Content Colorado and New Mexico: Down the Rio Grande It happened in the winter of 1874. Five prospectors hired a man to guide them across the San Juan Mountains. Weather was severe that year; the men fought huge snowdrifts and extreme low temperatures. Progress was very slow. No game for hunting was to be found, and the party ran
Mar/Apr '12 Premium Content Taos, New Mexico Shamrock Tour® The Sangre de Christo Mountains tower like a wall above the Taos Plateau. This will be my playground for the next few days. The sceneis particularly impressive when approaching the range in the late afternoon, when it is lit by the sun from the west—a beautiful sunset is almost
Nov/Dec '10 Premium Content Part II: Four-State Anasazi Archeology Tour: Utah, Arizona and New Mexico The modern-day popular media has often portrayed the Anasazi people as having mysteriously vanished without a trace. Some have even implied that there is a paranormal or extraterrestrial explanation for their “sudden” disappearance. In our quest to better understand the more earthly explanation for the Anasazi’s disappearance, Steve and
Sep/Oct '10 Premium Content New Mexico and Colorado It's early September and the summer tourists have abandoned the 130,000- square-mile red rock landscape known by geologists as the Colorado Plateau. It contains the largest concentration of scenic wonders in America. Roughly centered where the states of New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Arizona meet, the plateau
Mar/Apr '08 Premium Content In Arizona and New Mexico It's hot, an "airless" afternoon, when I park the K1200R and hike across bus-sized boulders to Spider Rock Overlook at Canyon de Chelly. I snap my camera onto the tripod to take a self-timer shot, set the shutter and pose near the edge. Just then, caprice
Nov/Dec '07 Premium Content Along the Trans-America Trail Year to year, under normal conditions, most riders don't contemplate getting very much riding in on the trails in Colorado and Utah after September. But for my Canadian friend Jeff Sherren and me that couldn't be helped, and it was already October by the time we
Jan/Feb '06 Premium Content Southwest New Mexico Silver City - Las Cruces (186 miles) Our morning ride begins in Silver City on 15, an extremely scenic, single-lane road that heads to the Gila Hot Springs. Backtracking some to 35, meandering south along a green valley, we take a left on 152 to race over one of the
Nov/Dec '03 Premium Content New Mexico Carlsbad Caverns It's early. The sun begins to peek over the horizon of a cloudless sky. Although it looks as though it will be a bright, beautiful day, it doesn't matter much whether it rains or shines because I'm going to descend nearly 1,000 feet
Roundtrip Tour Premium Content Riding Along Route 66 You may know how it is. You're sitting through a long, cold winter evening beside the fireplace and dreaming about tours while the bike hibernates in the garage. Years ago I was in this situation. The fire crackled and Pink Floyd played in my headphones while I read
Fall '02 Premium Content Shamrock Tour® - Santa Fe, New Mexico With only three days to spare for exploration, the choice of Santa Fe and its exhilarating surroundings is a wise one. The weather is fine and the way unwinds as smoothly as silk beneath our Road Kings. A number of people have asked me recently to define a shamrock tour.
