It's BIG, It's a Dam, and it's quite a bridge.

After a long drive to Little Rock, including an ugly traffic snarl through the heart of the Mayflower, AR tornado damage, we checked into our hotel downtown. Fifteen minutes later we were on the bikes headed for the Clinton Presidential Center. Oh, no, it's not that we're great fans of slick Willy; we only want the recreational opportunities afforded by his influence on his city!

Keep moving and don't look down.

And what influence it has been. I won't even get into the NGOs, the School of Public Service and all the other goodies that have been showered on Little Rock. Let's talk about green space! Can you think of any other medium-sized city that has 88 miles (!) of continuous trails within their metro area? And it all connects with museums, huge parks, marinas, boat houses, sailing clubs, public art and an entertainment district that was busy even on a Tuesday night.

We rode 18 miles of the trail including the Big Dam Bridge, a bridge over an existing damn on the Arkansas River, built just for cyclists and pedestrians. We were going to pass on it and just loop back the way we came. It's still super-windy and the bridge is 90 feet above the dam. But we may not have another opportunity, right??

You can learn all about it here: http://arkansasrivertrail.org/points-of-interest/bridges/big-dam-bridge/

Wednesday, we're off for Birmingham. To eat. Really.
Home is getting closer!

O-K !!

We awoke in Salina on Monday to find that someone had attempted to remove the bikes from the car-- right outside our door! Even though they weren't successful, it was still disturbing and reinforced our impression of Salina as a kinda sad little town. The bikes will be spending the night indoors from now on.

We arrived in Oklahoma City mid-afternoon and headed straight for the mountain bike trails near Draper Lake. We spent a couple of hours on the singletrack and challenged ourselves with harder courses than we attempted in Moab. The technical aspects of this kind of riding require you to actually think about your next move. It isn't just leisurely, mindless toodling around. A nice change.

We had a great dinner at a Guernsey Park, an asian-fusion tapas spot in the Uptown neighborhood. Tuesday, we head for Little Rock. Too much driving and too little fun is getting old. Let's see if we can change that.

Kansas. Or, Dorothy, you weren't dreaming, you really were blown away

Sunday April 26th

Sunday morning, another fantasy; "let's drive up to Guanella pass and see the the views from 11,600 feet" was squashed when we leaned that it had snowed many inches up there, and the wind chill was -3. Rain and snow were forecast for the front range. Time to go.

If there are 2 sets of permanent hand prints in the steering wheel of our car, it's purely from the drive from Georgetown to Salina KS, our stop for Sunday night.
First: Snow and more crazy wind in the front range.
Second: WILD wind, hail, rainstorms and blowing sand in eastern Colorado and Kansas. Neither of us have ever seen sustained winds like this outside of a hurricane. Gusts to 50? For 400 solid miles. Tumbleweeds the size of Charlie Brown christmas trees were blowing across the road and into the car. (I haven't checked for dents).

We outran the storms!

So what happens when there's fallow farmland and wind like that? Dust & sand. Visibility of maybe a mile? And this isn't rare-- the Salina area is called the smoky hills.

One interesting thing we that saw during this long drive were the wind generators east of Salina (aptly named the Smoky Hills Wind Farm). The structures were quite beautiful in the diffuse light and I'm sorry that I didn't stop for pictures (but I might have been blown away!). Wind provides nearly 20% of Kansas' electrical power. Pretty impressive.

Monday: We're following the yellow brick road ( I-135) to Oklahoma..Yeah, we know; "where the wind comes sweeping down the plain".

It's so Colorado here....

Saturday April 25th

Saturday morning called for crazy high winds (again!) so we were even more motivated to turn toward the east and officially begin the long drive home. I-70, the main highway through Colorado and Kansas would be our home for the next 2 days.

Late morning we arrived in Glenwood Springs, a smallish but busy town near several ski resorts and, importantly, the main road to Apsen. We had this wild fantasy of camping at the trail head to Maroon Bells, hiking out to the lake overlooking the mountains and generally goofing around in the Colorado wilderness.

We are such naive flatlanders!
Point #1: The road doesn't even open until Memorial Day. Why? Because it's at 10,000 feet and snowed in? Oh. Well. Nevermind.
Point #2: Sunday's forecast? Snow. Lows in the teens. Winds in the 30's. Double that nevermind.

So we unloaded the bikes and rode Glenwood Springs' paths, had lunch and decided to continue east. We stopped at Georgetown, a tiny historic, former mining town along 1-70. It's the gateway to several ski and climbing areas about 50 miles west of Denver.

Ski town fence

Through Curbed via Field Trip, we learned of an out of the way bar (not really a descriptive enough term for it) in Silver Plume, just couple miles away. This is easily one of the quirkiest places we've been on this trip. Housed in a spare 1880's bakery building, Dram is only open from 2-9pm on Saturdays and is home to a maker of artisan tonics and syrups. This is their tasting room. Lest you think we'd landed in a episode of Portlandia mixed with Girls, I can assure you this is a real place. When we arrived, the colorful locals you'd expect in an old kinda-ghost mining town were n full swing at the bar.

Then Denver weekenders attacked. Accompanied by a sweet boxer, two tiny babies and a gaggle of hipster ski bums lighting up pipes outside (yes, this IS Colorado!), by 8:30 it was hoppin'. Now we get the 9pm "closing time": the private party begins at 9:01! So us old folks made sure we didn't harsh their mellow and left by 8:45. The cocktails were outstanding but we did have to drive home.

Playtime!

Friday, April 25th

Today we played in a slot canyon and then in a field of hoodoo goblins.
Need translation? I'll let these pics do it.

Hurry, we've got to see EVERYTHING!

Thursday April 24th
After leaving Blanding, we headed to Natural Bridges National Park to hike around the stone bridges and see some Pueblo ruins. We would have like to stay, especially after we saw the park's HUGE telescope and learned that the Ranger would be leading a stargazing program that night. But, time marches on - and so do we. We have only a week left -- and we need to make the most of it.

Hmm. Something about a dog walk maybe?

So across southern Utah, through the Glen Canyon area, across Lake Powell (what's left of it here) and north toward Goblin Valley State Park.

See any water?

The scenery changes, with huge dark red towers all around. It changes again, to desert plains with random buttes popping up here  and there.

We're spending the night in Green River. Tomorrow we'll return to Goblin for a slot canyon hike and visit to the hoodoos.

Difficulty Sleeping

Something with a shower would be nice....

When we were planning this trip, we thought we'd have to camp many nights because we couldn't find a hotel or we'd want to be close to the remote places were visiting. Here's the reality:

We often can't find a campsite. Many of the typically small, public park campgrounds are booked months in advance. The private campgrounds cater to RVs almost exclusively and are notoriously cheesy and non-wilderness like. Add to that that many campgrounds (even in the southwest) are closed until summer.

We've been forced settle on a motel, sometimes far from our destinations due to the lack of campsites. We won't risk driving to the first-come first-serve BLM or Forest Service sites that are 50 miles from a town only to have to turn around and hope for the best late in the day. So we just cut our losses and stay in motels. No, not hotels. Not no-tells either, but never posh. Since we want the bikes close by, we stay in those little, locally owned, usually retro, places where we can park by the door. Some of the least expensive have been the nicest experiences.

We have only one more day in Utah ;-( Let's see if Colorado is different.





.

Day 3 in Moab and off to points south

The alarm went off at 5:30. Our plan to walk the longest trail in the park required us to get there ahead of the crowds. You see, this trail begins at the most popular overlook. Everyone goes there.

Landscape Arch-- everyone wants to see it

The Hoodoos at Sunrise

Plus, we wanted to catch the sunrise on the peaks and walls.


We had a blast (and almost had the trail to ourselves) climbing around the arches, crossing the saddles and walking up the edges of the fins. Eight and a half miles by lunchtime. Now, Scott calls it Aches National Park.

If it's there, let's climb on it!

Top of a fin

Scott tidying up the trail

Company

After lunch we broke camp and headed south with a side trip to the Needles Overlook in Canyonlands. Canyonlands can only be described as overwhelming. From the overlook, we could see 3 or four layers of plateaus and canyons. None of my photos can begin to show you the incredible geology created by 600 million years of wind and water (with a few earthquakes thrown in too).You're better off googling it.

Even though we wanted to spend the night in Natural Bridges park, we knew that the odds of a campground space (of their 13) was minuscule. Natural Bridges is an International Dark Sky Park. It is one of the darkest places in the US (a 2 on the Bortle scale). That's dark. It's one of the main reasons that people drive 100 miles out of their way to this relatively small park. With the moon not rising until 3am here, we had a great opportunity to see a night sky like none we'd ever seen before.

So we landed in Blanding, a small town in southern Utah. After a dinner that can only be described as a huge cluster, for us and the guys sitting next to us, we drove out a country road about 9pm and were rewarded with tons of stars and some remnants of the Lyriad meteor shower.

Durn Bubba, Jawja don't have no bike paths like these!

Tuesday April 22nd

Hit the bike trails. 2-1/2 hours of riding in one of Moab's public bike areas. Fun. A little challenging; just enough.
Reward: a $5 shower. We relaxed & did some trip planning in the afternoon. Dinner was at camp; we had some beautiful views at sunset.

Moab & Arches National Park

April 21st

This is day 1 of 3 in Moab: Scored a great campsite with views, space and protection from the wind.
Bonus: it's waterfront - on the Colorado river.
Non-bonus: like all of the public campgrounds around Moab there were no showers. Only RV parks have showers. Now, does that make sense?

We hit the park kind of willy-nilly: If there's a trailhead... let's go see! By the end of the day we'd hiked four of the parks trails. One was a nice introduction to this world of towering rock, another essentially a playground for parents & kids.. The last, and most remote, was the most fun. Even though it required another lonnngg drive down a dirt road, we were rewarded with our private playground of arches and slickrock


.

Our little Moab home!

Waterfront with canyon views!

Snow!

Sunday, April 20th

Mother nature is messing with our plans again. We left Santa Fe early with the intention of spending the late morning riding in Taos. Um, no. Temps in the 40s and rain.

So we ditched that plan and bolted for Colorado to get as close as possible to Utah for the night.

Not far north of Taos is the Rio Grande canyon.

 

We stopped there for lunch, enjoyed the views from the bridge and were on our way again, through more desert and bouts of rain until near the Colorado border we encountered this: 

It's amazing how much things can change in 2 hours!

Bye, New Mexico!

We're spending the night in Cortez, 20 miles from Utah. We've learned that the campgrounds  in Arches, Canyonlands and Capitol Reef are booked as well as many of those around Moab. We'll be up early again to get there before noon for the best walk-in chances. Wish us luck!

Another Saturday, another farmer's market

We arrived in Santa Fe on Friday afternoon. Our hotel was in the 'burbs so we spent a little time exploring the town before getting down to business: dinner! We wandered into Tomasita's, a very locals-focused "new mexican" restaurant. Like most of the places we've encountered here, portions are huge-- and spicy. Good, but too much!

On Saturday morning we ran the linear park near the hotel. Then it was off to the Railroad arts district and the huge farmers' market there. Always a good way to get a feel for the people of the city; it's also a good chance to try the local flavors.

My score of the day was a quart of raw milk. It's not legal to sell in Georgia, but it is here and it was, and is, delicious. The taste is somehow different that pasteurized whole milk; maybe it has a little tinge of yougert.

After lunch we drove up to the ridge above the city. The weather had turned cold and sleety/rainy and would stay that way. Saturday night's dinner was at another locals-only spot that specialized in salad. Yes, salad. After all those big mexican meals, we needed a break.

Sunday's plan: Taos riding and then onward toward Utah.

Petroglyphs? Not so much...

Copyright  ~1300

Friday, April 18

We had lunch in Albuquerque and the decided to go see the petroglyphs at Petroglyphs National Monument on the west side of the city.

This was a very disappointing, and in some ways, disturbing place.

First: Not much of a park. Just a visitors center, a couple of parking lots and some very short trails through basalt boulders, some with actual petroglyphs. Some with...well you decide. Do you think the residents of 700 years ago carved smiley faces?

Second: Albuquerque's sprawl has bumped up right against the borders of this public land.
How close? Here's the view toward the city:

I climbed to the top of one of the mesas hoping for a great view of the mountains to the west. What did I see? Street lights and plumbing pipes for a new subdivision, all at eye level.



My old guidebook gave details about bike trails and long hiking trails through the desert. Not anymore.

More Wildlife: Bosque Del Apache

Thursday and Friday, April 17 and 18

We left Roswell after lunch and drove across the state

For miles and miles....

(ok, it felt like across the state) to Bosque del Apache wildlife preserve. This is site along the Rio Grande ( and I-25!) that is quite literally world-famous for the migrating birds that winter here. It's one of the holy grail spots for birders and nature photographers. April is not a popular time here as the Sandhill Cranes that have given this site its popularity have already returned to their northern homes. Nonetheless, we saw our share of birds and mammals too!

We arrived an hour before sundown. Ducks, turkeys, shorebirds and egrets were all represented. I saw a beaver, tons of huge turtles, and other little critters that I couldn't identify. We had a great conversation with some staff that joined us at an overlook to see the evening activity.

In the morning we returned before sunrise. The plan: see mother nature in action until the sun came up, then jump on the bikes and ride the the areas we missed. A perfect morning! Here's a small sample of the result:

We left about 10, checked out of our nice little motel in Socorro and headed north to Albuquerque.

Surprising sight: hundreds of people walking on I-25 --on the shoulder and in the median-- making a pilgrimage for Good Friday.
Question: Has anyone actually seen a Havalina? They're supposed to be everywhere. Ok, so why haven't we?

Take us to your leader.

 Thursday, April 19th

Oh, here we go again! The wind is back! 20-30 and increasing throughout the day.

We get up at 7 in order to be at Carlsbad Caverns when they open. That gives us hope of being out of there by the time other tourists have made it to the gate.

See, we'd gotten the word. Super-cheesy was the way it was described by a Marfa-ite. Another mentioned tourist trap. But still, it seemed that a huge cave operated by the National Park Service couldn't be that bad.

 And it wasn't -- at 8:30am. Since we were some of the first in the entrance, we were able to witness their bats returning to their roosts. We had lots of room to roam the 2+ mile route that was open to us. We even had the space to race 1-1/2 mile straight back up to the entry for some extra cadio --no elevator for us!

Not best pic, but hey, it was DARK.

I'm so glad we took this approach. As we returned to the entry ~10:30, we were greeted by some 100 middle schoolers, all descending into the cavern screaming and giggling and generally acting like it was Disney.

Whew! Dodged that bullet!

But we didn't dodge the weather bullet. We learned that high winds in White Sands meant that there would be white-out conditions there.

We chose to pass on it and go instead directly to Roswell. Surely there'd be an alien or 2 waiting for us! And look what we found!

On the way into Roswell


Seriously, Roswell was a nice little town. We visited the obligatory tourist shop, with its collection of really tacky t-shirts and books that expose the real story behind the 1947 alien encounter there.  Riiiiight....

Scott couldn't resist buying an alien ID, complete with a martian picture and the name A. Lien, address Mars. I've dared him to present it the next time we're carded.

 

From Alpine to Marfa and on to New Mexico.

April 16th

What is a Marfa you say?  Take one part west-Texas agricultural town, 1 part artist's refuge, another part hipster tourist magnet. That might give you a feel for it. Or not. The story is this: In 1971 Donald Judd arrived here from Brooklyn and began the efforts that have become a hub for minimalist art and artists. Two foundations carry on his legacy.

The real picture

You can read the long form of this story here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marfa,_Texas

 It's quirky and it works. There are studios, galleries, "installations" and the interesting individuals that go along with these things. We arrived near lunchtime, popped the bikes off the car and rode nearly every street at least once. Had lunch at the Food Shark truck. Then we were off to see the most celebrated installation of them all.

But on the way there we encountered this::

I have to tell you this was one hell of a surprise and from a distance; we initially thought it was another bit of art. It is, but of the scientific kind. Here are the details if you don't already know. (yeah Beauchamps, I'm looking at you, 'cause I know you do)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tethered_Aerostat_Radar_System

Then we finally arrive

Actually, the back of the building was the most interesting.

Carlsbad was our destination for the night and a source of some confusion: hotels were crazy expensive.  I've never seen a Hampton Inn with a $350 rate! So we settled on what turned out to be the worst hotel of our trip so far; no big deal.

Tomorrow: Carlsbad Caverns & White Sands.