Posts Tagged ‘Motorcycle Journeys Through the Southwest’

Taking A Look At Motorcycle Journeys Through the Southwest

Friday, May 23rd, 2008

Motorcycle Journeys Through the SouthwestI picked up a copy of this book, Motorcycle Journeys Through the Southwest, on the recommendation of Steve Shards, the Kiwi rider whose pending trip to Colorado I discussed in several posts previously. It’s an interesting book and if you’re coming to the four-corners states (Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona) there is a lot of good information about roads you may not know exist. I mean, let’s face it, there aren’t any websites comparable to motorcyclecolorado.com for any of those other states.

What caught my interest was when Steve included some roads in Utah on his trip plans that I had never heard of. I asked him how he (in New Zealand mind you) came to know about these roads, and he told me he read about them in this book. So I bought the book.

The author, Martin Berke, breaks the four-state area up into a number of geographically logical sections.

  • Grand Circle, which includes Utah and Arizona, takes in, as he says, “one continuous trail encompassing six national parks, two national monuments, two national recreation areas, four national forests, three major dams, and the two largest man-made lakes in the United States.”
  • West Slope Slalom, primarily taking in western Colorado, includes routes going over 25 passes.
  • Front Range covers just what it says, the first range of Colorado’s mountains.
  • Enchantment Land covers New Mexico.
  • 2 x Four Corners reaches into all four states, in that vicinity of each state.
  • Hanging on the Mogollon Rim basically covers northern Arizona. He describes the Mogollon Rim as “a geologic rift that marks the southern end of the Colorado Plateau, runs southeast to northwest across Arizona to the New Mexico border to just below Flagstaff.
  • Bloomin’ Desert covers southern Arizona, all the way down to Nogales and the Mexican border.

    • What I personally find most interesting about this book is that Berke covers a number of roads here in Colorado that I have ignored on the website primarily because they don’t go through to anywhere. That is, these are roads that dead-end or where the pavement runs out and you would need to either turn around or venture out on the gravel — or worse. He also suggests campgrounds up some of these roads as bases for day trips.

    Looking through this book pointed out to me that I’ve been a little short-sighted in this regard, both in what I’ve included on the site and in my own travels. Especially now that I’ve started including some of the better gravel roads, I’m going to let this book help me explore some parts of this state that I’m unfamiliar with. I’d say that’s a darn good recommendation.

    Biker Quote for Today

    Never hesitate to ride past the last street light at the edge of town.

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