Passes & Canyons Blog

After more than 30 years doing our OFMC trips we have ridden just about everywhere you can go in eight or nine days from Denver–unless you’re an Iron Butt kind of guy, which we are not.

That means we have ridden just about every road within that area, most more than once. Still, there are little stretches of road here and there that we have missed and now and then we find our way to them. This year’s trip was a good one for finding them.

The first was just a local road but what a blessing to find. We were headed through Taos and knew that that town is very congested. Plus, as we got near we saw a warning sign saying that we should expect construction delays going through town. I had already spotted Blueberry Hill Road; now the only thing was to find it. As a small local road it’s not going to be found on any state highway map.

Fortunately, these days we have Google Maps and such, which is where I spotted it in the first place. But even those maps sometimes lack scale. In this case I knew we needed to turn west from the road we were on, onto the road going out to the Rio Grande Gorge, but then very quickly make a sharp left on Blueberry Hill. From the map you would probably think it was a mile or so.

I was in the lead and made the turn. We went about 300 feet and cross a stream and there on the left was a road. It looked like it could be what we wanted but there were no street signs. Still, there were a couple cars coming out of there, suggesting it was somewhat busy. I decided to take a chance.

Success! This was Blueberry Hill Road and it took us all the way around Taos on a series of ridges with almost no traffic. Very sweet, not to mention rather scenic. I can easily imagine taking this road again.

This led us immediately to the next new road. As we got to the highway where I had understood we needed to do a quick jog left, jog right to get onto the High Road to Taos, I was set to go left when Dennis pulled up next to me. He said his GPS said Espanola, our destination, was to the right. I was not totally sure of myself so I agreed that we should go right.

Well, that was really wrong. To get to the High Road we did need to go left, but this road did go to Espanola nevertheless. And it was a shorter, more direct route. Not that we wanted short or direct, we actually wanted scenic but then this new road, NM68, had that to offer as well. First we went down into the gorge of the Rio Grande and then that opened out into a lovely valley filled with vineyards and farms. It did later run out on the flatland that was decidedly unscenic but no big deal. It was a nice road and we had never ridden it.

We got to Espanola for a three-night stay and on our second full day we did a day ride, making sure to know our way to the High Road. We took that up to Taos, then crossed the hills to get to Angel Fire, turned south there on a really nice road we had ridden for the first time just about five years ago, and then reached the town of Mora. The last time we had turned left at Mora to go on down to Las Vegas and I-25. What I had seen on the map, however, was that if we turned right at Mora we would get on an entirely new road that would take us back the High Road to Taos a little east of Penasco: NM518.

This was a really nice road going through some valleys and over some hills, with the only thing spoiling the scenery being the char of a very recent forest fire. Sad to see. Otherwise, a great road.

OK, I didn’t expect this. This post is getting long and I’m not nearly done. We rode a lot of new roads on this trip. I’ll pick up from here next time.

Biker Quote for Today

“The main thing I’m into is going about on a bike, taking random routes; I’m really into the idea of making up journeys and just seeing where they take you because they always end up taking you someplace freaky.” – Tom Jenkinson