We went for a nice ride today to get a picture for a scavenger hunt from the CC&D forum which ended up taking us into new territory that I didn’t know existed. The fall colors of all the cotton woods and aspens were spectacular, quite a surprise. The colors visible from Santa Fe up on the ski hill had already faded, they usually peak the week of Columbus day and we’d had an early snow which knocked all the leaves off.
We went from Glorieta to Pecos along the old Route 66 winding through the amazing colors and from there we came to a crossroads where I had no idea where we were or where any of the roads went. We decided to head north and see where the road took us where we found a cool monastery and down a dirt road a lake surrounded by orange and yellow.
There were fishermen everywhere! All along the road cars were parked on the shoulders and any little pullout and down in the river were fly fishers in waders and even more along the shore. This guy had one nice catch and 4 smaller ones, he said someone had pulled a big one out just a week earlier. Further up the road from the monastery lake was a fish hatchery, I bet they keep the waters around here very well stocked.
We saw several tiny tiny towns and some cool old buildings along the way.
Be sure to fill up ahead of time, highway 63 dead ends up the mountain and you have to back track to get down. This old Conoco pump looks like its been dry a very long time.
Up at the very top was Jack’s Creek Campground. Very cool! Can’t believe I had no idea any of this was back here, this would make a good place to go camping close by.
Eventually we made our way to Las Vegas where we met up with my former boss and got some of his home grown squash! Pretty awesome day for a ride.
I had a great time riding around the country side on a motorcycle. It was so wonderful and beautiful, very pretty colors of the fall seasons.