A Mothers' Day treat for me--an all day bike ride through Jemez (Ham es) Mountain National Scenic Byway.
From Santa Fe the road wound around
and up
high enough for the Ponderosa pines, recovering from the last burn.
Up we wound to 9000 feet.
Riding along the top of the mountain we found this lovely pasture,
which we discovered was a caldera and a national monument.
We also found this nice map which shows our entire loop rout: from Santa Fe north on CR 285, west on CR 505 where we picked up CR 4. Four ran west across the top of the mountain before turning south and starting down through the Jemez Mountain National Recreation Area. At San Ysidro where we picked up CR 550 we had descended to 5500 feet. I 25 took us back up to 6900 feet back 'home' in Santa Fe.
After a while it was all downhill.
In the recreational area we found a rock climbing area
and an area called the Bluffs. Between them
we found this beautiful little trout fishing stream where we enjoyed our lunch.
Unfortunately, that Creepy Guy showed up.
As we descended we saw more of the beautiful red rocks that give the Sangre de Cristo Mountains their name (Spanish for Blood of Christ.)
At the bottom of the mountain we found a welcome center where we learned about the Jemez people.
View of the Pueblo
At Bernalillo we crossed the Rio Grande River,
and Route 66
then turned north on I25 for a 2000 foot climb back to Santa Fe. It seemed strange to pass this little vineyard right along the interstate.
More beautiful weather and beautiful rides coming up.
Louise and Duane
No comments:
Post a Comment