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Day 15 - Miles of Adventures


Today started out with an outing on back dirt roads to see the Mexican Hat up close and personal.  We were hoping to be able to ride down to the San Juan River, but the descent was very steep with loose sand.  We did get to the back side of the Mexican Hat though.

After that on to the Valley of the Gods!  WONDERFUL RIDE!!!  The road through the valley was as perfect as we could ask for for a dirt/sand road.  There was one time when my back wheel got a little squirrely on me in deep sand.  I was to blame because I was riding in Ray Charles mode (swinging head left and right to catch all the sights) and didn’t pay attention to my immediate surroundings.   It was very deep sand!  But I made it and Kevin following made it through with no problems. 

Valley of the Gods is beyond words to describe!  I’m so disappointed that my “go pro” camera was not rolling as we drove through the valley.  I thought I’d turned it on but I did not get one video of the valley.  Kevin did, so hopefully he will post a video or 2 for you.  I’ll have to look up to see what the little white Chipmunk looking critters were – several darted in front of us.

I clocked 43 miles of dirt and gravel we rode today.  This is the type of riding we were looking for and finally found it!

After Valley of the God we stopped at a little store to get a few necessities (White Castle hamburgers for one – for Kevin).  Then back to the camper for a little lunch and then the 3 of us took a nap.  Kevin air lifted Nikki up and she snuggled between the 2 of us.

After our nap we got in the truck and went out venturing.  We went to Goose Neck State Park to view the San Juan River making several curves through the mountains (like Horseshoe Bend only several bends versus the one).  After that I drove us up a 3.3 mile mountain road of 10% grade and major hair pin turns.  It was a one lane gravel road up, thankfully we didn’t meet anyone coming down it.  At the top we saw a couple of cars that had not made it as they were in pieces going down the drop off of the mountain.  We continued on, but ended up turning around in order to get back down the mountain before it got too dark.  We met a Jeep coming up as we were going down – good thing it was in a wider section of road!   (Kevin jumped out at the top to get a photo of the twists and turns – he will post it on his blog).

We made it back to camp a little after dark.

Nikki enjoyed our evening adventure too.  Or at least we like to think that she did.  She is such a good traveler!

(I will be posting this late because once again, Internet and cell service is non-existent.)






















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