It’s been a bit over a month since I learned to ride a motorcycle, and then bought one that same week. In that time I have put about 2000 miles on my bike, and gone for some really fun adventures with my friend Craig, who got me into all this insanity in the first place.

Saturdays have become our ride days, and yesterday being Saturday, we had planned out our longest ride yet. We planned to leave early-ish Saturday morning to go out from Albuquerque on highway 550, got off on highway 4, go through Jemez Springs, Los Alamos, Española, Las Vegas, and back down through Madrid and Cedar Crest to Albuquerque; one large 380 mile loop. Due to unforeseen errands, we wound up leaving Albuquerque at close to 1 pm.

Rather than take the freeway out to 550, we chose the scenic 313 going North, the weather was warm and fairly wind-free, and our first 27 miles started well. The scenery West of Albuquerque on 550 heading out toward our next turnoff was stunning, with white mesas and red hills, sedimentary layers thrust up by rift action contrasting against the dark dusty greens of the conifers dotting the landscape.

We passed through Jemez Pueblo and found a turnout on the road, where we stopped for a photo op with our bikes, and got some shots of the scenery.

Continuing North into the canyon, we had to stop at one particularly breathtaking rise on either side. One side had a looming sheer face and on the other, the waxing moon hung out above the pink cliffs.

We rode further North on highway 4, passing through Jemez Springs, with a creek flowing on our left and walls of mountain and canyon on our left. We opted not to stop at a little cave near the road because there were too many people crawling all over it. Eventually the terrain changed into more pure mountain, with forest lining the road on both sides. That is, until we burst out of the curvy mountain into the vast plain of the Valles Caldera. Turning left off Highway 4, we rode down a soggy dirt road to the center, and stopped for a hike on the central peak of the caldera.

We hiked back down through snow and squishy pumice dirt, and were greeted by ravens at the parking lot as we were getting geared up to head out. The trek back out to the main road had less traffic than the way in, and we made way to Los Alamos, staying on the South side of the canyon heading toward Santa Fe.

Since it had gotten quite late, we just bombed down i25 back to Albuquerque from Santa Fe rather than complete the full loop. Our ride still ended up being a bit more than 200 miles, which is our longest ride to date.