July 29, 2009 – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Rode Bandolier Cruise + Ski Area

Today was a really awesome day. Started with getting up way too early 0400 here which is 0600 back home. In reality, I slept in, but was still up too early to go do anything. Paul, Bill and I met for breakfast here at the hotel and were off by 0715 to get to the ride. Today we traveled to Los Alamos and road around the area including Bandolier National Monument. We didn't visit Bandolier, will probably do that late this week.

We found a real unique way to pack the bikes into the van that Bill rented so that we could travel in one vehicle to the rides. That just makes logistics that much easier.

When we headed out, it was a beautiful day. Driving north, we noticed that there seemed to be an Indian Casino about every couple of miles. Amazing how many of them there really were.

The ride seemed to be a lot shorter than we though it would be, probably because the speed limit is 75 m.p.h out here.

 

The scenery around here is really spectacular. This scene was taken along the drive to Los Alamos. If I didn't know better, I'd think Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef were going to jump out of the woodwork and start a gun battle.

What I didn't realize until I got here was that Los Alamos was actually built on top of a Mesa. There are in fact several fingers that the lab is spread out on. There is even an airstrip on one of them.

We parked in the overlook area on the Mesa which had spectacular views of the Rio Grande in the valley below. This view is looking towards the North East. You'll notice a guy in the bottom left of the frame. There was an artist painting the scene while we were there, I can understand why as it was unbelievable.

Below are a couple more views from the overlook including Paul looking sharp in his Eagleman Ironman 70.3 shirt!

Below are some shots of us in the parking lot just prior to the ride. Paul voted this start location as the best ever since there were clean bathrooms readily available.

After some nice climbing, we made a run at climbing to the Pajarito Ski Area which was about 4 miles with some significant 10-12% sections. The climb wasn't terrible though as there were sections of "Bonus" Kilometers as Paul calls there which are false flats or downhill sections.

Notice that we are in a pine forest vs the high desert area we were in before. Amazing terrain on this one ride.

Here are Paul and I at the ski area.

After the ski area, we continued on an seemed to be riding directly through the Los Alamos National Laboratory as the facility was spread out all over the area.

After riding past this section of Los Alamos,we headed on a long descent through Bandolier National Monument area. This included one od the most amazing sections of road that seemed to be carved through the canyon. The pictures don't do it justice, but here are a few anyway!

After the ride was complete, we headed into town and had lunch at the Central Ave Grill. The food was fantastic. After that we visited the Ray Bradbury museum which highlight the history of the Atomic program at Los Alamos. Truly fascinating also.

We then cam back and got cleaned up before heading into Santa Fe to check out the Plaza Area. We ate dinner at the Tune Up Cafe. which was excellent. I'll probably be updating this with details from that adventure, but for now, I am tired and am going to bed! lol.