Day Ride: Gila Forest, New Mexico FR150

[abruzzi]

My first significant bit of off pavement riding on the Tiger (~60 miles)  took me and friend Bruce (on a KTM 950) through the Gila National Forest.  The whole ride was 335 miles in one long day, but I only took pics of the dirt section from Mimbres to Beaverhead.  There was some hairy stuff with water crossings and everything.  Unfortunately the pics of the dirt roads all look tame. (it was harder honest.)

Off the pavement took us up on to a mesa right away.  We stopped to have a look at the views of the Mimbres valley.


Ant the road continued up to the top of the mesa, with some curvys and switchbacks.  The road at this point was well graded.


After a bit of riding, up and down canyons, it flattened out into some nice forest land.


Where we stopped for a break (Not me in the pic.)


A nice clearing that is a landing strip as well.


A lot more riding I didn't take photos of, because it got kind of hairy.  Rocky switchbacks were tricky on a 500lb bike.  They don't call it "Rocky Canyon" for nothing.  

Towards the end, we came to Wall Lake and took another break.


Some marsh by the lake.


A couple pics of the lake:



And some indian cliff dwellings we noticed, overlooking the lake.


About 10 miles past the lake we were back on blacktop--about 70 miles of backroads twisties, and 70 miles of interstate got us back home.  I have some pics of those twisties from another ride, I'll post in another thread.

Geof

[Stretch]

Oh wow.  Are people able to (carefully and respectfully) go into the cliff dwellings?

[abruzzi]

Oh wow.  Are people able to (carefully and respectfully) go into the cliff dwellings?

As far as I know.  It was across the lake, so we didn't try, but there are a lot of clif dwellings in the area.


Geof

[Stretch]

Sweet.  I was in your neck of the woods about ten years ago, out by myself on an '88 Honda V45 Magna, touring the Four Corners area by way of Albuq., Dulce, and Shiprock, en route to Monument Valley.  All of the cliff dwellings I came across were strictly off-limits to tourists.  Nice to know there are some that can be explored by respectful travelers.