CTX 1300 Forum banner

SouthWest Meetup June 2-5, 2022

14K views 159 replies 19 participants last post by  swblake 
#1 ·
Throwing it out into the universe - southwest meet up.
 
#6 ·
Well then, seems like there is some interest. I will jump in and coordinate and hopefully we can get something going!

My initial thoughts for timing are May 19-22 or June 2-5. It is before too much heat and the monsoons. Those two time slots straddle the memorial day weekend. I figured I'd follow the tried and trued Thursday through Sunday plan that meet up in the mountains pulls off very well. Arrive and meet on Thursday, planned rides Friday and Saturday, and Sunday depart.

As the southwest is so spread out, it is hard to find reasonable hub locations to do loops. First thought was base it in Flagstaff, with one day ride loop up to the grand canyon and around the pueblo ruins near sunset crater. 2nd ride would be down through sedona, jerome, prescott and skull valley and back. Another option could be Durango base, doing the Telluride/million dollar hwy one day and perhaps monument valley the next (would be long ride).

Other ideas certainly welcome! I am thinking we can toss ideas around through the holidays and firm up in January.

Let's do this!!
Stirling
 
#7 ·
Let’s see ... from here to Durango is 1,175 miles. Here to Flagstaff is 1,285 miles. That’s do-able. However, that’s crowding the time we will crank up our harvest season down here. Hmm ...

Things to ponder. Will be following this thread ...
 
#10 ·
FYI - in 2019, I made a two week ride from the PNW to Monument Valley. On May 10, I tried to ride to Durango on the return via SR160 east to ride the SR550 and SR 145 loop. Had to cancel those plans due to a big snowstorm that swept through the region. Durango elevation = 6500'.

Flagstaff [Flag to the locals] can be similar, since it is 7000'.

Jerome is a great ride from the south, with 127 curves in 12 miles. I lived in Prescott for two years, so rode it often.

I'd like to join you, but my heart is set on PCW to Death Valley. Have tried four times in the last two years, but COVID and historic fires have prevented each time. Will try again this April.
 
#14 ·
I am in CA (orange county) and @t star , also interested in the meetup, is in Stockton area. I plan to take about 7 days total, with a direct 1.5 days out there (if Durango/Cortez) and a 3 day meander return starting Sunday. I would like to be at the meet up location around lunch/beer time and have a meetup dinner with everyone (or most) on Thursday evening. We would have the official meetup rides Friday and Saturday, and then start a scenic route home on Sunday. If some folks want to group ride Sunday AM, I would maybe join in.

If all you have is the 4 days off, that would be tough.
 
#16 ·
Well, I may be biased, but since I live in Colorado Springs CO, I'm all for the idea! The Appalachians are beautiful, but LONG way away for me. On a semi-related note, I've discovered the convenience of U-Haul motorcycle trailers. Had a family get-together recently in Grand Junction. Crossing the Continental Divide here on CO in late Oct is a very iffy proposition on a motorcycle! Rented a trailer and it worked exceptionally well, even in my '07 Tacoma with a 4-cylinder engine. Highly recommended! And cheap.
 
#17 ·
Following.

I have always wanted to do a ride like this. I am booked solid in May and June most of the time, with various obligations. I would need to take a lot of time off to fully enjoy this, if I was able to go. I hope you all do this! Thanks for the inspiration. If every do this (and I will, one day) I would love to do this with a friend.

Ecoregion Map World Line Atlas
 
#18 ·
Durango would be great, there's tons of hotel/motel possibilities there, and it's a great staging area for Silverton, Ouray, and the Million Dollar Highway (US550). Mesa Verde NP is close by too. One note about the dates; late May is a bit dicey for rides over the Continental Divide. Early June improves the odds, although sometimes room rates go up on June 1.
 
#19 ·
I like early June. What do you think about Cortez instead of Durango for base camp? It would be the same loop up the million $ hwy, ouray and telluride, but it makes a 2nd day ride to monument valley feasible. Cortez has quite a few motel/hotel options and is right next to Mesa Verde (might hinder availability and price, although I checked the May dates and availability wasn't an issue yet and prices were ~$130). I think Durango would be great if we decide a Monument Valley ride is too ambitious.
 
#23 ·
It looks like there is interest in a southwest meetup! So far I count about 10 of us that indicated some interest (plus a couple more that would like to but not feasible for them). You know, I threw this meetup out there because we had recent members join the forum from the Phoenix area, I think 4 now, and thought there would be some excitement from you guys being in your backyard, but not a peep from any of you. Come on AZ folks! 🙌 Although not everyone will confirm in the end, there will be others and we have enough to get me excited and start setting it up!

I am leaning on basing in Cortez Co and doing alpine (Million $ hwy) one day and desert (monument valley) one day. Cortez seems to have plenty of budget motels and a couple decent eating places. If anyone has other route or basing location ideas, please post away. I like Durango, but cant figure out 2 reasonable loops out of there. I cant do late May anymore, so I would like to propose June 3-5 (preferred) or June 10-12. Everybody please let me know your interest status and which of these dates are good for you.

Lets do this!
 
#24 ·
It looks like there is interest in a southwest meetup! So far I count about 10 of us that indicated some interest (plus a couple more that would like to but not feasible for them). You know, I threw this meetup out there because we had recent members join the forum from the Phoenix area, I think 4 now, and thought there would be some excitement from you guys being in your backyard, but not a peep from any of you. Come on AZ folks! 🙌 Although not everyone will confirm in the end, there will be others and we have enough to get me excited and start setting it up!

I am leaning on basing in Cortez Co and doing alpine (Million $ hwy) one day and desert (monument valley) one day. Cortez seems to have plenty of budget motels and a couple decent eating places. If anyone has other route or basing location ideas, please post away. I like Durango, but cant figure out 2 reasonable loops out of there. I cant do late May anymore, so I would like to propose June 3-5 (preferred) or June 10-12. Everybody please let me know your interest status and which of these dates are good for you.

Lets do thi
I can make any date work. Thanks for doing this!
 
#29 · (Edited)
This is gonna be a long post. Well.... without knowing what kind of mileage y'all (as a group) consider a 'reasonable' day's ride (for me it's ~350 mi) and, wanting to include day rides that were mostly under 300 miles, I did some work and came up with some awesome rides. I've been on most of these roads, but not all. But they're all paved GRIN. A couple rides I'll share here are 'out-and-back' rides, because in the West, distances are really stretched out. I have a couple suggestions, which I'll get to right now. First, and I don't want to ruffle anyone's feathers, but speaking personally, I'm not crazy about spending all day on the reservation. For those not familiar with this part of the world, the Navajo reservation encompasses the entire NE corner of Arizona. If you want to see Monument Valley (it's really amazing), you gotta traverse the Navajo Nation. You'll see lots of poverty. And you gotta watch oncoming traffic; lots of DUIs there. I also have mountain runs, straight east on US-160 to Wolf Creek Pass, and a great loop from Cortez on CO-145 to Ridgeway, then back down US-550 on the Million Dollar Highway to Durango and Cortez. The longest day is 265 miles. The shortest day is 231 miles. The graphics I'm gonna attach here have the main towns and mileages in the graphic. If you right-click on it to save it, hopefully it'll show the route name and mileage. Always interested in feedback...
 

Attachments

#32 ·
This is gonna be a long post. Well.... without knowing what kind of mileage y'all (as a group) consider a 'reasonable' day's ride (for me it's ~350 mi) and, wanting to include day rides that were mostly under 300 miles, I did some work and came up with some awesome rides. I've been on most of these roads, but not all. But they're all paved GRIN. A couple rides I'll share here are 'out-and-back' rides, because in the West, distances are really stretched out. I have a couple suggestions, which I'll get to right now. First, and I don't want to ruffle anyone's feathers, but speaking personally, I'm not crazy about spending all day on the reservation. For those not familiar with this part of the world, the Navajo reservation encompasses the entire NE corner of Arizona. If you want to see Monument Valley (it's really amazing), you gotta traverse the Navajo Nation. You'll see lots of poverty. And you gotta watch oncoming traffic; lots of DUIs there. Now for my 2nd suggestion, much lighter: we're gonna be SO CLOSE to the incredible National Parks in Utah. If you haven't seen Arches NP or Canyonlands NP, they're reachable from Cortez. It would be an out-and-back, but easily doable. I also included a surprise package, a National Monument very few people have heard of, Natural Bridges. I also have mountain runs, straight east on US-160 to Wolf Creek Pass, and a great loop from Cortez on CO-145 to Ridgeway, then back down US-550 on the Million Dollar Highway to Durango and Cortez. The longest day is 336 miles, taking in both Arches and Canyonlands. The shortest day is 169 miles, kinda bland run to Shiprock and Farmington, NM. The graphics I'm gonna attach here have the main towns and mileages in the graphic. If you right-click on it to save it, hopefully it'll show the route name and mileage. Always interested in feedback...
If you just rest your mouse cursor on the attachments, you'll see the mileage at the end of the filename.
 
#36 ·
Ya know, my brother and his wife used to travel that way, he was all big into KOA Kampground Kabins. Maybe I'll pick his brains about pointers on what to know about that. As for picking the dates, I'll defer to stilburd2 on that. I believe he was talking early June, lemme check...yeah, he prefers 6/3 thru 6/5 but 6/10 thru 6/12 works for him too. Those are both weekends, he originally suggested people arrive the Thursday evening before, we can hash out routing that evening, and ride Friday and Saturday, and everybody head for home on Sunday. So 3 motel nights. So we just gotta agree on which weekend. I'm fine with either one, I'm retired!
 
#37 ·
Um, so, I just made a 'command decision' about the Cortez trip; I booked a hotel room NOW. My honey and I are going, regardless. If no one else goes, we're still going. The KOA Kabin idea that was mentioned was not practical (my opinion) at $96/night when the nearby Quality Inn was $85.65/night. And I get my own toilet and heater and air conditioner and shower GRIN.
 
#38 ·
I'm still good to go on this, but I think it was @Stirling that's picking the dates and rounding this up. I'm retired so most any dates are good for me. My biggest decision will be to ride or trailer the bike out there. I think the arrive Wed or Thur in time for dinner, then tour/ride Fri & Sat and travel out Sun or whenever worked pretty good for previous Meet-Ups. So @swblake can ya please post the dates and location you booked? If this covid crap ever breaks I'm thinking people will be out in force on vacations so booking rooms (especially if they can be CNX without a charge/problem) should be done now. Just my thoughts.
Also those rides look pretty cool.
Watching
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top