Andy's Trip: It was the best of days, it was the worst of days (part one)

OK, so really those are both exaggerations but it was a day of good and bad. I started off the day in Grants, NM thinking that I would go north to see Chaco Canyon, then continue north to Mesa Verde just across the border into Colorado. The following day I could go to Taos, NM and then stay the night at the Ghost Ranch (run by Willie, my cousin Bill Padden's friend). I planned this out over a breakfast of huevos rancheros in a green chili sauce at El Caficito. Very good. Just spicy enough to make my nose run but not to make me break out in a sweat.

Things didn't quite work out how I planned. When I got up yesterday and looked at the map I saw that I could approach Chaco Canyon from either the east or west. The access roads that go into the park are from either the north or south but both can be accessed from either highway, along the east or west side.

I flipped a mental coin and decided to head north along the west side. This turned out to be a bad choice. I went up highway 371 and then got on the road to the south of the park planning on taking the access road that enters from the south. When I got to that access road, this is what I saw.

Feeling a sense of adventure I decided to go for it but got about a mile in and realized that my bike wasn't made for this. It's too low to the ground and doesn't have a suspension built for this sort of road. It's not a dirt bike in other words. I turned around and backtracked my way to highway 371 thinking I'd just continue north to the northern access road. This northern road was actually highway 57. Surly something with the name "highway 57" had to be a better road than the one I was just on, right?

I had to take county road 7650 to get to highway 57. 7650 starts out paved. This was no doubt planned so as to lure in unsuspecting tourists.

It quickly deteriorates into a gravel then just plain dirt road. I press on thinking it will all get better when I hit 57. Keep in mind at this point that I have no signal for my iPhone or iPad. I had previously loaded the maps of the area in the iPhone so I could still see where I was going but I couldn't zoom in or out (that would require more maps being loaded, something you need a signal for). After what seemed like far too long in this road that as far as I could tell was nothing but an access road for the scattered oil wells in the area, I came to a crossroads. I knew that 57 ran northeast to southwest but none of the roads at the intersection ran that direction. Plus, this was supposed to be the end of 7650, so there should only be three choices here. There were 5. What the hell? Oh, by the way, I was running out of gas again. I had filled up at the last station but that was some time ago.

Up to this point in the trip, I've been using my iPhone and iPad for navigation. They work great, I have Google maps on there and haven't had any trouble with them. Of course, if there's no cell signal, then I can't load maps. This hasn't really been an issue for me until now. I do have a stand alone GPS unit that my friend Chris' dad loaned me. Thinking to myself, this will surely get me out of this jam, I fire it up. It tells me to take 57 but like the iPhone, only shows the three possible directions at this intersection, not the 5 actually there. I picked the one that looked closest to northeast. The GPS unit told me that was the direction of the closest gas station. Basically, I needed to get out of there and gas up before trying my luck at getting into Chaco Canyon again. I headed generally northeast along this still dirt road that didn't have any road signs for a while, constantly checking my fuel gauge. At one point I came to a sign that said "No center stripe". As if I didn't know that. "What a stupid sign for a place like this. It's a dirt road, of course there's no center stripe", I thought to myself. (That may be an edited version of the quote. I'm not sure, it's hard to remember all the details). Shortly after the sign, the road became a paved one (with no center stripe). Thanking my lucky stars and thinking I was getting close I sped up and made it to highway 550. I had been on highway 57 since that intersection after all. Though who in their right mind calls a dirt road a highway I don't know. The first gas station I came to was closed. I had to go about 30 miles north almost to Bloomfield, NM to get gas. I just made it.

At the gas station, I planned my next assault on Chaco Canyon over a bottle of water and a power bar (lunch). I figured I'd head south on highway 550 (the eastern highway) and just look for the signs to Chaco Canyon. There have to be signs right? It's a tourist destination after all. I start south. When I get to the junction with highway 57 I see a big sign saying No Chaco Access. I didn't see it earlier as I was coming from the other direction. Figures. I continue south until I see a sign saying Chaco Canyon turnoff in 10 miles. This seemed strange because I remember very well that according to the map on my iPhone, the GPS and my paper maps, there was no access directly from the east. (I checked later and was right). This phantom access road started off paved but again, quickly became dirt. It was also heavily washboarded. The jarring impacts worried me, it felt like my bike (and me for that matter) was being shaken apart. The road followed the red line more or less. I'm not a cartographer.