Taos, NM; Day 4; Thursday, September 13th

Today we are riding the day 2 route described by Uwe Krauss in the April 2012 RoadRUNNER magazine (see Taos, NM; Day 3; (http://shawneegoldwingertrips.blogspot.com/2012/09/taos-nm-day-3-september-12th.html).

After another complimentary breakfast we departed at 9:20 am (54 degrees) and rode south on Highway 68 to Espanola, NM.  We found Hwy 30 and rode south to Hwy 502 and into Los Alamos.  While we were leaving Espanola, going about 45 mph, Chris accidentally dropped our digital camera. WHOOPS! We turned around to find that an older guy saw it happen and he’d stopped along the road by the camera.  We retrieved it, bent it back into shape and . . . . .  SHAZAM . . . . . . it still worked.

We rode into the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) grounds passing signs that said visitors were welcome.  We rode around looking for a visitor center that we found out later is in the town of Los Alamos.  We were approaching a checkpoint that said security badges were required to pass so I pulled into a parking lot intending to turn around.  As I was doing this Chris snapped a picture of the checkpoint.  National Laboratory Security Police swooped in on us.  They wanted to see what pictures were on the camera and Chris was asked to delete the pictures taken on the LANL grounds.  We were told picture taking on LANL grounds was not allowed.  A lieutenant responded, recorded the information from our drivers licenses and our vehicle information and then we were free to go.

Before leaving I asked the lieutenant if we passed any signs that said taking photographs was prohibited.  He said we did not.  No such signs were posted.  He wished there was but they had not been able to get it done.  He said this happens frequently.  Another example of the amazing efficiency of the federal government.

We found out that Chris accidentally deleted all photos on the camera so the pictures we’d taken before arriving at LANL were gone.

We were happy to leave LANL.  We rode a short distance to White Rock, NM and boarded a shuttle bus to Bandelier National Monument. (http://www.nps.gov/band/index.htm)

We spent several hours walking through the park, viewing the ancient Pueblo ruins and seeing the damage caused by a flood of Frijoles Creek on August 21, 2011.

The shuttle bus returned us to White Rock, NM and we rode to a scenic overlook with a great view of the Rio Grande River flowing through White Rock Canyon.

We returned to Taos on the High Road to Taos Scenic Byway; Hwys 503, 76, county road 98, 75 and 518.  It was very scenic and fun to ride but the speed limit was agonizingly slow (40 mph) much of the way.  We stopped for a photo of the grounds at the rear of El Santuario de Chimayo (a church) in Chimayo, NM.  We also photographed a church in Las Trampas, which was described as one of the finest surviving 18th century churches in New Mexico.

While we were photographing this church a local, who had been following us, stopped to inform us that our rear tire looked a little low.  He directed us to a gas station where we went and checked tire pressure.  It was fine.  The guy probably wasn’t used to seeing a car tire on a motorcycle.

We rode 175 miles today and didn’t return to the motel until shortly after 6:00.  The high temperature was 65 and we stayed dry.  A good day with some adventure (dropped camera and being scofflaws at LANL).

For more pictures from today click on the following link: https://picasaweb.google.com/104542123131082631220/TaosNMDay4091312?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCNv5l-ed0ZDeBg&feat=directlink