DESTINATION Generic 56 Photosets
| | -
-
| 1 label |  |
|
|
-
| 1 label |  |
|
|
-
| 1 label |  |
|
|
-
| 1 label |  |
|
|
-
| |  |
|
2 |
-
-
-
|
| | |
|
| Scenic Drive | 596.08 Miles |
26,927 AEG |
| | Scenic Drive | 596.08 Miles | 12 Hrs | | 56.77 mph |
| 26,927 ft AEG | | | | |
|
|
| |
| Linked |
|
none
[ show ]
| no linked trail guides |
| Partners |
|
none
[ show ]
| no partners | | This was a trip to Chama, New Mexico to ride the steam train with AZLumberjack. It would be my 7th time to ride the rails of the historic Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railway.  Just for fun I decided to make the drive there by entirely staying off interstates. That is something fairly easy to do, but usually when I head up there I do some of the drive on interstates. For someone driving from Tucson the most common way is to head east on I-10 to Deming, then Hatch cutoff to I-25, and up through Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Espanola. These days I don't like driving through Albuquerque much, as the traffic there is getting crazier, so when I am going places further north I try to avoid it.
Leaving Tucson I took city streets to Oracle Road then headed north out of town, stopping as is my custom at the McDonald's in Catalina for a quick breakfast (when heading up toward Globe or beyond). I also got an extra sausage burrito to eat later, as I didn't want to make any other restaurant stops on the drive. When I got to Show Low, I decided to head east on US 60 over to Quemado, New Mexico. (Usually if I am headed to Durango or Chama by way of Show Low, I will go to Gallup and up to Shiprock then east. But for this trip I also wanted to avoid the slog through Farmington). From Quemado I drove through the scenic El Malpais lava beds to Grants. I avoided I-40 by going through Grants on old Route 66 to Milan, where I turned north to take a series of roads to Cuba, New Mexico. This is the most boring part of the journey, as it works its way across the Peabody coal fields and the Navajo Nation. When you finally get to Cuba, things get interesting again. Just north of Cuba I turned on to NM 96 from US 550. This is an extremely scenic highway that reaches US 84 at Abiquiu Reservoir. From there it was an easy finish to Chama on US 84 (excellent scenery on this stretch too).
I logged my mileage and all stops/times this trip. Total time was 12 hours, with 1 hour & 30 minutes of stops for gas, photos, etc. Total miles driven from the odometer was 597. I decided to map my drive on HAZ Route Editor to see how my odometer reading compared. Wow! Within 1 mile of each other. Pretty cool. |
| _____________________
| | |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Route Editor
Route Scout
