Ruidoso

Really enjoying riding my bike and hiking all over Ruidoso. The biking has been stellar as well as the hiking. It's still a bit hot but 80's and blue skies are not so bad. As you can see John and Cider were a bit tired. Nap time in the sun!

White sand national monument

We drove over to the white sands in the late afternoon to wander around and catch the sunset.  That is an amazingly cool area.  Cider loved it and ran around crazy and I was really wishing I could ride my fat bike there.  The sunset was beautiful and the nearly full moon lit up the white landscape like snow.

Ski Apache and Monjeau peak

We had a fun day hiking around with the dogs.  We headed up to the ski area first and went a couple miles, then made our way to the old fire lookout on Monjeau peak.  I wish I could have ridden my bike up both of the roads.

Pie Town, Very Large Array and on to Ruidoso

On our way to Ruidoso, we were excited to stop in Pie Town for some pie at the Pie-O-Neer made famous by racers riding the Tour Divide.  When we got there they had a sign in the window that said "Out of Pie :( ".   We were disappointed and drove on only to find that we were driving right through the Very Large Array radio telescope.  I made Kara stop so we could take the tour and that relieved our disappointment from Pie Town.  After that we made our way to Ruidoso with a stop by the Owl bar in San Antonio for a green chile burger.  We got to Ruidoso just in time to take the Germans for a walk.  Duke was super happy to see us!

Sedona, Flagstaff and the Petrified Forest

We started the day by heading a few miles south to Sedona.  It was well worth the detour, what a beautiful area!  We want to come back with some more time for some hiking and biking.  After that we grabbed lunch at a quirky Mexican food place in Flagstaff (MartAnnes), the food was excellent.  Finally we made our way through the Petrified Forest (very cool) and camped near Eagar, AZ at a state pearl campsite that even had showers!

Grand Canyon and more desert

We spent half of the day checking out the north rim of the grand canyon, Kara agreed that it is indeed grand, then made our way through more amazing red rock country down to Flagstaff and camped a few miles south of town.

Zion and the desert

We finally got out of Vegas and made our way through Zion and nearly to the North rim of the grand canyon.  The landscape around here is so crazy, everywhere you go it's wild sandstone cliffs and formations.  We camped about 20 miles from the north rim in a great stretch of national forest.

Santana - Las Vegas

We were ready to get the heck out of Vegas, but had one more night to hang out with Greg so we found the best concert in town and grabbed tickets for Santana at the house of blues.  He still rockd and we got a spectacular spot about 10 ft room the stage!  We bid farewell to Greg that evening, it was great to see him and everyone else over the week.

Interbike - Las Vegas

Well Vegas is anything but boring and the show has been amazing. Lots of fun to see the new toys and run into all the Alaskans floating around. John really does make the booth for Fatback!