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You'd have to put in two solid 600+ days to enjoy Colorado, and that'd only leave 2-3 days there, which is worth it. But at 300 per day you'd spend more time getting to and from, than actually spending time there.

For that mileage, Arkansas is your answer. Not as cool temp wise as Colorado but easy enough to accomplish. Find Oark and plan a stop there for food and buttermilk pie, and then spend a few days riding all the stuff east, west and north of there.
 
I'm with Gixxer - with only 4-5 day, Arkansas is likely the best bet.

Maybe something like this: ride NE from DFW to Talihina and then go east on the Talimina scenic drive to Mena.

From there head north up and over Mt Magazine and on to Clarksville.

Then spend time riding Hwys 7, 21, 16, and 23. Stop by the Oark Store. Visit Eureka Springs.
 
+1 on NW AR. It won't be near as cool (temps) as Northern NM or CO, but IMO, that's your best bet for your scenario. I'm doing a similar 6-7 day ride but going to NM and CO. Except I'll be doing a 700-800 mile day to get there and back.
 
Trail Boss said:
I'm with Gixxer - with only 4-5 day, Arkansas is likely the best bet.

Maybe something like this: ride NE from DFW to Talihina and then go east on the Talimina scenic drive to Mena.

From there head north up and over Mt Magazine and on to Clarksville.

Then spend time riding Hwys 7, 21, 16, and 23. Stop by the Oark Store. Visit Eureka Springs.
Click to expand...

You left out 123. The best road in Arkansas and the one that made me drop something like nine thousand dollars on a new bike. :rofl:
 
+2 on NW Arkansas. You'll be into decent roads pretty quickly heading that direction and they'll only get better. Also be cooler than the Hill Country.

This may not be for everyone but if you're around Bentonville you should stop at the Crystal Bridges Museum of Modern Art, a gift from the Walton family. Even if you don't like the art the architecture and grounds are literally world-class and a beautiful place to relax.

Oh.....and it's free!

Crystal Bridges Museum of Modern Art
 
When you thinking of going?
 
Agree with the others. If 300 miles per day is your max, your best options are Arkansas or the Texas Hill Country. And given your total time in saddle to date, I wouldn't recommend you suddenly spring for a 600-miler.

Another nice possibility that I explored a couple of years ago is to take the 2-lanes across Texas & Louisiana to the Natchez or Vicksburg MS area and back. There are some nice round trips available, and the bayou country is both beautiful and 2-wheel friendly. That's one of the most enjoyable trips I've ever made.

If, on the other hand, you want to consider trailering the bike, your options open up a great deal. You can trailer to Raton or to the Cloudcroft/Ruidoso area. Either is about 550 miles each way.
- Raton gives you options of a day up through Cucharas Pass near Trinidad, a 2nd day going west through Cimarron Canyon and over to Red River & Taos, and a 3rd day maybe up to Walsenburg and NW to US-50 and the Arkansas River.
- Cloudcroft gives you all those short but glorious roads throughout the Lincoln National Forest. They include Hwy 82 from Alamorgordo to east of Mayhill, the roads between Cloudcroft & Ruidoso, a visit to White Sands National Monument, and the Sunspot Highway. There are also lots of gravel forest roads to explore, particularly off the Sunspot Hwy, but be careful - some of them get rough in a hurry, and you're still a relatively inexperienced rider on a fairly heavy bike, so choose wisely and don't get in over your head.
 
Man Jarrett this is a difficult question. Northern New Mexico is very nice and cool at altitude. Have you ever road The Enchanted loop or 434 and 518?

You could go to Cloudcroft area which others (Zephyr/Tim) are more familiar with.

Now like GJ says Colorado is the cats meow. It all depends on how long each day you want to ride or if you are going to base camp. You could ride there a solid month and not ride all the great roads. I can post several ride reports that might help or make the decision even more difficult if you like.:rider:

Are you going to ride the entire way or trailer part of the way?
 
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It can get hot as hades in Arkansas as well.
But it's beautiful country.

The Hateful Hussy in Talahina is 5 hours away and a great spot for lunch.

Mena, via the Talimena scenic drive is another couple hours or less east and a good over nite spot. It's a decent day in the saddle.

From there, there are hundreds of roads to explore north ... The Pig Trail is one of my favorites.

The downside to a weekend trip in the summer is half the south has the same idea. Traffic dies a bit during the week, but Arkansas is a destination. Cruising these scenic hiways can get painfully slow following blue-hairs as they make their way to and from Branson
 
I was talking about back roads ... again every adventure rider and Harley owner will be jockeying for air space between blue hairs.


I was rolling around a week long trip to western NM - eastern Arizona mid to late September.

Trailering to Silver City and making loops a couple days there and then trailering to Ruidoso and spending a couple days there.

If we plan as a group, we can tag team drive it straight through and have no monkey butt when we get there.


That doesn't scratch your immediate itch. Rub some lanocaine on it ...
 
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Bear in mind that 600 miles of gravel is different from 600 miles of long and straight. 600 miles of long and straight desert is what you are facing to get out of Texas to the West.

However, northern NM gives you some of this distinctly NOT DESERT terrain..
2017-07-08%2018.38.00-L.jpg


Enchanted Circle area
20170710_143646-L.jpg


It's long and hot to get there, but we stayed in Red River NM last year for family vacation in July and they were complaining about 85F temps during the day. Went down to 40F at night. Our first gas stop back in the 105F had us considering letting our house get foreclosed with contents as we were headed back to Red River. :D

Sigh, we came home to DFW in the end.
 
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Jarrett said:
I probably should have mentioned, I'm not a fan of desert scapes. I need to see a lot of green to make my rides enjoyable.

My plan was to ride the whole way.



Ah, I didn't think of that. Maybe stick to lesser known roads then?
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No desert on any of those roads I mentioned. NM38 temps can change 30 degrees as you climb. Tons and tons of trees and a river that borders the road. NM64 is a great road also.
 
Yup, what Jason said. The New Mexico stereotype is Alamogordo, with plains & white sand. Look on any map, though, and you'll see that NM has multiple national forests. From Raton, you're about 40 miles from the trees. Once you get past the tiny town of Cimarron, it starts getting interesting. Cimarron Canyon is curvy & oh-so-gorgeous, followed by a low pass, then, the little town of Eagle Nest (great lunch places there), then Bobcat Pass, then Red River. You can branch out from this road and go to Angel Fire, Taos, Las Vegas, Santa Fe, and Las Alamos. Or north to southern Colorado. You'll run through patches of high sierra, but you'll be mostly in pine trees and on some world class motorcycle roads.

If you go to the Cloudcroft/Ruidoso area, it's a more compressed version of the same. High, heavily forested country, mostly pine & aspen, & very interesting roads.

If you don't like heat, stay away from the Pecos National Forest. It's lower & scruffier
 
tshelfer said:
The New Mexico stereotype is Alamogordo, with plains & white sand. Look on any map, though, and you'll see that NM has multiple national forests.
Click to expand...

Shush Tim! That's a highly guarded secret you are putting out on the internet!

THIS is what NM looks like. ALL of it!

DSCN1472_zpse4a44782-L.jpg



;-) :giveup:

But yea, for a long weekend for a newer rider, Arkansas wins out. Still gonna be hot though.
 
Arkansas I heard is a great place to ride have not been there since I was a kid. But saying that if you do not go that way.............get to Las Vegas,NM any way you can. Take 518 and 434 north then NM38 up and over then down to NM64. NM64 to Chama. Chama is a cute little town with a killer train ride. Next 64/84 to Pagosa Springs,149 to South Fork then head north on 149 to Gunnison,Colorado. Spend the night at the Long holiday in Gunnison. Eat breakfastat the W cafe then speed off. CO50 over to CO92 over the back side of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Co 92 is a killer road with beautiful views of the Black Canyon. At Delta,Colorado head south thru Ouray and Silverton all the way to Durango. Eat BBQ at Durango then 160 across then south back to NM and then home. You can follow the same route back but go the southern portion of 38 from Taos then down and across. Some roads are too nice to ride just once.:rider:
http://www.twtex.com/forums/showthread.php?t=104161


http://www.twtex.com/forums/showthread.php?t=110353
 
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gixxerjasen said:
Shush Tim! That's a highly guarded secret you are putting out on the internet!

THIS is what NM looks like. ALL of it!

DSCN1472_zpse4a44782-L.jpg



;-) :giveup:

But yea, for a long weekend for a newer rider, Arkansas wins out. Still gonna be hot though.
Click to expand...

That looks like my back yard.:rofl:
 
gixxerjasen said:
Shush Tim! That's a highly guarded secret you are putting out on the internet!
Click to expand...

No worries. I'm only letting the 18,000 or so TWTers in on our little secret. We're not telling the riff raff out there on the rest of the internet. :-P

When the rest of the world asks me about NM or the Big Bend, I tell them "It's awful. Nothing out there that doesn't either stick, stink, or sting. Don't go there!"
 
The Cloudcroft area in NM is great this time of year. It will be MUCH cooler and drier than Arkansas. There is plenty of riding to keep you busy for 3-4 days of riding once there. I've spent 6 days riding there and never got bored. Your options expand more if you have a bike that can handle trails, but even with the big AT, there are plenty of great dirt roads and some awesome paved roads to keep you happy. Here are two ride reports with loads of pics:

Adventure begins where plans fail... Cloudcroft, NM. Aug 2012
http://www.twtex.com/forums/showthread.php?t=76962

Cloudcroft New Mexico ride - Memorial Day Weekend 2010
http://www.twtex.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49082

You can also head up to Ruidosa and find lots of great riding in that area, paved and unpaved.
 
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