New Mexico was a great diversion, if only for a day.
Thank you, Randy. Excellent idea.
But it’s time to head back to Colorado, where we’ll spend the rest of our trip. So, we head north, completing the final four miles of the Enchanted Circle Scenic Byway that we missed yesterday.
On our way out of town, just past the Millicent Rogers Museum, we turn west on US Highway 64 and roll past the Taos Regional Airport. Commercial service is available by Taos Air, which has non-stop flights from Austin, Dallas, Los Angeles and San Diego.
The Rio Grande Bridge across the gorge is four miles ahead. Today, we cross the bridge seeing no weddings and no movie shoots. Where’s John Travolta and the Wild Hogs when you need them?
Soon we arrive in Tres Piedras – the three rocks. It’s the place with the railroad water tower. Been there, done that.
Today’s destination is Durango, where we stayed two days ago. But today, we’re taking a slightly different route than what brought us to Taos yesterday. This morning, we’re going a few miles out of our way. It’ll be more scenic, and give us an opportunity to bag another 10,000-foot pass – Wolf Creek.
So, we turn north on US Highway 285, crossing into Colorado. We’re riding in a valley just east of the San Juan Mountains. To our right is the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
Antonito: 420 Friendly
An hour after leaving Taos, we arrive in the tiny town of Antonito, population 650. Antonito began as a sheep herding camp, known as San Antonio Junction, referring to its proximity to the Conejos and San Antonio Rivers.
When the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad built its line south from Alamosa, the town was renamed Antonito and became an important town on the railroad line. The town was incorporated in 1889. There are currently no major industries located in Antonito.
Well, there is one. Antonito is a marijuana-friendly town, with several recreational dispensaries. When Colorado legalized the sale of marijuana in 2000, Antonito took advantage of its location along the New Mexico border, where cannabis was illegal until last year. Antonito became a destination for New Mexico residents seeking to legally purchase weed. The resulting tax revenue has meant a nearly $300,000 annual increase to the town’s budget.
We continue our journey north, rolling past the Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge. Located in the heart of the San Luis Valley, the wildlife refuge is a birdwatcher’s paradise. Lush wetlands provide year-round habitat for various birds, coyotes, deer and other wildlife. In March and September, 20,000 migrating Sandhill Cranes use the refuge as a stopping point.
Riding the Rio Grande del Norte
Just past the refuge, we arrive in the town of Monte Vista, population 4,500. In Spanish, Monte Vista means “mountain view.” The town previously served as a watering stop for the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad. Today, its economy is primarily centered around agriculture. The valley around Monte Vista is a hub for raising potatoes, alfalfa and carrots. And, it supplies barley to the world’s largest single-site brewery, Miller Coors, in Golden, Colorado – about 200 miles northeast of Monte Vista.
US Highway 150 soon delivers us to the town of Del Norte, population 1,500. It’s time for another break, our last before tackling Wolf Creek pass. Del Norte gets its name from the river Rio Grande del Norte, “large river of the north” in Spanish. The town sits at 7,884 feet, surrounded by the Rio Grande National Forest.
From Del Norte, we follow the Rio Grande to the town of South Fork, about 15 miles upriver. South Fork, population about 400, is the southern terminus of the Silver Thread Scenic Byway. We’ll do that scenic byway later in the trip. Just not today. In South Fork, the South Fork of the Rio Grande begins, giving you some idea where the town’s name comes from.
As we leave South Fork, Highway 160 immediately begins winding. And climbing. We’re about to experience 37 pretty special miles, going up to the summit, and down the other side.
Wolf Creek, Here we Come
Wolf Creek Ski Area is just 15 miles ahead. The resort, opened in 1939, claims to get the most snow of any ski area in Colorado – more than 500 inches a year. With all that snow, you’d expect Wolf Creek to open early, and it usually does. Historically, Wolf Creek is one of the first ski areas in Colorado to open each season. For the 2022/23 season, it did not disappoint, opening on November 5, following a 26-inch dump.
Wolf Creek, with a base elevation of 10,300 feet, is one of Colorado’s last family-owned ski areas. It has seven lifts, serving more than 1,600 acres of terrain – topping out at 11,900 feet. For a relatively small ski area, Wolf Creek has an impressive helping of extreme, including a run aptly named 52° Trees. Guess how steep it is. Well, it’s one of the steepest inbounds ski runs in Colorado.
A mile of Highway 160 is all that separates Wolf Creek Ski Area from Wolf Creek Pass. The pass sits at 10,856 feet. It’s the eighth of 31 10,000-foot passes we’ll experience on this trip. And, it’s our first crossing of the Continental Divide. We’ll cross ten more on this journey – all in Colorado.
As anyone who made it through elementary school geography knows, a Continental Divide is a boundary that separates a continent’s river systems. Each river system feeds into a distinct ocean, bay or sea. For Colorado’s Continental Divides, like Wolf Creek Pass, water on one side flows into the Atlantic ocean basin, and on the other side it flows into the Pacific basin.
In 1916, the first-ever road along Wolf Creek Pass finished construction – as a dirt road. The original route was only 12 feet wide, which was doubled in 1930 as more traffic started to move through the area. Twenty years later, the road was paved and began to resemble what we know today as Highway 160.
The pass became nationally known in 1975 when famous country musician C.W. McCall, best known for his song, “Convoy,” released a song about the pass. In McCall’s song “Wolf Creek Pass,” he tells the tale of summiting the Great Divide through “37 Miles of Hell” in his large semi-truck. The song was released on McCall’s Wolf Creek Pass album, which features other odes to Colorado like “Rocky Mountain September” and “Glenwood Canyon.”
I wouldn’t call it 37 miles of Hell, but I’m not driving an 80,000-pound semi. On a Harley, I’d call it 37 miles of Heaven.
Apparently, there’s a difference between riding this road on a motorcycle and sitting in the cab of a huge semi-truck. Even the Colorado Department of Transportation warns truck drivers about the challenges of navigating Wolf Creek Pass, saying 47 semi drivers crashed on the west side of the pass over a four-year period. Most of those crashes happen at the switchback curve near the scenic outlook on the west side of the pass.
A footnote about C.W. McCall, who made Wolf Creek Pass famous. McCall was a made-up name.
William Dale Fries was an advertising executive with Bozell & Jacobs, at the time an Omaha-based agency. He was best known for his character C.W. McCall, a truck-driving country singer he originally created for a series of bread commercials. The name McCall was inspired by McCall’s magazine, which Fries had on his desk at the time. He assumed the role of C.W. McCall for a series of albums and songs in collaboration with co-worker and Mannheim Steamroller founder, Chip Davis. Fries wrote the lyrics and sang; Davis, who wrote jingles for Bozell & Jacobs, created the music.
From 1986 to 1992, Fries was mayor of Ouray, Colorado, which we visited two days ago. He died last year, at his home in Ouray, at the age of 93.
Anyone who had a radio in 1975 could remember the words, Breaker one-nine, this here’s the Rubber Duck. “Convoy” was the number-one song on both the country and pop charts, and is ranked number 98 on Rolling Stone magazine’s 100 Greatest Country Songs of All Time.
Thanks for the memories, C.W.
Wolf Creek Pass gets its name from the nearby Wolf Creek, a tributary of the San Juan River, which begins near the summit. We follow the creek the next 10 miles or so, then ride along the San Juan River the rest of the way to Pagosa Springs.
We arrive in Pagosa Springs around two o’clock. It’s our last stop of the day before turning toward Durango, tonight’s destination. An hour later, we’re back in Durango, and our day is done.
***
The Day in Review:
Click here to see today’s complete route from Taos, New Mexico, to Durango, Colorado – via Wolf Creek Pass.
Today’s Takeaways:
- Wild Hogs, nowhere to be found.
- Antonito, 420 friendly.
- Wolf Creek Pass, 37 miles of awesome.
Today’s Trivia: Abiquiú, Home of Georgia O’Keeffe
Today’s original plan was to ride back to Durango, taking a southern route around the Carson National Forest, named after fur trapper, wilderness guide, and pioneer, Kit Carson. During the Civil War, Carson led a regiment of mostly Hispanic volunteers from New Mexico on the Union side at the Battle of Valverde in what is now New Mexico.
I was looking forward to riding through the town of Abiquiú, New Mexico, along the way.
But at the last minute, we called an audible, and rode north instead, to experience Wolf Creek Pass, and its 37 miles of awesomeness.
If we’d taken the southern route, I’d have an excuse to visit Abiquiú, a place I can barely spell, and hardly pronounce.
My day wouldn’t be complete without sharing a little about Abiquiú.
In the 1730s, Abiquiú was the third-largest settlement in the Spanish province of Nuevo Mexico. Today, it has a population of about 250. Abiquiú means “wild choke cherry place” in the native Tewa language. The town sits along the Chama River, the Rio Chama. Abiquiú is best known for being the home of artist Georgia O’Keeffe, who lived there from 1949 until shortly before her death in 1986 at the age of 98.
O’Keeffe was a modernist artist, known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. She’s been called the “Mother of American modernism.
The O’Keeffe Home and Studio is now a popular museum that attracts visitors to this part of New Mexico. It’s one of the most important artistic sites in the Southwest.
O’Keeffe first traveled to New Mexico in 1929, staying in Taos, with a clear view of the Taos Mountains. She fell in love with the southwestern landscape. In 1934, she visited Ghost Ranch, north of Abiquiú, for the first time – and immediately decided to live there. She purchased the Abiquiú property from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe in 1945, after eyeing the home and its 12-acre grounds for a decade.
Her Abiquiú home and studio is a 5,000-square-foot, Spanish Colonial era compound that was in total ruin when she found it. She bought the property in 1945 for $500, and completed the purchase with a $2,500 tax-deductible contribution. For the next four years, O’Keeffe supervised its restoration to reflect her interests in nature, Modernism, and Japanese aesthetics.
In 1989, following her death, the Georgia O’Keeffe Foundation became owner and manager of the Abiquiú property. The foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to perpetuating her artistic legacy. The O’Keeffe Home and Studio was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1998.
She loved painting the colorful canyons and mountains near Abiquiú. Those areas make great film backdrops for westerns, and have been featured in Hollywood movies, including Red Dawn, Lonesome Dove, Wyatt Earp, No Country for Old Men, and City Slickers.
And now you know.
Riding With Gary 
Love the awesomeness of it all…and the good planning on the weather! Next trip Abiqu? And shouldn’t it be riding with Gary…and Sarah?
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Rain AND ribs? You are killing me! Ha! Hope you had a monitor to watch our VGK Stanley Cup! Missing riding with you!
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