We rode to Cochiti the other day, rode though or passed by five Indian Pueblos, rode over ten miles of gravel/dirt road, stopped at a lake, visited a golf course, did a short burst on the freeway at over 75 mph, came home cooked burgers on the grill and talked about what a nice ride it was.
We started our ride in ABQ and headed to Bernalillo via Rio Rancho Blvd. Once out of Bernalillo it's all Indian country, very few facilities and traffic is all but absent.
Ridding from San Felipe Pueblo to Santo Domingo Pueblo is nearly all gravel roads, about 10 miles. We have ridden these roads on smaller scooters, a Buddy 125, and a Kymco 150, those scooters did not handle the roads very well, but, the larger wheeled Vespas had no problem though we keep speeds down to around 25 mph on the gravel. We then got on Hwy 22 which is a nice twisty paved road lined with Cotton Wood trees we passed through several very small towns. We then stopped at Cochiti Lake and admired the water something that is not very common in these parts - mind you this is this a reservoir behind a very large earthen flood control dam which protects Albuquerque from the Rio Grand, but, it was a pleasant change. We watched the dingy sail boats in the lake for a while and then headed a little further west to Cochiti Golf Course, a very nice course in the middle of no where's, needless to say green fees are very reasonable - told the wife I should play again and we headed back home.
Kathleen with hand on butt:
Admiring what we have so little of in ABQ; water.
On the way back we decided to avoid the gravel roads and take the freeway for a short distance, the scooters would have a very hard time going up HWY 25 at this location, high altitude uphill and very fast speeds, but we were heading back home which is mostly downhill; it was OK, though we were nearly two of the slowest on this short stretch of freeway. The speed limits are 75 mph its downhill we were hitting an indicated 85 mph, and nearly everyone else was passing us, it's a wide freeway so it was OK just a little tense.
We got back onto the side and frontage roads for the rest of the way home - the trip took us around three and a half hours with stops, almost a full tank and a butt ready for a rest.
Vespa link to route:
To: [url]Check out this route at www.vespausa.com [/url]
From: [url]Check out this route at www.vespausa.com[/url]
Pueblo links:
http://www.indianpueblo.org/19pueblos/santodomingo.html
http://www.pueblodecochiti.org/
http://www.santaana.org/
http://www.indianpueblo.org/19pueblos/sanfelipe.html
http://www.sandiapueblo.nsn.us/
Sandia in the back ground:
The Sandia is roughly 65 miles away from where we were; Sandi Peak is the predominant geographical feature around ABQ, they say you can never get lost a hundred miles from ABQ, just head to Sandia and you'll find the city.
At waters edge:
