Written by Kyle
After a long winter we are always excited to do a big motorcycle trip, and our friends as Biltwell provided us with the perfect excuse, the 20th, and Final, El Diablo Run! Bee and I have both attended this event several times, but never together, so it seemed like the perfect excuse for an adventure. This EDR was a 3 day event starting in Southern California, heading down to Ensenada, Baja California Mexico for a night, then over to San Felipe for 2 days of sun and fun on the beach, ending with the ride back to CA. As we were coming from Colorado, we decided to just meet everyone in San Felipe for the main event.
We planned the route the week before leaving, keeping an eye on the weather and mountain passes. We planned to ride the whole trip – trailering bikes for half of it just doesn’t sound like fun to us! We decided to avoid all highways, and take a longer, twistier route down to Mexico – stopping in towns we had not been to, ones we wanted to revisit, and hitting all the great curvy roads we could. The weather agreed with us, so we left as planned!
Day 1 – Creede to Cortez, CO right after work. We left home right after work, t was a beautiful warm day riding through Wolf Creek Pass. On the way we stopped at the Mud Creek Hogan Trading Post to do some turquoise shopping. In Cortez we grabbed a sushi dinner, and spent the night at the usual stop, the Retro Inn!
Day 2 – Cortez, CO to Sedona, AZ. This day started with a ride right through the Navajo Nation. Green sage brush after the monsoon. Wild horses along the highway. Cows drinking windshield wash at the gas station. We hit some pretty strong winds and cool temperatures through the mountains and dropped into Flagstaff, so we stopped at the Galaxy Diner for lunch and a break. From there we had an amazing ride South on 89A to Sedona. The smell of oak and pine, curves n smiles, and into the red rock canyons. We stayed at the Greentree hotel, and enjoyed the hot weather and awesome pool.
Day 3 – Sedona to Yuma, AZ. We had a gorgeous cool morning ride to Jerome, unfortunately we hit town pretty early. We did not stop, hopefully we did not wake the town up! We continued on the 89A South until we hit Prescott, Arizona, more beautiful curvy roads. We had a great breakfast on the rooftop patio of the Raven Café, then looked at a couple antique & jewelry stores in town on Whiskey Row. We rode the Beautiful divided highway down out of Prescott and headed into the desert towards Quartzville. Hot and dry! A quick stop for some gas and popsicles in Quartzville, and back on the road. We made it to Yuma, AZ and hit the pool right away. A short ride to historic downtown and Prison Hill Brewery for fried avocado tacos and an elote/brisket bowl dinner!
Check out part 2 coming soon: Into Mexico, the El Diablo Run, and the difficult ride home!
Ramble Around 