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In Arizona and New Mexico
Red Rocks and Reservations
It's hot, an "airless" afternoon, when I park the K1200R and hike across bus-sized boulders to Spider Rock Overlook at Canyon de Chelly. I snap my camera onto the tripod to take a self-timer shot, set the shutter and pose near the edge. Just then, caprice whips up a solid gust of wind – and the tripod falls. The camera slams into the rock like a hammer cracking concrete. Imagining a nearby cash register ringing up a prodigious total, I can almost see the dollar signs floating skyward, irrecoverable in the updraft sweeping the ravine.
It says a lot for my Nikon 8800 that, while it didn't survive unscathed, it performed perfectly for the rest of my tour of eastern Arizona and western New Mexico. The magnesium-alloy frame was cracked, the battery compartment bent, and the program control knob half-seized. But like the Timex of old, it kept on ticking, and clicking.
The day before, I'd left swanky Sedona and its glitzy resorts on a heading for the border territory between Arizona and New Mexico, particularly the Coronado Trail, of which I've heard old bikers talk about in hushed whispers. Well, maybe not so much, but "Senior" Editor Chris Myers has recommended it (RoadRUNNER, October '06) – so it must be good, eh?
And 89 Alt. from Sedona to Flagstaff is also a splendid ride, climbing from the red-rock valley cradling Sedona at 4,300 feet up to sub-alpine Flagstaff on the Colorado Plateau at 7,000. The road ricochets through towering canyons and under sun-dappled evergreens in the Coconino National Forest. My only complaint: too much traffic, as motor-homes stolidly lumber around the perfectly engineered curves. Roads like this should be closed to all but motorcycles!...
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