Trip Summary Trip Dates: Sep 27 - Oct 09 Start - End Locations: Las Cruces, NM - Las Cruces, NM Days: 13   Rest Days: 2   Level of Support: Self-contained Miles: 563 Average Miles Per Day: 56 Surface: Road Riders: 14 Type: Self-Contained   Meals: Shared cooking Accommodations: Camping Physical Difficulty: Advanced   Elevation: Elevation Alert Cost: $1199 Booking Status: Approx. Half Full

Southern New Mexico’s autumn air is perfumed with the scent of roasting chiles, colored with vast brilliant-blue skies, and filled with the whisperings of historic Old West personalities. We invite you to join us as we guide you through New Mexico's not-so-little corner of the American Southwest, where the Great Divide and Southern Tier routes meet.

Our adventure begins in Las Cruces, nestled between the fertile Mesilla Valley and the imposing Organ Mountains. We’ll explore the basin-and-range features of the upper Chichuahuan Desert and an area locally called “the Gila.” If you listen carefully, you may hear the haunted echoes of Apache warriors Geronimo and Mangas Colorado, and legendary Western figures like Billy the Kid and Sheriff Pat Garrett, all of whom roamed these vast spaces.

We’ll climb San Augustine Pass, which proffers a rare vista of the Tularosa Basin and its 144,000-acre White Sands National Monument. This ever-changing sea of dunes is one of the most prominent land features that astronauts report seeing from space. After a long, panoramic descent, we’ll ride across the desert now known as White Sands Missile Range, home to transplanted oryx, an African antelope.

We’ll cycle past Tularosa, and enter an area where the “ancient ones” scribbled on rocks; there’s also an option for a side trip to view the rock art at Three Rivers Petroglyph Site. Later, we’ll find ourselves in a sea of lava, camping at Valley of Fires Recreation Area, where the sunsets are out of this world.

After cycling past the famous Stallion Gate entrance to the Trinity Site, where the first atomic bomb was tested, we’ll skirt Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, an immense area where tens of thousands of migratory birds gather each autumn and reside for the winter.

Our first layover day in Socorro will offer the pleasantries of town life—a coffee shop, walking tours of the historic district, and a shady plaza perfect for relaxing in with a book—all located within walking/biking distance of our town campsite.

Between Magdalena and Datil we’ll be dazzled by the Very Large Array (VLA), a concentration of twenty-seven astronomical radio antennas set eerily on the Plains of San Augustin. You might recognize them from the Jody Foster movie Contact. If we’re lucky, we’ll also spot a pronghorn or two as we pedal across this large plain. Not far from here, in the vicinity of the Mogollon Mountains, we’ll cross both the Great Divide Route and the Continental Divide as we enter the Gila National Forest.

After descending into bustling and historic Silver City, we’ll be at the intersection of the Southern Tier and Great Divide routes, crossing the Continental Divide once more. Our final campsite will be at Caballo Lake State Park, with its backdrop of river cottonwoods in their finest fall golden foliage. We’ll keep a sharp eye out for bald and golden eagles roosting in the cliffs above. The next day we’ll meander through pecan groves and chile fields as we parallel the Rio Grande and enter Hatch, the “Chile Capitol of the World.” We’ll end the week with a celebratory dinner at the locally famous La Posta restaurant in Mesilla.

Why not make like the birds of Bosque del Apache and plan your own migration to New Mexico this fall? Join us for this spectacular tour through the wide-open spaces of the Land of Enchantment.

For more detailed information, see Self Contained trip logistics.

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