Route suggestions for trip from Sedona, AZ to Santa Fe, NM

[XXRider]

Hi Guys,  Dose anyone have some good route suggestions for a trip from Sedona, AZ to Santa Fe NM?  I will be 2-uping with my wife on a FJR in two weeks and I am looking to travel from Sedona to Santa Fe.  I am looking to avoid I40 and I25 as much as posible.  I am looking for good senic 2-lane route between the two cities.  I also want to completed the ride in 8 to 9 hours if posible or should I break it up into a 2-day trip and if so where would be a resonable town and motel to stay in for one night?  Our trip is starting out from SLC on Saturday the 16th and will be going through UT, AZ, NM and CO and I would like to be back home on 24th.

[dangle]

Pretty straight forward route is up thru Flag on 89 connecting to 160 near Tuba City and connecting to 64 near Teec Nos Pos. Farmington NM has plenty hotel/motels if you decide to call it a day. Prob be hot hot. East of the Farmington area you will be going up into the San Juan mtns to cool off a little then you can drop down into Santa Fe on either 285 84 or go into Taos and down on 68. Until Farmington, you will be going thru the Najaho rez. I've taken this route in a little cooler wx. It will keep you off the Interstates. Google shows a little over 400 miles by slab with enroute time of 6 hrs and 13 min. I've alway taken about 3 days to do a version of this loop.

[Wanderer]

I dunno, man.  Sedona to Flag is good.  Oak Creek Canyon is beautiful but traffic is usually bad.  Beyond Flagstaff is pretty austere to 4- corners. The rez is a pretty place, in a desolate, 'land that time forgot' sorta way.  Just don't speed. I mean it. Really mean it. Please.
The other option is heading east from Sedona along the Mogollon Rim riding 260 through Payson to Show Low, then catch 60 into NM, jump to 117 at Quemado, NM.  This will link you to I-40 and no mas fun. I'd go through Alb to Hwy 14and on the other side of Sandia Peak.
The first half of the payson/ White Mountains route is awesome, but quickly goes blah. The other way across the rez is good -but not great- the whole way.

[DangerMoney]

XX,
Having been on both routes described above, I'd go with Wanderer's suggestion. More specifically, I'd head southwest on 89A to Cottonwood, pickup 279 southeast to Camp Verde and then take 260 east to Springerville/Eager. There's plenty of places to stay and eat there. Two reasons for this route. It's very scenic and the elevation is about 5000' to 7000' feet through pine forest so it's relatively cool.


From Springerville/Eager take 60 east to Quemado. This will be pretty flat and boring... and hot.


If you spend the night in Springerville (elev 5,000) you can get up early and blast across NM in the morning while it's still cool.

I've stayed at this place several times. Clean, quiet, free continental breakfast, motorcycle-friendly, there's a supermarket next-door and a Quicky Mart/Gas Station 1/2 block south.

Best Western Sunrise Inn
128 N. Main St.
Eager, AZ
928-333-2540

[dangle]

I agree that the southern route is fine and more populated than the northern way. The southern way would have XX slabing it thru Albuquerque of roughly 100 miles  on I40 and another 60 or 70 miles up I25 to Santa Fe. Northern route has 0 freeway miles. No matter which way, there is alot of isolated space to cross. But thats the neighborhood.

[XXRider]

Thanks for the suggestions.  I think the route I will take will be Cottonwood, Camp Verde, Payson, Show Low, St. Johns, Zuni to Grants.  We would pick up I40 at Grants, AZ and then slab the rest of the way.  From what I see that will still be close to a 500 mile day.  From what DangerMoney says is that most of that route will be at 5000 to 7000 feet and would be cooler because what I see on the news is that it will be in the 100 degree zone next week.

[Jetboy]

Good choice for making it a one day ride and staying as cool as possible.  Camp Verde to St. Johns should be very comfortable temps.  Watch for Leo's just east of Payson and on both sides of Show Low.

[XXRider]

Thanks for LEO update.  I already have a radar detector mounted on the FJR just in case.

[dwilli]

I-25 from Albuquerque to Santa Fe is a good place to get killed. I've had several close calls over the years. The speed Limit is 75 and most people are 10 to 15 over that. Add the get the *uck out of my way I'm in a hurry and the had a few too many drivers and it can be a real mess.

An alternative would be I-25 to Bernalillo, 550 to San Ysidro, Hwy 4 thru Jemez Springs to Los Alamos and down into Santa Fe. It would add some miles but Hwy 4 is a nice ride and the temps would be cooler.

Either way be careful and have a great trip.

[XXRider]

Thanks for the info about I25 but I figure it will still be a 12 hour 500 mile day for us taking I25 instead of alternative 2-lane roads to Santa Fe.  My wife and made it from Torrey, UT to Sedona, AZ today in about 12 hours and 480 miles.  I had a real problem with the FJR having power surging issues once we were over 6000 ft in altitude.  Some people have been complaining about it over on the FJR forum but they said thiers only did it for a few minutes at a time.  Mine did it for miles. The only way to get it to stop was to pull over and shut the bike off and restart so it would reset its computer.  But once we changed altitude either up or down a 1000 Ft it would start doing it again and we were changing altitude all the time on this ride.  We were anywhere between 3500 ft and 10,000 today.  It was a real PITA all day.  

[dwilli]

Hate to hear that about the FJR. I got an 07 about 10 days ago and have a trip planned to Northern, NM and Central Colorado the second week of July. I haven't had any problems with mine but I live at 3600 ft. I plan to stop in Aspen and then go over Independence Pass which is a little over 12000 ft.

Guess I need to run to the mountains first and see how it does. Might take the Electra Glide instead on the trip. Sure don't want to fight the FJR the whole trip.

I've been reading the FJR Fourm. Damn hate to have to deal with all this BS. Sounds like a lean AFR causing the surge. It's a brand new bike shouldn't have to do anything to make it run right.

If your looking for some good Mexican Food check out Sadie's in Albuquerque at 4th St and Solar.

[dangle]

Sorry to hear about the bad running at altitude on the FJR. Once you cross into western NM you will be in the high desert with average alt of bout 5k. First I heard of this sort of prob for the FJR. Concour that I25 is a race track and can be a parking lot with a well placed wreck. For an extra 10 miles or so you may want to look at rte 14 on the east side of the Sandias. That is a favorite MC route for many btwn Abq and SF.

[XXRider]

I picked up my 07 FJR on May 1st and for the first few hundred miles is ran just fine.  My friends and I did a ride one Sunday and we were anywhere from 4200 ft to 9000 ft.  It started surging once we got over 6000 ft but it only did it for 5 to 10 seconds and after that it was fine until I reached the Salt Lake valley (4200 ft) and it did it again for 5 to 10 seconds.  My house is at 5400 ft but it has ran fine around my house.  My friends and I did a long distance ride to Durango, CO on the first weekend of June and we also rode around SW Colorado during that weekend.  We were anywhere from 5000 ft to over 11000 ft (Red Mountain pass on Hwy 550 out of Ouray) and had no problems.  This past Sunday we were riding from Torrey, UT to Sedona, AZ and it almost constantly surged anytime we were climbing in any altitude the whole 500 miles of the trip.  We stopped at Jacob Lake, AZ for a rest break (9600 ft) and started our decent on Hwy 89 Alt and it started surging as we were decending to the valley floor on the way to Marble Canyon bridge.  The FJR ran like total crap the whole day.  Today with ride from Sedona, AZ (4100 ft)to Santa Fe, NM (7000 ft) it ran fine for the day execept for about 10 seconds when we were climbing around Payson, AZ.  When I get back on Monday I am calling and bitching at Yamaha.  Also we went through Albuquerque today and I noticed that the drivers there were pretty much just as stupid as the Stupid "Utards" in Salt Lake.  Since I am used to dealing such idiots on a daily basis we got through town in one piece.  After 500 miles and 10 1/2 hours on the road I am tired and going to bed.  I will update you guys in a couple days while we are here in Santa Fe.