Everyday Adventures

Diablo Canyon, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Cass Gilbert and friends head out from their front doors to investigate a new bike path out of town… one that leads straight into the gaping mouth of the Devil’s Canyon.

Surly Bridge Club Santa Fe New Mexico

SOME of the best rides are the ones that leave straight from the front door. I’m lucky enough to have a wonderful group of friends who ride all kinds of bikes… be it all-road, mtb, or cargo… whatever gets them from A-B.

And, we’re lucky enough in Santa Fe to have a wide variety of rides on tap. This weekend, we headed straight out of town, intending to investigate a long distance cycling and walking path that’s currently in development. When it’s finished, the 500 mile Rio Grand River Trail will span the length of New Mexico and be largely traffic free, opening up a variety of recreational possibilities for communities along its route.

Rusty heard about a local segment  – running between the outskirts of Santa Fe and the neck-craning Diablo Canyon, a popular climbing wall and backdrop for many a Western movie – that was nearing completion, so we put aside a few hours to venture out of the city and scope it out.

Initially, it’s a paved bike path out of town, punctuated with an info panel and even a bike pump along the way. Then, it ducks onto the Caja del Rio – a volcanic plateau – via a beautiful, meandering, high desert singletrack.

It begins life as a well-surfaced trail, then morphs into choppier and sometimes sandy surfaces, running for nine glorious miles, right into the gaping mouth of Diablo Canyon.

Rather than retracing our steps to ride back (and, the singletrack wouldn’t be nearly as much fun in the other direction), we hopped on some dirt roads back into town.

Here’s a RWGPS link to the route.

Do you have a photo or two and a story you’d like to share about an everyday bike adventure? Get in touch!

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