Starting out from Bloomfield we headed east on US-64. We passed extensive solar collection ‘farms along the route – each plate angling towards the sun during it’s transit, much like sunflowers. A little further along there were oil pump jacks and a small gas processing plant. Deviating slightly onto NM-511 the road meandered along the San Juan River Valley before arriving at the dam at Navajo Lake which has 32 Megwatts of power generation capacity.
After the dam we rejoin US-64 and continue00 to Chama and turn north onto NM-17. This route runs up through Cumbres Pass and parallels the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad. A number of spectator’s had gathered at various level crossings and were awaiting the arrival of the steam engine driven train. We pulled out on and overlook and waited as well. After the train passed, we continued on over the pass towards Antonito.
The route south to Espanola was straight run, with some nice views along the way. Heading west towards Los Alamos we followed the unusual US-501 – a three lane highway with a somewhat slow speed limit – that appears to funnel commuters up into Los Alamos. A brief stop for coffee and we continued on, passing by the Los Alamos Research facilities (the original labs hosted Dr. Oppenheimer and the rest of the scientists of the Manhatten Project that developed the first A bomb – Little Boy), but not before being stopped and questioned by a Marine at a check point. We were warned of dire consequences if we deviated from our path and entered any of the research facilities.
Leaving US-501 we continued on NM-04 – a fun twisty route through forests and valleys – on our way to Jemez Pueblo. Continuing on US-550 towards Bernalillo we passed a CoGen power plant with supplemental solar panels. A great day of riding that – among other things – highlighted the diversity of energy use in the state of New Mexico – from steam to oil to gas to nuclear to solar – they have it all.