A Vacation Full of Surprises

post by Corrine

 “Oh my God! Matt! And Karen Smith! I can’t believe you guys are here,” I squealed with delight. “Eric, get over here now! It’s Matt and Karen.”

We were in the lobby of a Best Western hotel in Sante Fe, New Mexico. Eric, who had been working at his computer around the corner, came hurrying over. He had heard my initial squeal but thought I was in our room and figured some teenagers were excited to see each other. 

But it was me. And Matt and Karen Smith! I have been following them for years. They have written the popular Dear Bob and Sue books about visiting the National Parks and other public lands. They also have a podcast that I listen to regularly and I follow them on Instagram, too. I’m even a Patreon of theirs. I’m such a fan girl! 

With Matt and Karen Smith of the Dear Bob and Sue books

I knew Matt and Karen had been to the just-finished Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta and were in Santa Fe (thank you Instagram). I had told Eric how it would be fun to run into them but didn’t really think it would happen! Then it did! I embarrassed myself a bit by gushing about how much I love them. 

Eric, who has read their books and listened to some of their podcasts, introduced himself, then he thought he heard water running. He quickly figured out it was from my Camelback backpack, which in my excitement I had tossed onto a nearby bench without closing properly. (I really am such a fan girl!)

We cleaned up the mess while talking to Matt and Karen and they seemed to enjoy visiting with us for a few minutes. That chance meeting was like our whole vacation. You just never know what surprises might happen if you stay open to them. 

Leaving Arkansas

After my DNF in the Arkansas High Country bikepacking race, and our three days in Bentonville, we still had about 10 more days of vacation left. What to do? We considered driving to Boulder, Colorado, to see our friends, Jill and Beat, and check out Corvid Cycles. Corvid is a small Boulder bike company that has a bike I want to buy for more bikepacking adventures. But the owner was gone on his own bike adventure. And our son Riley had invited us to visit him and wife Sam in Albuquerque, where they now live and where the Balloon Fiesta was happening, so we headed there.

It was a long 12-hour drive from Bentonville to Albuquerque, across Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle. We knew this area was pretty flat and featureless but maybe we could find somewhere to explore. Looking at maps, we found the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, not too far off our route and about halfway there. Mountains in Oklahoma? We had to check that out. 

Exploring Elk Mountain in the Wichita Mountains

So, we headed west and were pleasantly surprised by these “mountains.” They aren’t huge – the biggest are about the size of the domes around Fairbanks – but they have interesting rocky topography, bison in the lowlands, and some fun hikes. How fun and surprising! 

Another view from Elk Mountain

We did a couple of hikes, the most interesting was up to a mountain plateau, where we explored among the boulders and trees. The only downside was that temps were in the 90s, but a light breeze helped. Then we had just enough time to drive to the top of Mount Scott and see the sunset before driving to our hotel in nearby Lawton. What a surprising and fun way to break up our long drive!

All About Albuquerque

The next day we drove to Albuquerque, where Riley and Sam had moved a year ago. They both have jobs they really like and live in an apartment at the foot of the Sandia Mountains. The week-long Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, the largest hot-air balloon gathering in the world, was winding up, but there were still a couple more days left. Riley and Sam had been to it the year before and had a plan for us.

But first, the next morning Riley took Eric and me on a 30-mile bike tour of Albuquerque. It started with some mountain bike trails just down the street from Riley and Sam’s apartment. Eric really enjoyed the trails. I did too, though some parts were a bit too technical for me. I was happy when Riley led us along roads down to the lowlands along the Rio Grande River. That part included a long downhill on a road with a wide shoulder and a great view of the whole valley and Albuquerque. We explored a maze of dirt-and-sand trails through the greenway along the Rio Grande, and then biked back to the apartment via mostly bike-friendly roads and separated paths. Eric and I were pleasantly surprised with Albuquerque’s robust biking infrastructure. 

Trail riding behind Riley and Sam's apartment

A nice long downhill into Albuquerque

Bike paths along an arroyo

That night we drove to the Balloon Fiesta. More than 500 balloonists from all over the world come to this event. We got there before sunset and walked around. It was like going to the fair with lots of booths featuring food and things to buy. It was very crowded, but we managed to get our dinner of Navajo tacos and find a good spot before the action started. 

Nearly a million visitors come every year to the Balloon Fiesta

Huge Navajo taco!

First up, was the Special Shape Glowdeo, when all the funny-shaped balloons inflate. We saw clowns, jokers, animals, and cartoon characters of all types. Even a large cow, a cement truck, and Smokey the Bear. Wild! It was fun to watch the crews lay out and then inflate the balloons. When they were inflated, all the crews would do coordinated “burns” with their propane burners, though the balloons stayed on the ground. We walked among them, but there were so many you couldn’t see them all at the same time. Quite the spectacle! As it got dark, Riley and Sam found us a good place to sit.

Next up were the lit-up skydivers. Then an amazing drone light show. And then some outstanding fireworks! It was fun to see fireworks without freezing our butts off. (In Fairbanks, it’s too light to have fireworks on Independence Day. Our biggest fireworks are on New Year’s Eve.) The only downside was the horrendous snarl of traffic to get the car out of the parking lot afterwards. (Guess we should have biked!) 

The next day, we hiked one of the most popular trails in New Mexico, the La Luz Trail that heads up to the Sandia Crest at over 10,000 feet elevation. It is basically in Riley and Sam’s backyard, and they had wanted to hike it this year. An 8-mile hike with about 4000 feet of elevation gain? Sure! 

You can also drive to the top via a road on the opposite side of the mountains or take the Sandia Peak Tramway. We wanted to take the tram down, but it was booked. So, early in the morning, Eric and Riley did a car shuttle, so we didn’t have to hike both up and down the mountain.

You can see the tram line in this photo looking up towards the Sandia Crest

Like with many things on this trip, the hike surprised us. Looking up at the mountain, you can’t tell that the hike is going to be as gorgeous and rugged as it is. We were in and out of some canyons with amazing rock formations and, as we got higher we got into the aspen forests, which were golden with autumn colors. It was no surprise, though, that the elevation kicked my butt, but it was well worth doing this hike.

The next morning, we got up early and biked down to the last day of the Balloon Fiesta to watch the morning Glow and Farewell Mass Ascension at dawn. Riley and Sam, on a tandem, led us to a good viewing spot just outside the main grounds (which meant we could avoid the worst of the crowds). We watched all the balloons take off at sunrise, many flying right over our heads. Beautiful. Afterward, we biked to Bike In Coffee, a unique restaurant that caters to bikers and walkers. We had breakfast burritos and relaxed a bit before biking back to their apartment (again on bike-friendly roads and separated paths). Along the way we stopped to see a business made almost entirely of shipping containers. Albuquerque is quite quirky!

Heading down to the dawn ascension

Bike In Coffee was busy on Sunday morning

New Mexico Exploring

After three days of visiting, Eric and I headed north to Santa Fe. It was our first morning at our hotel that I ran into Matt and Karen Smith. After that pleasant surprise, we drove another hour north to explore Bandelier National Monument, which I learned about from Matt and Karen’s podcast. This monument showcases some ancestral Pueblo ruins and a beautiful canyon. The biggest ruin, the Alcove House, was closed due to a flash flood that occurred in the canyon the month prior. We did not get to the monument early, so we had to deal with crowds on the popular 1.4-mile Pueblo Loop Trail, which winds through some ruins and includes place where you can climb a ladder into some cave houses. The line to climb the ladder was long, so we decided against it. 

Long lines to climb the ladder

Instead, we hiked the 3-mile Frijolito Loop Trail up the other side of the canyon to a plateau, losing most of the people. Then we drove north and hiked the Upper Frijoles Canyon Overlook Trail. All of it was spectacular especially with the fall colors. This monument has so much to offer, and we wouldn’t have known about it except for Matt and Karen’s podcast. 

Climbing up the Frijolito Loop

Looking down into Frijoles Canyon from the overlook

The day was getting late, but we were just 10 miles away from Valles Caldera National Preserve, a place we had never heard of before. We had to at least take a peek. The caldera is a 14-mile-wide circular depression left after a spectacular volcanic eruption 1.2 million years ago. We could see a couple of elk herds out in the vast grass-covered bottomlands of the caldera (which staff groom for skiing when they have enough snow). We wanted to explore more, but it was time to head back to Sante Fe for dinner.

Grasslands of the Valles Caldera

On our last day in Santa Fe, Eric and I went different ways. I found a nice 45-mile gravel loop that climbed 4,000 feet in 12 miles on chunky gravel followed by a sweet descent on pavement. Eric found a nice singletrack riding area, but on his way back his bike tires were making a funny sound, and he discovered they were covered in goatheads. He’d pluck one out and immediately hear hissing. He was really glad for his tubeless tires. He’d spin the tire, and the hole would get plugged. Another nice aspect: we both biked from our hotel and found nice, separated bike paths through greenways. We were really liking these bike-friendly places. We arrived back at our hotel at about the same time, wishing we had more time to explore. 

Nice gravel ride on Pacheco Canyon Road

The What Canyon of Texas?

Our vacation was coming to an end, so we had to drive back to Oklahoma City, where we had flown in. Looking for something interesting on our way back, I came across Palo Duro Canyon, known as the Grand Canyon of Texas. What?! Another place I had never heard of. Most of the canyon is a state park and it was about halfway back to Oklahoma City. Perfect! We had to check it out. I managed to snag a glamping site right in the park. The sites are large canvas tents with wood interior walls that can hold a couple of families. It was overpriced, but it was down in the canyon – and it included breakfast, ice cream, and a s’more package!

Palo Duro glamping

Spacious canvas tents can sleep six

Making s'mores over our propane fire under the full moon - Does life get any better?

One of the largest canyons in the United States, Palo Duro is in the panhandle of Texas, just 18 miles from Amarillo. It’s nowhere near as deep as the Grand Canyon – only about 800 vertical feet from rim to bottom – but it covers a large area and has lots of trails. After checking into our glamping site, we headed out to bike the park road up the canyon. It was beautiful, especially in the evening light. Eric was ready to head back, but I finished by riding the road all the way up to the top of the rim and back.

The next morning, we biked Lighthouse Trail to Lighthouse Rock before breakfast, which didn’t start until 9:30 a.m. We wanted to get out before the crowds and the heat. We were surprised by how spectacular this rock formation was. The last half-mile or so was steep and rocky, so we parked the bikes and hiked. We were able to get right up next to the formation. With the early morning light, it was beautiful.

After breakfast, we headed back out to hike the Givens, Spicer, Lowry Trail, supposedly the most beautiful trail in the canyon, named after three runners who put in the trail. We came back by way of other trails to make an 8-mile loop, though we somehow missed the Cowboy Dugout cultural site along the Paseo del Rio Trail. I was pretty tired after that, but Eric was chomping at the bit to do some technical mountain biking, so he headed out to ride the Upper Comanche Trail. When he came back, he said I would not have liked that rocky, tricky trail, but to make a loop he rode some easier trails on the way back and found the Cowboy Dugout. Now a bit rested, I was game to go see it, so we got back on the bikes.  

View on the Givens, Spicer, Lowry Trail

Eric bikes on the more technical Upper Comanche Trail

Cowboy dugout

When we got back, it was time for showers and dinner. The restaurant was just outside the park, so I decided to again bike back up out of the canyon. Eric picked me up at the top, but I convinced him we should do a tiny little sunset hike before dinner. Of course, we kept seeing that we could go farther, so we ended up doing the whole Goodnight Peak Scenic Loop, a nearly 2-mile hike. We both enjoyed watching the sun set over the canyon rim and then finally headed off to dinner. 

Not Done Yet!

Our final day, we drove back to Oklahoma City, getting there in the early afternoon. Our plane didn’t leave until the next day. What to do? Hang out at the hotel? No! Using the handy Biking layer on Google Maps, Eric saw there was a nice bike trail just a mile from our hotel. That mile was lousy biking, but the trail was awesome. And it connected to other trails. We ended up doing a 30-mile ride almost solely on separated bike/pedestrian paths, many of which wound through greenways. Once again, we were surprised that we were able to ride on bike paths from our hotel and see so many green spaces!

Throughout our 10 days, I often thought about how if I hadn’t dropped out of the race, I would still be out riding my bike in Arkansas, hot and exhausted. Instead, we went exploring and found so many hidden gems that we didn’t even know existed. It pays to be flexible. You can really be surprised by all our country’s amazing public lands and trails.

Bentonville - More Than a Mountain Bike Mecca

post by Corrine

“Let’s do that again!” I exclaimed. 

Eric’s eyes widened and his eyebrows shot up. Corrine wanted to do a downhill trail a second time?!

Usually, I’m a total wimp on downhill trails, but I rocked this one and even got a tiny bit of air on the whoop-de-doos! The Family Flow Trail was just my speed. Bentonville, Arkansas, was living up to its name as a Mecca for mountain biking, with something for all levels. But we were also finding out there was more to Bentonville than mountain biking. 

Post-Race Not So Blues

After my early DNF in the Arkansas High Country bikepacking race, we still had a two-week vacation left. What to do? When I was on the race, Eric had planned to spend most of his time exploring the mountain biking in the area. He had heard a lot about Bentonville and had a three-night stay already reserved at an Airbnb just a few blocks from downtown. So, we headed there, with a brief side trip to hike to Hawksbill Crag, the most photographed spot in in Arkansas. It was about halfway between Russellville (where the race had started) and Bentonville. The short hike to the crag was a great way to break up the drive through the rolling Ozark Mountains.

I wasn’t all that disappointed with having to drop out of the race due to a mechanical, but if I had been, Bentonville would have been a great place to lift my spirits. It has miles and miles of easily accessible mountain bike trails for all levels, but it has much more. Miles of paved trails through greenways, bike-friendly infrastructure for getting around town, whimsical art installations on the trails, free art museums, great places to eat, and even a building that you can bike to the top of. If you haven’t been there and you like biking, you should consider going.

All of this is thanks to Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, his wife Helen and their heirs. Sam was the driving force behind Walmart, Helen insisted the headquarters stay in Bentonville, and the Walton family heirs have showered the area with good works from their inheritance. 

Mountain Biking Vision

Tom and Steuart Walton, grandsons of Sam, had the vision for mountain biking in the area. Through their efforts the Walton Family Foundation has poured more than $70 million dollars into cycling infrastructure for the region. That investment has resulted in a ton of biking tourism for Bentonville and the entire northwestern Arkansas region. 

Bentonville must be one of the most bike friendly cities I have visited. Bike paths and protected lanes everywhere. We saw all kinds of bikes from road bikes to e-bikes to mountain and gravel bikes. I have never seen so many people on bikes except for the week of RAGBRAI in Iowa. And a lot of people were on foot too, walking or running. We never used our minivan during our entire stay in Bentonville.

More Than Biking – But a Lot of Biking!

Besides all the biking infrastructure, Bentonville has a surprising amount of art. The free-admission Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is a huge, world class art museum built by another Walton heir. The museum includes an outdoor art installation that you can walk or bike through. The area also has a Frank Lloyd Wright House, the Museum of Native American Art and, of course, the Walmart Museum, which covers the history of Walmart in America. All free to the public! And there are whimsical art installations everywhere you go, including on mountain bike paths.

And, of course, Bentonville has lots of bike shops. Our first stop in town was at Phat Tire Bike Shop, where we managed to get my bike fixed. They didn’t have the right part, but we tried replacing my 10-speed wheel pulleys with slightly thinner 11-speed pulleys and they worked just fine. Whew! I would have been really disappointed to not be able to ride my bike in Bentonville. 

After getting my bike fixed, we biked from our Airbnb, heading north on the Razorback Parkway bike path, just to check things out. A storm, including a tornado, had hit Bentonville back in May, so some of the trails were still damaged from that, but the community had done an amazing job of cleaning up. At the north end of the greenway path, we figured out how to do a little lollipop loop instead of heading straight back, but we ran into a damaged bridge. Fortunately, we found a place where we could rock-hop across the waterway. On the way back to our Airbnb we did some diversions on a few of the many mountain bike trails through the greenway, one of several in the area.

Trail maintenance after the storms earlier in the year

Eric rock-hops across the river

The morning of our second day, we biked into town for breakfast, but first we biked to the top of the Ledger building, “first-ever bikeable building.”  Six floors of switchbacks on the outside of the building! How fun is that? Great views from the top, including a close-up look of an art installation on another building: two huge fish that shimmer as the wind and temperature move metal panels that make up the sculpture. 

See the switchbacks on the outside of Ledger Building?

I ride up the switchbacks!

After breakfast, we biked over to the Coler Mountain Bike Preserve greenway. We started at the south end, making our way north riding over a “singing” bridge and then by a coffee shop that is only accessible by trails. We stopped there for a snack, but only after biking the entire greenway paved path (across another “singing” bridge) and then coming back on mountain bike trails, including that fun Family Flow Trail. 

We stopped to do the 11-story hill climb right on the trail, too.

Coffee shop only accessible by bike or foot

After our snack break, we took more paved and dirt paths toward home, including on a short, completely paved downhill trail Eric had seen on a video. (It had a scary last downhill that I almost didn’t do. But I did it!) We biked through the grounds of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, taking in several amazing pieces of outdoor art, including one that was made up of a whole bunch of old aluminum boats and canoes. We stopped at the museum and wandered through, almost overwhelmed by all the art. There was more to see, but we were getting hungry, so we biked back to our Airbnb, then walked to dinner. 

Finishing up the paved downhill mountain bike trail

Not Just Mountain Biking – But, Yes, Mountain Biking

On our last day in Bentonville, I wanted to get in at least one big ride since I had to bail from doing my planned 1,000-mile race. The 100-mile Big Sugar Gravel race starts in Bentonville on October 19. It is the last race of the Lifetime Fitness Gravel series. The night before, I found the route online and downloaded it. I started early the next day, just as the sun was coming up. I toured the course, stopping often to take photos along the way. It was a great way to spend the day and see the country around Bentonville. And now when I watch the race recap, I will know what the announcers will be talking about.

Meanwhile, Eric wanted to do more mountain biking. While I did my gravel route, he biked to the other side of town to the Hand Cut Hollow riding area. He found some challenging trails and had a blast, eventually working back to the Razorback Greenway, where he played a bit more on mountain bike trails.

On to Other Things

We could easily have spent more time in Bentonville and northeast Arkansas. There were many other trails and riding areas we hadn’t seen. But our son Riley suggested that we could come visit him and his wife Sam in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where the International Balloon Fiesta was taking place. The event is the largest hot air balloon festival in the world. We realized it was only a 12-hour drive, so we said we would come. Riley and Sam had been in Albuquerque for a year, and we hadn’t yet visited them.

Hiking in the Sandia Mountains out of Albuquerque with Sam and Riley.

While a 12-hour drive isn’t that far to an Alaskan, it’s still a ways to go (especially when driving busy interstate highways – ugh!), so we did some searching and found the Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma. Mountains in Oklahoma? Who knew? The refuge is about halfway to Albuquerque and only a little out of the way, so we broke the drive into two days, spending an afternoon hiking in the Wichita Mountains.  

Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge

Sunset from Mount Scott in the Wichita Mountains

We also found plenty of places to play in New Mexico, and visited a spectacular canyon in Texas on our way back but that's a story for another blog post.