Neither of us can remember seeing this. Google shows me it's a bit off of the road. Good researching to find it.

You'll have to go for some more evening temple photos on your Utah tour. This is eye catching.

I think Ajo is not as rough as MOST mining towns.

We stayed in Ajo in 2017. It looked like a rough town. I would have been awake all night, wild camping!

Schwalbe Marathons. The main thru road was pretty well packed. I only had deep sand when I got off the main road by accident. Like I wrote, the signed "primitive road" wasn't bad at all when I rode it.

The terrain was so easy that the long stretch of dirt roads wasn't difficult at all.

Very gentle terrain and a tailwind!

that's a good average speed for all of that dirt!

Do you remember what tires you used back then? Pushing through deep sand is not a thing for me. I do like backroads.

You don't have to go this distance in one day. Julian has lodging and is a cute little apple growing town high in the mountains.

This route crosses the Laguna mountains but the typical March weather is 70 degrees, not snow.

You earned some bragging rights this day!

Thanks Wayne. I'll definitely have a look at that journal, though I probably won't have the time to explore Big Bend as thoroughly as you did. Luckily I've been to that park twice before. (Not on a bike though.)

I forgot to mention that I did a 12-day bike tour in the Big Bend area in December 1990. I spent about a week at Big Bend during that tour. Here's a link to a map and summary of that tour.
https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/earlytourssummary/west-texas-1990/

Greg, I'm also surprised that the mostly north-south route connecting the 4 NM/TX National Parks isn't a more widely traveled bike route. It's well suited for relatively short tours. Most cyclists only pass through the region going east-west, and usually in too much of a hurry to detour to the parks. I'm glad my journal helps you plan your tour.
Hopefully the wind will be cooperative during your tour. West of the Rockies the wind almost always blows from the west. But the southern Great Plains and Chihuahuan desert have gale force winds in EVERY direction during spring.

Hi Wayne,

When you commented on something I wrote a while back, telling me the Chihuahuan Desert is very windy in the springtime, I should have known that info comes from your own cycling experience. Now I found this journal today and I just finished reading the entries that cover much of the route I intend to take in October. You hit all four national parks and that incredible road from Presidio to Lajitas. The good part is that you provided an excellent resource and some awesome photos. The bad part is that, prior to finding this, I thought I was planning a pretty unusual route.

As a guy who really appreciates all of the nature and wilderness to be found in this country, I am very impressed with all of the places you've toured.