So our journey began, as we kicked out our season tour, we packed up the RV and started west. Our first stop was New Mexico. As we traveled across the country I quickly realized that while we were driving through Arkansas I was only an hour away from Bentonville. I quickly made a detour and headed over to Bentonville for a couple trails on my Bulls eBike. What an epic hour and an half ride through the Slaughter Pin trail systems. There are jumps, burns, and ramps. Honestly, the Bentonville trails systems are still some of the best trails I have ever rode.

We then continued our we to New Mexico to meet up with John Fullbright and his family. I always thought that New Mexico was desert like filled with sand, cactus and tumbleweeds. Now sure, all of that definitely existed, but what I didn’t expect were the mountains and rivers. WOW!

As the John and the locals explained to me, the Rocky Mountains don’t worry about state lines, so if you know your geography (which clearly I didn’t know enough of). The Rocky Mountains stretch some 3,000 miles from British Columbia and Alberta in Canada through Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and down to New Mexico. The Rocky Mountains are just as magnificent in New Mexico as they are in Colorado or any of these other states. I was immediately mind blown by the combination of desert and gorgeous mountains, and just like any other mountain ranges, the mountains create canyons and rivers.

We started our New Mexico experience off with checking out the Taos Ski resort. It was an incredible day of skiing and trying to keep up with John and his wife, while I was skiing some of the steepest terrain of my life. Emily and the kids had a great time just playing the snow, digging caves, sliding and sipping on hot coco.

While parked in John’s driveway he introduced us to some bee acupuncture, which was something I had never tried. Essentially he would gently sting you with a bee and the stinger would sting you with small amounts of bee venom. It was a wild experience and very similar to acupuncture though you get the benefits of your body kicking in antibodies to those areas. Anyway it was pretty cool and kind of crazy.

Next up we headed to the river to check out the Taos Box canyon of the Rio Grand. It was filled with awe inspiring views of giant canyon walls, big horn sheep and some really fun class 1-4 rapids. Along the way we picked up some trash trying to do our part to keep the magnificent canyon as beautiful and clean as can be. After paddled we joined a whole group of friends and local paddlers for a BBQ at Ed Lucero’s place (past waterfall world record holder). It was a great time and a perfect send off from out amazing couple of days in New Mexico.

Like all great things, our time in New Mexico had come to an end. It was time to keep our adventure moving. Though I now know all that I have been missing in New Mexico, and I can’t wait to come back, for I have barely scratched the surface of all the adventure the state has to offer.