The Rim Road FR540 NM - Been on it?

[DocAxeYarYar]

Hi, Im doing some ride planning and found the "Rim Road" otherwise known as FR540 which traverses the entire Guadalupe Ranger District of the Lincoln National Forest. I'm thinking of trying to link this up with CDT heading north, with a stop in Durango, then head back down south. Am using Dell City TX as a jumping off point.

Has anyone experienced the Rim Road? It looks like it has a few gates but have no idea on the status. Any tips about riding the Rim Road appreciated. Thanks!

[empedrado]

A group of us traversed this road between Xmas and New Years. It is a nice road and do not recall any gates one had to go through.

Can be a bit windy up there however.

[BlackHawkChief]

Out side of dell city on the salt flats

LONG straight road taking you out of dell city good road be careful of cattle & cattle crossings

I took this last fall flying over the Forest that's the rim road in the pic it's just south of the sunspot turnoff

[DocAxeYarYar]

Dudes, thanks for the great pictures and input! Much appreciated!

Any thoughts on connecting up to CTD and working north towards Durango?

Thank you!

[AKASY]

You have White Sands Missile Range between the CDT routing and LNF. Can you connect them--yep--but it is going to be heck of a diversion since you can't go across WSMR. The CDT comes north well west of TorC it is a long way around either the north or south side of WSMR to get from the CDT route to just East of Alamogordo.

[wbbnm]

CDT.

As Sy says WSMR would have to be dealt with. But I think it can be done in a mostly dirt manner and be a fun ride.

This is off the top of my head. After the Rim road you can head north for a while on pavement and pick up a nice dirt road that runs east of the Mescalero Rez. This takes you to US 380. You can probably parallel 380 most of the way on dir roads in the Lincoln NF either north or south of 380 to about Carizzozo.

Then there are dirt roads north of 380 between Carizzozo and San Antonio. I haven't actually ridden the eastern part of this route. I wanted to do it a few years ago, but ran out of time.

An indirect but fun option would be to and take NM 1 (paved) south to 107. Then take 107 north and go over Mt Withington and then pick up the CDT.

An even more fun option would be to turn south off of 107 and take a great dirt road down to Monticello Canyon. Then go thru the canyon to pick up the CDT.

I have lots of GPS tracks of this stuff. If you PM me with your email address, I will send them to you. Most of them are already on GPSXchange.com and DualSportMaps.com.

[DocAxeYarYar]

Originally Posted by wbbnm

CDT.

As Sy says WSMR would have to be dealt with. But I think it can be done in a mostly dirt manner and be a fun ride.

This is off the top of my head. After the Rim road you can head north for a while on pavement and pick up a nice dirt road that runs east of the Mescalero Rez. This takes you to US 380. You can probably parallel 380 most of the way on dir roads in the Lincoln NF either north or south of 380 to about Carizzozo.

Then there are dirt roads north of 380 between Carizzozo and San Antonio. I haven't actually ridden the eastern part of this route. I wanted to do it a few years ago, but ran out of time.

An indirect but fun option would be to and take NM 1 (paved) south to 107. Then take 107 north and go over Mt Withington and then pick up the CDT.

An even more fun option would be to turn south off of 107 and take a great dirt road down to Monticello Canyon. Then go thru the canyon to pick up the CDT.

I have lots of GPS tracks of this stuff. If you PM me with your email address, I will send them to you. Most of them are already on GPSXchange.com and DualSportMaps.com.

Thanks very much for your local expertise and sketching out some options! I am planning roughly a 10 day ride, out of Dell City, hit Durango, then turn around again. Picking up the CDT is an option, but I am flexible as since the riding will be great pretty much everywhere. Jumping on and off some pavement to link up some dirt, or burn up some miles faster is fine. I only chose Durango because its close to NM border, and I like the town. On the way back down I would hope to hit the White Peak area also. I will PM with my email, thanks for the generous offer to share some tracks!