CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Out of Bernalillo, one way: 141 km, roughly 2 h 48 in the saddle. On the way it passes Jemez Pueblo, Jemez Springs and Valles Caldera. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,750 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 20 km this is Jemez Mountain Trail, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Bernalillo is an old Spanish and Pueblo town on the Rio Grande just north of Albuquerque, and it has a quiet identity of its own, a mix of adobe walls, cottonwoods, cafes, a few vineyards and a long history. The Sandia Mountains stand to the east, with a ridge that turns watermelon pink at sunset, which is what the name Sandia means in Spanish. The town has about nine thousand people and holds a festival of San Lorenzo each August, with traditional dances.
Read the complete Bernalillo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bernalillo is where the day begins. Next is Jemez Pueblo.
Jemez Pueblo is a living community, not a monument, and the first thing to understand about it is that the people who live here call it Walatowa, meaning this is the place in their language, Towa. The village sits at the foot of the Jemez Mountains, in a valley of red sandstone cliffs along State Route 4, and the pueblo's lands run up the canyon of the Jemez River toward the high country. The Jemez people have lived in this region for many centuries, and are the only remaining speakers of Towa, a language they share with the people of the former Pecos Pueblo.
Read the complete Jemez Pueblo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Jemez Pueblo comes up about 47 km into the recorded legs. Next is Jemez Springs.
Jemez Springs is a small village strung along the Jemez River in a canyon of red and cream cliffs in northern New Mexico, and it feels a long way from anywhere. State Route 4 follows the river here, winding through a gorge of banded sandstone, with cottonwoods along the water and juniper on the slopes. It is a land of hot springs, tucked into the base of the Jemez Mountains, and the village has baths and a few small inns where tired riders can sit in mineral water.
Read the complete Jemez Springs write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 67 km into the recorded legs you reach Jemez Springs. Next is Valles Caldera.
Pull over where State Route 4 opens onto the Valle Grande and the first reaction is usually silence. The meadow in front of you is the floor of a volcano, a vast grassy bowl some thirteen miles across, ringed by forested domes and ridges, with elk grazing in the distance and the sky arching over it all. About 1.25 million years ago a colossal eruption emptied a magma chamber here, and the ground collapsed into the void, leaving a caldera. The ash from that blast settled into the pale tuff that forms the cliffs of Bandelier and the Pajarito Plateau nearby.
Read the complete Valles Caldera write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Valles Caldera, late in the day. Next is Los Alamos.
Los Alamos is a town that exists because of a secret. In 1943 the US government chose this remote mesa, once the site of a boys' ranch school, for the Manhattan Project, and J. Robert Oppenheimer's team built the first atomic bombs in the pine forest at the end of a single winding road. The laboratory is still the biggest employer, which gives the town an odd, educated, slightly fenced-in feel. Street names, museums and a surprising number of PhDs in the grocery queue all hint at it.
Read the complete Los Alamos write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Los Alamos. That is the ride.
Bernalillo → Jemez Pueblo is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Jemez Pueblo → Jemez Springs is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Jemez Springs → Valles Caldera is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Valles Caldera → Los Alamos is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.