Why this ride
Sustained elevation change, linked bends and open summit views. It also links naturally to Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Halsema Highway Cordillera Route
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 170 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 54
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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.
Access context
Verify ferries, typhoon effects, road condition and local access. Specific flag: fog; landslides; traffic.
Seasonal context
Dec-May
Scenic road chapters
Halsema Highway
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 63 km this is Halsema Highway, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Rider note
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 63 km
- Named road
- Halsema Highway
- Pass
- Highest Point
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Baguio
Baguio is the city that the Philippines built to escape itself. At about 1,500 metres in the Cordillera, with pine trees, mist and an average temperature that would feel mild in Europe, it became the summer capital soon after the Americans arrived in 1900s, and the layout of the original city was drawn up by the planner Daniel Burnham. Today around 270,000 people live here, the traffic is a constant argument, and the cool air is still the main attraction for people from the lowlands.
Read the complete Baguio write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Baguio sits at 0 km, early in the day. Next is Atok.
2. Atok
A sign beside the road at Atok declares that this is the highest point on the Philippine highway system, and the air agrees. At about 2,250 metres the Halsema Highway is cold and often shrouded in cloud, a surprise to anyone who flew in from the sweating lowlands, and the vegetable terraces that cover the slopes here look more like Switzerland than South-East Asia. Cabbages, carrots, potatoes, flowers and strawberries grow on slopes that appear almost vertical, and farmers carry loads up and down on their backs. Atok is a small municipality, with Baguio far to the south and Abatan and Sagada to the north.
Read the complete Atok write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Atok comes up 43 km in. Next is Bontoc.
3. Bontoc
Bontoc looks like exactly what it is, the administrative heart of a mountain province, with a busy market, jeepneys parked nose to tail and a river, the Chico, curling through the middle of everything. About ten thousand people live here, hemmed in by the steep green flanks of the Cordillera, and the town has long been the main trading point for the Igorot villages scattered through these hills. For a long time, Bontoc was associated with headhunting in the foreign imagination, an image the locals have grown tired of, and a visit to the small museum on the hill gives a more honest picture of the culture, with its stone houses, tattoos, weaving and rice rituals.
Read the complete Bontoc write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
170 km in you reach Bontoc.