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.
A 583 km round trip from Thoreau - roughly 12 h 39 in the saddle. The stops in between: Kin Nizhoni, Kin Ya'a, Kin Bineola and Chaco Culture. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,350 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Casamero is a small sandstone pueblo on the edge of a valley below the red cliffs of north-western New Mexico, near Prewitt and Thoreau, and it was built about a thousand years ago by people connected to the great Chaco culture. It is one of the Chacoan outliers, communities that shared the architecture, pottery and probably the beliefs of the great houses of Chaco Canyon, more than eighty kilometres to the north, and that were connected to them by a network of straight roads. The walls of Casamero, made of carefully laid stone, still stand to a good height, with the outlines of rooms and a great kiva, a large round ceremonial chamber, nearby. It is part of the Chaco Culture World Heritage site.
Read the complete Casamero write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Casamero is where the day begins. Next is Kin Nizhoni.
Navajo speakers call it Kin Nizhoni, which means beautiful house, and the name has outlived the walls. This is one of the Chacoan outliers, a village of stone-and-mud buildings put up about a thousand years ago by Ancestral Puebloan people who were linked to the great centre at Chaco Canyon, some distance to the north. The outliers sit scattered across the high desert of northwestern New Mexico, often connected to Chaco by straight prehistoric roads, and each tells a piece of the story of a society that traded turquoise, pottery and macaw feathers across a very large area.
Read the complete Kin Nizhoni write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kin Nizhoni comes up about 71 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kin Ya'a.
A broken stone tower rising out of the sagebrush is what you see first at Kin Ya'a, and it is one of the strangest sights in the Southwest. This was a Chacoan great house, built in the eleventh and twelfth centuries by the same Ancestral Puebloan culture that raised the monumental buildings of Chaco Canyon, some forty kilometres to the north. What makes Kin Ya'a special is its tower kiva, a round ceremonial room built up four storeys high, much of which still stands. Its name is Navajo and is usually translated as tall house. It is one of the outlying sites included in the World Heritage listing of Chaco Culture, linked to the canyon by what archaeologists believe was a formal road.
Read the complete Kin Ya'a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 135 km into the recorded legs you reach Kin Ya'a. Next is Kin Bineola.
Over a thousand years ago, the people of Chaco Canyon built great houses of finely laid sandstone, multi-storey buildings with hundreds of rooms and ceremonial kivas, and connected them with roads that ran straight across the desert. Kin Bineola is one of the outlying great houses, some distance south-west of the canyon, on the Navajo Nation in north-western New Mexico. Its walls still stand in places to several storeys, with the characteristic Chacoan masonry of small stones packed between larger ones. It is one piece of the World Heritage property for the Chaco Culture, together with the canyon and other outliers.
Read the complete Kin Bineola write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kin Bineola, about halfway. Next is Chaco Culture.
Getting to Chaco Canyon is part of the point. The last stretch of road into this remote corner of north-western New Mexico is unpaved, rutted and washboarded, and after rain it turns to slick mud that can make it impassable for any kind of vehicle. Take that seriously: on a road bike it is tough, and on a big touring machine it can be miserable. But the reward is extraordinary. Between roughly 850 and 1150, the Ancestral Puebloan people built monumental great houses here, multi-storey stone buildings with hundreds of rooms, aligned with the sun, moon and cardinal directions, linked by straight roads across the desert. Chaco Culture National Historical Park was listed by UNESCO in 1987.
Read the complete Chaco Culture write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chaco Culture sits at 168 km, about halfway. Next is back through Kin Bineola.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kin Bineola write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Kin Bineola comes up about 405 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Kin Ya'a.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kin Ya'a write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 447 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Kin Ya'a. Next is back through Kin Nizhoni.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kin Nizhoni write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Kin Nizhoni, late in the day. Next is Casamero.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Casamero write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 583 km.
Casamero → Kin Nizhoni is 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kin Nizhoni → Kin Ya'a is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kin Ya'a → Kin Bineola is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kin Bineola → Chaco Culture is 114 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chaco Culture → back through Kin Bineola is 114 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kin Bineola → back through Kin Ya'a is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kin Ya'a → back through Kin Nizhoni is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kin Nizhoni → Casamero is 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.