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.
458 km from Thoreau to Thoreau, about 10 h 12 of riding. It goes by way of Kin Nizhoni, Pueblo Pintado, Pierre's site and back through Pueblo Pintado. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,350 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
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 Pueblo Pintado.
Pueblo Pintado stands in the high desert of northwestern New Mexico, on Navajo land, and it is the easternmost of the great houses connected to Chaco Canyon. Around a thousand years ago the people we call Ancestral Puebloans raised masonry walls here, several storeys tall, laying thin sandstone into patterns that still look careful today. The ruin has been roughened by weather, but the arrangement of rooms, the circular kivas and the long arc of the building are clear, and you can walk around it on a short trail.
Read the complete Pueblo Pintado write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 152 km into the recorded legs you reach Pueblo Pintado. Next is Pierre's site.
North of Chaco Canyon, the Ancestral Puebloans built something that still puzzles archaeologists: a road. Not a trail, but a wide, carefully engineered path, about nine metres wide in places, running almost dead straight north across the desert for some fifty kilometres. It is known as the Great North Road, and Pierre's site sits right on it. This is a cluster of small structures built on and around a prominent sandstone outcrop, including what may have been signalling stations or shrines on top of the hill, and from its height you can see far across the San Juan Basin. Like Kin Ya'a to the south, it is protected as one of the Chaco outliers on the World Heritage list.
Read the complete Pierre's site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pierre's site, about halfway. Next is back through Pueblo Pintado.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pueblo Pintado write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Pueblo Pintado sits at 239 km, about halfway. 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 comes up about 387 km into the recorded legs. 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.
Casamero closes the day.
Casamero → Kin Nizhoni is 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kin Nizhoni → Pueblo Pintado is 81 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Pueblo Pintado → Pierre's site is 77 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pierre's site → back through Pueblo Pintado is 76 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Pueblo Pintado → back through Kin Nizhoni is 82 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Kin Nizhoni → Casamero is 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.