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.
From Contepec it runs 222 km to Contepec; allow about 3 h 57 of riding. The stops in between: Historic centre of the city of San Juan de, Historic centre of the city of Querétaro and back through Historic centre of the city of San Juan de. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,600 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Every autumn, millions of monarch butterflies fly thousands of kilometres from Canada and the United States to spend the winter in the fir and pine forests of central Mexico. Cerro Altamirano, near the village of Contepec in the state of Michoacán, is one of the mountains where they gather, part of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. When the butterflies are here, roughly from November to March, the branches of the trees are covered with them, so thickly that they sag under the weight.
Read the complete Cerro Altamirano write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cerro Altamirano is where the day begins. Next is Historic centre of the city of San Juan de.
San Juan del Río grew up as a stop on the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the royal road that ran north from Mexico City to the silver mines of Zacatecas and on to Santa Fe in New Mexico, and its historic centre is one of the sites along that route listed by UNESCO in 2010. For centuries, mule trains, wagons and travellers passed through here, stopping at inns and crossing the river on the stone bridge built in the early eighteenth century, which still stands. The centre has plazas, churches, convents and colonial houses of pink and grey stone, and a relaxed provincial atmosphere, despite the city's growth as an industrial centre.
Read the complete Historic centre of the city of San Juan de write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Historic centre of the city of San Juan de comes up about 59 km into the recorded legs. Next is Historic centre of the city of Querétaro.
Querétaro is the city where Mexico was twice made, once by the Spanish and once by its own lawmakers. In the old centre, the streets run from one small square to the next, each with a baroque church, a fountain and a few trees, and the pace is calmer than in the big cities. The city was founded as an Otomí settlement and became a Spanish colonial town in the sixteenth century, and the historic centre was added to the World Heritage list in 1996 for its mix of baroque architecture and its unusual layout, which blends the regular Spanish grid with the winding lanes of the indigenous quarter.
Read the complete Historic centre of the city of Querétaro write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 110 km into the recorded legs you reach Historic centre of the city of Querétaro. Next is back through Historic centre of the city of San Juan de.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historic centre of the city of San Juan de write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Historic centre of the city of San Juan de, late in the day. Next is Cerro Altamirano.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cerro Altamirano write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Cerro Altamirano. That is the ride.
Cerro Altamirano → Historic centre of the city of San Juan de is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Historic centre of the city of San Juan de → Historic centre of the city of Querétaro is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Historic centre of the city of Querétaro → back through Historic centre of the city of San Juan de is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Historic centre of the city of San Juan de → Cerro Altamirano is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.