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.
The stops in between: Historic centre of the city of Durango, Temples in the town of Nombre de Dios and back through Historic centre of the city of Durango. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,300 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Cerro Gordo lies in the high country of Durango, on the western side of Mexico's central plateau, where the land rises toward the Sierra Madre Occidental in long, bare ridges. The landscape is a mix of grassland, mesquite and scattered oak and pine, with dry riverbeds that flood after summer storms, and the sky is huge and very blue.
Read the complete Cerro Gordo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cerro Gordo is where the day begins. Next is Historic centre of the city of Durango.
Durango was founded in 1563 by Francisco de Ibarra as the capital of Nueva Vizcaya, a huge northern province that stretched toward the unconquered frontier, and it still has the look of a frontier capital that became rich and then politely stopped. The historic centre is a tidy grid of colonial buildings in pink and yellow stone, with the Plaza de Armas at its core and the great baroque cathedral facing it. Mining money, mostly silver, paid for the arcades, mansions and theatres, and the streets are remarkably free of the clutter you find in larger cities.
Read the complete Historic centre of the city of Durango write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Historic centre of the city of Durango comes up about 161 km into the recorded legs. Next is Temples in the town of Nombre de Dios.
Nombre de Dios is one of the oldest Spanish towns in northern Mexico, founded in the 1560s by Franciscan missionaries and settlers on the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the royal road that ran from Mexico City north to Santa Fe in New Mexico, carrying silver, mercury, supplies and settlers for nearly three hundred years. The road was listed as a World Heritage Site in 2010, along with a string of towns, churches, haciendas and bridges, and the temples of Nombre de Dios are among them, simple churches in stone and adobe that once served as bases for missions to the north.
Read the complete Temples in the town of Nombre de Dios write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 216 km into the recorded legs you reach Temples in the town of Nombre de Dios. Next is back through Historic centre of the city of Durango.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historic centre of the city of Durango write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Historic centre of the city of Durango, late in the day. Next is Cerro Gordo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cerro Gordo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Cerro Gordo. That is the ride.
Cerro Gordo → Historic centre of the city of Durango is 161 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Historic centre of the city of Durango → Temples in the town of Nombre de Dios is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Temples in the town of Nombre de Dios → back through Historic centre of the city of Durango is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Historic centre of the city of Durango → Cerro Gordo is 162 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.