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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
960 km from Casma to Casma, about 16 h 33 of riding. On the way it passes Huascarán National Park, Segment Ayash - Taulli and back through Huascarán National Park. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 4,300 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Chankillo stands in the desert of Peru's northern coast, in the valley of Casma, and it is among the most puzzling ancient sites in the Americas. Here, more than two thousand years ago, people built a vast ceremonial complex on a barren plain: a hilltop fortress of concentric walls, a temple, plazas and a long ridge of towers. The people who raised it lived in the early centuries before the Inca and long before the Spanish, and their culture left no writing. The complex is a UNESCO site, and it is regarded as one of the oldest solar observatories in the Americas.
Read the complete Chankillo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chankillo is where the day begins. Next is Huascarán National Park.
The Cordillera Blanca is the highest tropical mountain range on earth, and Huascarán National Park protects most of it: dozens of peaks over six thousand metres, hundreds of glaciers and glacial lakes, and high valleys of grass and rock. Huascarán itself, at 6,768 metres, is the highest mountain in Peru, a twin-summited giant of ice and snow that dominates the Callejón de Huaylas, the long valley of the Santa river below. The park was listed by UNESCO in 1985, and it is one of the great mountain landscapes of the world.
Read the complete Huascarán National Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Huascarán National Park comes up about 323 km into the recorded legs. Next is Segment Ayash - Taulli.
East of the Cordillera Blanca, the Andes break into a jumble of high plateaus and deep valleys draining toward the Marañón and the Amazon, and the Inca road ran through this country on its way from Cusco to Quito. The Ayash to Taulli segment is a stretch of the Qhapaq Ñan in the highlands of Huánuco, near the town of Llata, part of the UNESCO-listed Andean road system. It runs through the puna, the high grassland above the tree line, where the wind blows cold and the views stretch for miles over ridges and valleys. In places, the original road survives, with stone paving, retaining walls, steps and drainage channels, and walking a section of it is the best way to understand how the Incas moved people and goods across this vertical landscape.
Read the complete Segment Ayash - Taulli write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 479 km into the recorded legs you reach Segment Ayash - Taulli. Next is back through Huascarán National Park.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Huascarán National Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Huascarán National Park, late in the day. Next is Chankillo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Chankillo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Chankillo. That is the ride.
Chankillo → Huascarán National Park is 323 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Huascarán National Park → Segment Ayash - Taulli is 156 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Ayash - Taulli → back through Huascarán National Park is 156 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Huascarán National Park → Chankillo is 323 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.