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 337 km round trip from Cinco de Febrero - roughly 7 h 08 in the saddle. It goes by way of Historic centre of the city of Durango, Temples in the town of Nombre de Dios, Sierra de Órganos and Temple of San Pantaleón Mártir in the Town. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,350 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 14 km this is Espinazo del Diablo, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
East of the city of Durango, where the high plateau of northern Mexico stretches flat and wide under a vast sky, the old hacienda of San Diego de Navacoyán stands among irrigated fields and dusty farm roads. Its buildings, with thick adobe walls, a chapel and the remains of the main house, recall the centuries when great landed estates dominated this region, raising cattle, growing wheat and supplying the mining towns of the north. The hacienda is one of the sites listed as part of the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the Royal Road of the Interior Land, which UNESCO inscribed in 2010. This was the long trade and colonisation route that ran from Mexico City north to Santa Fe in present-day New Mexico, more than two thousand kilometres through deserts and mountains.
Read the complete Former hacienda of San Diego de Navacoyán write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Former hacienda of San Diego de Navacoyán 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 14 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 69 km into the recorded legs you reach Temples in the town of Nombre de Dios. Next is Sierra de Órganos.
Pipes of a giant church organ, frozen in stone: that is what the Spanish saw when they named the Sierra de Órganos, a range of rock formations in the north-west of the state of Zacatecas, near the border with Durango. The columns and pinnacles of volcanic rock rise from the high desert, carved by wind and water into strange shapes, and the area is a national park, protected for its geology and its landscape of grassland, oak and pine.
Read the complete Sierra de Órganos write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sierra de Órganos, about halfway. Next is Temple of San Pantaleón Mártir in the Town.
San Martín is a small farming town on the high plateau of western Zacatecas, a dozen or so kilometres from the old mining city of Sombrerete, and at its heart stands a colonial church dedicated to San Pantaleón Mártir. The building, with a sturdy stone facade, a bell tower and a cool, simple interior, is one of the sites listed as part of the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the colonial road that ran north from Mexico City through the silver country to New Mexico. Churches like this one marked the stopping places along the route, and they served the small communities of farmers, muleteers and miners who lived in this harsh, beautiful landscape.
Read the complete Temple of San Pantaleón Mártir in the Town write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Temple of San Pantaleón Mártir in the Town sits at 169 km, about halfway. Next is back through Sierra de Órganos.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sierra de Órganos write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Sierra de Órganos comes up about 200 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Temples in the town of Nombre de Dios.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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 267 km into the recorded legs you reach back through 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 Former hacienda of San Diego de Navacoyán.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Former hacienda of San Diego de Navacoyán write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 337 km.
Former hacienda of San Diego de Navacoyán → Historic centre of the city of Durango is 14 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
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 → Sierra de Órganos is 67 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sierra de Órganos → Temple of San Pantaleón Mártir in the Town is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Temple of San Pantaleón Mártir in the Town → back through Sierra de Órganos is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sierra de Órganos → back through Temples in the town of Nombre de Dios is 67 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through 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 → Former hacienda of San Diego de Navacoyán is 14 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.