Why this ride
On the way it passes Chaco Culture, Pueblo Pintado, Kin Ya'a and Casamero. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,300 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Halfway House and Casamero
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 504 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 11 h 21
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Halfway House
The Chacoans built roads that do not seem to go anywhere. From Chaco Canyon, the centre of an extraordinary culture that flourished in the San Juan Basin of north-western New Mexico around a thousand years ago, a road known as the Great North Road runs almost due north for about fifty kilometres, straight as a ruler across mesas and washes, toward Kutz Canyon. Along it stand small great houses, and the site known as Halfway House is one of them, a stone structure about halfway along the road, possibly a waystation or a ceremonial marker. Chaco Culture, including outliers like this one, was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 1987.
Read the complete Halfway House write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Halfway House is where the day begins. Next is Chaco Culture.
2. Chaco Culture
Getting to Chaco Canyon is part of the point. The last stretch of road into this remote corner of north-western New Mexico is unpaved, rutted and washboarded, and after rain it turns to slick mud that can make it impassable for any kind of vehicle. Take that seriously: on a road bike it is tough, and on a big touring machine it can be miserable. But the reward is extraordinary. Between roughly 850 and 1150, the Ancestral Puebloan people built monumental great houses here, multi-storey stone buildings with hundreds of rooms, aligned with the sun, moon and cardinal directions, linked by straight roads across the desert. Chaco Culture National Historical Park was listed by UNESCO in 1987.
Read the complete Chaco Culture write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Chaco Culture comes up about 81 km into the recorded legs. Next is Pueblo Pintado.
3. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 145 km into the recorded legs you reach Pueblo Pintado. Next is Kin Ya'a.
4. Kin Ya'a
A broken stone tower rising out of the sagebrush is what you see first at Kin Ya'a, and it is one of the strangest sights in the Southwest. This was a Chacoan great house, built in the eleventh and twelfth centuries by the same Ancestral Puebloan culture that raised the monumental buildings of Chaco Canyon, some forty kilometres to the north. What makes Kin Ya'a special is its tower kiva, a round ceremonial room built up four storeys high, much of which still stands. Its name is Navajo and is usually translated as tall house. It is one of the outlying sites included in the World Heritage listing of Chaco Culture, linked to the canyon by what archaeologists believe was a formal road.
Read the complete Kin Ya'a write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Kin Ya'a, about halfway. Next is Casamero.
5. Casamero
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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Casamero sits at 195 km, about halfway. Next is back through Kin Ya'a.
6. back through Kin Ya'a
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kin Ya'a write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Kin Ya'a comes up about 288 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Pueblo Pintado.
7. back through Pueblo Pintado
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pueblo Pintado write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 359 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Pueblo Pintado. Next is back through Chaco Culture.
8. back through Chaco Culture
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Chaco Culture write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Chaco Culture, late in the day. Next is Halfway House.
9. Halfway House
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Halfway House write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 504 km.
Leg by leg
Halfway House to Chaco Culture
Halfway House → Chaco Culture is 81 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chaco Culture to Pueblo Pintado
Chaco Culture → Pueblo Pintado is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pueblo Pintado to Kin Ya'a
Pueblo Pintado → Kin Ya'a is 72 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Kin Ya'a to Casamero
Kin Ya'a → Casamero is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Casamero to back through Kin Ya'a
Casamero → back through Kin Ya'a is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Kin Ya'a to back through Pueblo Pintado
back through Kin Ya'a → back through Pueblo Pintado is 71 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Pueblo Pintado to back through Chaco Culture
back through Pueblo Pintado → back through Chaco Culture is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Chaco Culture to Halfway House
back through Chaco Culture → Halfway House is 81 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
More motorcycle rides nearby
- Halfway House and Kin Ya'a · 558 km
- Pueblo Pintado and Kin Ya'a · 598 km
- Pierre's site and Kin Ya'a · 442 km
- Pueblo Pintado and Chaco Culture National Historical Park - C · 186 km