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.
544 km from San Juan del Río to San Juan del Río, about 10 h 40 of riding. The stops in between: Town of Aculco, Cerro Altamirano, Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve and Cerro Pélon. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,750 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
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 is where the day begins. Next is Town of Aculco.
Aculco is a quiet stone town in the northwest of the State of Mexico, on the high plateau at well over two thousand metres, where the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the colonial road to the north, passed through on its way from Mexico City. The town was a staging post, and its well-preserved centre, with a broad plaza, the Franciscan church and convent of San Jerónimo and old houses built of pinkish stone, is part of the UNESCO listing for the route. It was here, in November 1810, that royalist troops defeated Miguel Hidalgo's insurgent army, an early setback in the War of Independence that people still mention with a kind of local pride.
Read the complete Town of Aculco write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Town of Aculco comes up about 41 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cerro Altamirano.
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.
about 95 km into the recorded legs you reach Cerro Altamirano. Next is Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve.
Between November and March, the fir forests on the mountains of central Mexico turn orange. Millions of monarch butterflies, which have flown some four thousand kilometres from Canada and the northern United States, cluster on the oyamel firs at about three thousand metres, hanging in dense clusters that bend the branches. In the warmth of the sun they open their wings and fly, and the air fills with soft movement, a sound like rain falling on leaves. Nobody knows exactly how they find the place, since the generation that arrives has never made the trip before, and the mystery adds to the wonder. The Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, on the border of Michoacan and the State of Mexico, protects the wintering grounds and was listed as a World Heritage site in 2008.
Read the complete Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, about halfway. Next is Cerro Pélon.
Every winter, something close to a miracle arrives at Cerro Pelon. Monarch butterflies, which have flown from Canada and the northern United States, a journey of some four thousand kilometres, gather in the oyamel fir forests of the high volcanic mountains on the border between Michoacan and the State of Mexico. They cluster in the millions on the trunks and branches, so thick that the boughs bend under their weight, and when the sun hits them they leave the trees in a swirl of orange that sounds like rain. The sanctuaries here are part of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve.
Read the complete Cerro Pélon write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cerro Pélon sits at 191 km, about halfway. Next is back through Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve comes up about 355 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through 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.
about 447 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Cerro Altamirano. Next is back through Town of Aculco.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Town of Aculco write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Town of Aculco, late in the day. Next is 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.
The route ends here after 544 km.
Historic centre of the city of San Juan de → Town of Aculco is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Town of Aculco → Cerro Altamirano is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cerro Altamirano → Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve is 92 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve → Cerro Pélon is 84 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cerro Pélon → back through Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve is 84 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve → back through Cerro Altamirano is 92 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cerro Altamirano → back through Town of Aculco is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Town of Aculco → Historic centre of the city of San Juan de is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.