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 395 km round trip from San Juan del Río - roughly 7 h 55 in the saddle. On the way it passes Stretch of the Camino Real between Aculco, Town of Aculco, Cerro Altamirano and Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,750 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
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 Stretch of the Camino Real between Aculco.
For almost three centuries, wagon trains loaded with silver rolled north and south along the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the royal road that linked Mexico City with the mining towns of the north and eventually with Santa Fe in what is now New Mexico. It was one of the longest trade routes in the Americas, carrying silver, mercury, goods, people and ideas across thousands of kilometres. In 2010 UNESCO listed a series of sites along the route, including stretches of the old road, bridges, haciendas and towns. This section, between Aculco and San Juan del Río, crosses the high plateau on the border between the State of Mexico and Querétaro.
Read the complete Stretch of the Camino Real between Aculco write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Stretch of the Camino Real between Aculco comes up about 25 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 51 km into the recorded legs you reach Town of Aculco. 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.
Cerro Altamirano, about halfway. 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 sits at 156 km, about halfway. 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.
back through Cerro Altamirano comes up about 289 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 344 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Town of Aculco. Next is back through Stretch of the Camino Real between Aculco.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Stretch of the Camino Real between Aculco write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Stretch of the Camino Real between 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 395 km.
Historic centre of the city of San Juan de → Stretch of the Camino Real between Aculco is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Stretch of the Camino Real between Aculco → Town of Aculco is 26 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 → 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 → back through Stretch of the Camino Real between Aculco is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Stretch of the Camino Real between Aculco → Historic centre of the city of San Juan de is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.