Why this ride
The stops in between: Chaco Culture, Pierre's site, Halfway House and Twin Angels. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,050 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Kin Bineola and Twin Angels
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 491 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 8 h 28
- 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: 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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Kin Bineola
Over a thousand years ago, the people of Chaco Canyon built great houses of finely laid sandstone, multi-storey buildings with hundreds of rooms and ceremonial kivas, and connected them with roads that ran straight across the desert. Kin Bineola is one of the outlying great houses, some distance south-west of the canyon, on the Navajo Nation in north-western New Mexico. Its walls still stand in places to several storeys, with the characteristic Chacoan masonry of small stones packed between larger ones. It is one piece of the World Heritage property for the Chaco Culture, together with the canyon and other outliers.
Read the complete Kin Bineola write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Kin Bineola 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 56 km into the recorded legs. Next is Pierre's site.
3. Pierre's site
North of Chaco Canyon, the Ancestral Puebloans built something that still puzzles archaeologists: a road. Not a trail, but a wide, carefully engineered path, about nine metres wide in places, running almost dead straight north across the desert for some fifty kilometres. It is known as the Great North Road, and Pierre's site sits right on it. This is a cluster of small structures built on and around a prominent sandstone outcrop, including what may have been signalling stations or shrines on top of the hill, and from its height you can see far across the San Juan Basin. Like Kin Ya'a to the south, it is protected as one of the Chaco outliers on the World Heritage list.
Read the complete Pierre's site write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 122 km into the recorded legs you reach Pierre's site. Next is Halfway House.
4. 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, about halfway. Next is Twin Angels.
5. Twin Angels
South of Bloomfield, on the edge of the badlands of Kutz Canyon, a small Chacoan great house sits on a ridge with views over the San Juan Basin. Twin Angels Pueblo is one of the outliers of Chaco Culture, a stone building with rooms and a kiva, built around a thousand years ago by people connected with the great centre at Chaco Canyon, about eighty kilometres to the south. It lies near the end of the Great North Road, the long, straight Chacoan road running north from the canyon, and it is part of the UNESCO-listed Chaco Culture. It is managed by the Bureau of Land Management, and reached by a rough dirt road and a short hike.
Read the complete Twin Angels write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Twin Angels sits at 246 km, about halfway. Next is back through Halfway House.
6. back through 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
back through Halfway House comes up about 314 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Pierre's site.
7. back through Pierre's site
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pierre's site write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 365 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Pierre's site. 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 Kin Bineola.
9. Kin Bineola
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kin Bineola 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 491 km.
Leg by leg
Kin Bineola to Chaco Culture
Kin Bineola → Chaco Culture is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chaco Culture to Pierre's site
Chaco Culture → Pierre's site is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pierre's site to Halfway House
Pierre's site → Halfway House is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Halfway House to Twin Angels
Halfway House → Twin Angels is 70 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Twin Angels to back through Halfway House
Twin Angels → back through Halfway House is 70 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Halfway House to back through Pierre's site
back through Halfway House → back through Pierre's site is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Pierre's site to back through Chaco Culture
back through Pierre's site → back through Chaco Culture is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Chaco Culture to Kin Bineola
back through Chaco Culture → Kin Bineola is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
More motorcycle rides nearby
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