Why this ride
On the way it passes Chaco Culture, Pueblo Pintado, Kin Ya'a and back through Pueblo Pintado. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,250 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Pierre's site and Kin Ya'a
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 442 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 10 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: 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. 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
Pierre's site 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 85 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 149 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 back through Pueblo Pintado.
5. 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
back through Pueblo Pintado sits at 181 km, about halfway. Next is back through Chaco Culture.
6. 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 comes up about 357 km into the recorded legs. Next is Pierre's site.
7. 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
Pierre's site closes the day.
Leg by leg
Pierre's site to Chaco Culture
Pierre's site → Chaco Culture is 85 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 back through Pueblo Pintado
Kin Ya'a → back through Pueblo Pintado is 72 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 Pierre's site
back through Chaco Culture → Pierre's site is 85 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.