Why this ride
It goes by way of Chaco Culture, Kin Bineola and back through Chaco Culture. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,100 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Pueblo Pintado and Kin Bineola
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 332 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 5 h 43
- 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. 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
Pueblo Pintado 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 104 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kin Bineola.
3. 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
about 169 km into the recorded legs you reach Kin Bineola. Next is back through Chaco Culture.
4. 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 Pueblo Pintado.
5. 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 at Pueblo Pintado. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Pueblo Pintado to Chaco Culture
Pueblo Pintado → Chaco Culture is 104 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chaco Culture to Kin Bineola
Chaco Culture → Kin Bineola is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kin Bineola to back through Chaco Culture
Kin Bineola → 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 Pueblo Pintado
back through Chaco Culture → Pueblo Pintado is 104 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.