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 377 km round trip from Plateros - roughly 7 h 55 in the saddle. It goes by way of Historic Centre of Zacatecas, Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, Tatei Nihuetucame and Cave of Ávalos. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,350 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Plateros is a small town on the edge of the high desert plateau in Zacatecas, a few kilometres from the silver city of Fresnillo, and it exists, more or less, because of one small figure on an altar. The Santo Nino de Atocha, a child dressed as a pilgrim and carrying a basket and a staff, is revered here as a protector of travellers, prisoners and the sick. The devotion came from Spain, where the original image belongs to the shrine of Atocha in Madrid, and it was carried across the Atlantic by the Spanish miners who came for Zacatecas silver. The sanctuary at Plateros became one of the most important pilgrimage sites in Mexico.
Read the complete Sanctuary of Plateros write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sanctuary of Plateros is where the day begins. Next is Historic Centre of Zacatecas.
Silver built Zacatecas, and you can see it in every street. The city lies in a narrow ravine at around 2,400 metres on the high plateau of north-central Mexico, founded in the 1540s after Spanish prospectors found rich silver veins in the surrounding hills. For centuries the mines here poured wealth into the Spanish crown, and the miners and merchants spent their share on churches, mansions and plazas of pinkish quarried stone. The centre became a World Heritage Site in 1993, and the city is also on the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the long colonial road that ran from Mexico City to New Mexico.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Zacatecas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Historic Centre of Zacatecas comes up about 66 km into the recorded legs. Next is Camino Real de Tierra Adentro.
South of Zacatecas, on the high plateau of northern Mexico, the old Camino Real de Tierra Adentro passes through a landscape of dry hills, maize fields and mesquite. This was the royal road of the interior, the great artery that ran from Mexico City for more than two and a half thousand kilometres north to Santa Fe, in what is now New Mexico, and it was the backbone of Spanish colonial expansion. Wagons and mule trains carried the silver from the mines of Zacatecas and Guanajuato south to the capital and the coast, while settlers, soldiers, priests and goods made their way north. Along the route, haciendas, chapels, bridges and towns grew up, and today sixty sites, including the historic centre of Zacatecas, form a World Heritage route.
Read the complete Camino Real de Tierra Adentro write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 100 km into the recorded legs you reach Camino Real de Tierra Adentro. Next is Tatei Nihuetucame.
Zacatecas sits high in the Mexican north, around 2,400 metres above the sea, in a bowl of red hills that were once a mountain of silver. The Spanish arrived in the 1540s after local people showed them silver outcrops, and within a few decades the city was one of the richest in the New World, its wealth carried south on the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the Royal Road of the Interior Land that ran all the way to Santa Fe. The old centre, with its pink-stone cathedral, narrow stepped lanes and colonial mansions, is inscribed as World Heritage, and the road itself is listed too.
Read the complete Tatei Nihuetucame write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tatei Nihuetucame, about halfway. Next is Cave of Ávalos.
The nearest settlements are tiny, such as Piedra Gorda and Cerrito de la Cruz, and the most reliable town for fuel and supplies is Trancoso, a fast-growing town of about fourteen thousand, some fourteen kilometres away, so it makes sense to fill the tank there before wandering the back roads.
Read the complete Cave of Ávalos write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cave of Ávalos sits at 186 km, about halfway. Next is back through Tatei Nihuetucame.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tatei Nihuetucame write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Tatei Nihuetucame comes up about 229 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Camino Real de Tierra Adentro.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Camino Real de Tierra Adentro write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 264 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Camino Real de Tierra Adentro. Next is back through Historic Centre of Zacatecas.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Zacatecas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Historic Centre of Zacatecas, late in the day. Next is Sanctuary of Plateros.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sanctuary of Plateros write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 377 km.
Sanctuary of Plateros → Historic Centre of Zacatecas is 66 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Historic Centre of Zacatecas → Camino Real de Tierra Adentro is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Camino Real de Tierra Adentro → Tatei Nihuetucame is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tatei Nihuetucame → Cave of Ávalos is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cave of Ávalos → back through Tatei Nihuetucame is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Tatei Nihuetucame → back through Camino Real de Tierra Adentro is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Camino Real de Tierra Adentro → back through Historic Centre of Zacatecas is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Historic Centre of Zacatecas → Sanctuary of Plateros is 66 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.