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.
316 km from Santa María Magdalena to Santa María Magdalena, about 5 h 30 of riding. The stops in between: Town of Aculco, Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve and back through Town of Aculco. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,750 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Aculco is a small town in the highlands of the State of Mexico, a place of cobbled streets, white walls with red trim and a church that stands over everything, and it has been a stop on the road north for as long as there has been a road. The Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the old silver highway that connected Mexico City with the mines of Zacatecas and the far north, passed through this area, and a stretch of it near Aculco, with old paving and stonework, survives as part of the World Heritage listing. The Franciscans founded a convent in Aculco in the sixteenth century, and the town retains its colonial look, with arcades around the plaza and a quiet that comes from being a few hours from the capital and a world away.
Read the complete Stretch of the Camino Real between the bri write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Stretch of the Camino Real between the bri is where the day begins. 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.
Town of Aculco comes up about 56 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 158 km into the recorded legs you reach Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve. 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.
back through Town of Aculco, late in the day. Next is Stretch of the Camino Real between the bri.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Stretch of the Camino Real between the bri write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Stretch of the Camino Real between the bri. That is the ride.
Stretch of the Camino Real between the bri → Town of Aculco is 56 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Town of Aculco → Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve is 102 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve → back through Town of Aculco is 102 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Town of Aculco → Stretch of the Camino Real between the bri is 56 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.