Why this ride
A named mountain-road corridor with sustained elevation change and pass scenery. It links naturally to Andes foothills and Potrerillos reservoir.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Mendoza Potrerillos and Uspallata
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 141 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 42
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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.
Editorial context
Coordinates are curated start-via-end route seeds. They are not a surveyed centreline or navigation geometry. Run road snapping, topology checks, access checks and a live-status review before publication.
Access context
Do not auto-publish. Snap to a routable road network, verify current closures, legal motorcycle access, surface, permits, border controls and local safety information.
Seasonal context
Oct-Apr
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Mendoza
Mendoza is a city of trees. Walk or ride any of its wide avenues and you will pass under rows of old plane trees, fed by narrow irrigation channels called acequias, a system that the indigenous Huarpe people started long before the Spanish arrived. The reason is the desert: Mendoza gets very little rain, and every green leaf here exists because snowmelt from the Andes is carried down in channels and spread across the plain. It is a city of nearly nine hundred thousand people in the greater area, set against a wall of mountains that, on a clear winter morning, includes the white shoulder of Aconcagua far to the west.
Read the complete Mendoza write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Mendoza sits at 0 km, early in the day. Next is Potrerillos.
2. Potrerillos
Potrerillos is a small mountain resort on the Mendoza River, a short climb from the city, where the vineyards of the plain give way to the dry slopes of the Andean foothills. The village sits beside a large reservoir created by a dam, and the water, a startling blue against the pale rock, is used for sailing, kayaking and rafting. The air is clear and dry, the sun is strong, and the mountains seem close enough to touch, with the sharp, bare ridges of the Precordillera on one side and the snow-covered high Andes on the other.
Read the complete Potrerillos write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Potrerillos comes up 38 km in. Next is Uspallata.
3. Uspallata
Uspallata is a high, dry valley with a lot of history. The village sits at nearly two thousand metres in the Andes of Mendoza, in a wide basin ringed by brown, bare mountains, and it is a halfway point on the old road between Argentina and Chile. In 1817, the Army of the Andes under General José de San Martín crossed the mountains in several columns, and one of them marched through the Uspallata valley on its way to liberate Chile, a story that every schoolchild here knows.
Read the complete Uspallata write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
141 km in you reach Uspallata.