One of Many Tunnels on the Copper Canyon Route

It has been almost forty years since i took the Ferrocarril Chihuahua al Pacifico (now known as El Chepe) from Los Mochis in Sinaloa to Divisadero high in the Sierra Madre Occidental. It was one of the most fantastic train rides of my life, going where there are no roads other than a single track between Chihuahua and Los Mochis.

American engineers were consulted by the Mexican government to map out a rail route over the Sierra Madre Occidental, but they came back and said it just wasn’t feasible. So Mexican engineers went and built it anyway, all the way from Constitutión across the Rio Grande from Presidio, Texas, to the port of Topolobambo on the Sea of Cortez. Now the train runs a shorter route, but it includes 100% of the fantastic mountain scenery.

I went only as far as Divisadero, where at the time a lone motel stood next to the edge of a junction of three canyons, each of which was reputedly as deep as Arizona’s Grand Canyon. And there wasn’t just Copper Canyon, but altogether six canyons along the route.

One Slip and You’re Toast

Standing at the edge by Divisadero, I was amazed to see eagles flying over a thousand feet below me.

Altogether I spent two nights at Divisadero, and on the return trip spent a night at Bahuichivo. That was only the beginning of a long trip which included Mazatlán, Durango, Guanajuáto, Querétaro, Patzcuaro, Uruapán, Guadalupe, and Puerto Vallarta. As I recall, I was traveling around by bus and train for a whole month on that trip.