A trip to the Copper Canyon is something that is on many hard-core Mexico explorers wish-lists. So when a friend told me that he was taking the famous train ride and shared his planned itinerary, I quickly jumped at the chance to join him.
Travel Tip: You can book tickets for the train directly on their website. Make sure you choose the correct starting and ending points before you book or you may end up paying way too much for your ticket (like I did!).
Bigger than the Grand Canyon and surrounded by charming Wild West-like small towns, the Copper Canyon region feels like it is straight out of a John Wayne movie. Men, young and old, walk down the streets wearing their Stetson hats and invoke visions of a by-gone era and indigenous women sell their wares in brightly colored dresses.
I started my journey through northwestern Mexico in Chihuahua city which is nothing very spectacular. There are some beautiful buildings and a nice main square but it reminds me more of a Soviet city than a Mexican one. I then spent 3 nights in Creel before hopping on the Copper Canyon train. Creel is a cute little town dedicated to tourism. It is supposed to be a 4 hour bus ride from Chihuahua but due to snow, it actually ended up taking us around 6 hours. (You can buy your bus tickets here.)
Creel is a great starting point to visit the jaw-droppingly beautiful Valley of Monks and the somewhat less charismatic Valley of Mushrooms. The Valley of Monks was truly spectacular and much, much larger than I anticipated. We were there in January and were even “lucky” enough to get a lot of snow. It was terribly cold but it made the experience more magical somehow!
You can also take a day trip to Divisadero where you can experience stunning views of Copper Canyon and the Three Canyons viewpoint. If you are lucky, you can even stop and see the Fertility Rock along the way – yep, you guessed it……it is a giant stone shaped like a penis. On our tour, we started off with a scenic lookout where we got to visit a “cave house” and then headed to the Fertility Rock. We then went to Divisadero and viewed the Copper Canyon from the adventure park. My friend desperately wanted to ride the funicular through the canyon but sadly, it was closed. From there, we did a quick canyon rim walk and then drove back to Creel (after a quick pit stop at the hotel were I was supposed to spend the night.
Travel Tip/Warning: There are a scattering of hotels near the canyon, including the insanely expensive Divisadero Hotel. My original plan was to get on the train in Divisadero and I made the mistake of booking a cheaper property. Despite promising to offer free transport to the train station at El Divisadero, the hotel never responded to my messages and when I eventually showed up, they had no record of my booking. I instead ended up backtracking back to Creel for another night stay. I then had to pay $35 for the 1 hour and 40 minute train ride between Creel and Divisadero. I recommend staying in Creel for all nights and taking day trips to the canyon. Creel is much better set up for tourists and you won’t risk missing your train because of no transport. Our day trip to the Valley of the Monks and Valley of Mushrooms cost 600 pesos per car and the day trip to Divisadero cost 400 pesos per person.
After a few days exploring some amazing geographical formations, my friend and I excitedly boarded the Copper Canyon train in Creel. The first few hours were uneventful and the scenery looked an awful lot like Northeastern Ohio. It suddenly got better towards the end of the train with soaring hills on either side of the train as we looped along the riverside. The stunning scenery lasted for about an hour and then got slightly less spectacular as we neared El Fuerte. While the train ride was pretty, it definitely wasn’t worth the $100 that I paid for it.
We arrived in El Fuerte around 3 pm and I was excited to see that it was an adorable little colonial town. We stayed at Posada Don Jose which I totally recommend. I desperately wanted to find an old cantina and after way too much searching, we finally found one that seemed appropriately dodgy and full of old men. We drank a few quagamas (liters) of beer and then an old man joined us and let me play with the chihuahua that he had in his coat. It was a wonderfully weird experience.
The next morning, we were off to Los Mochis in a painfully overcrowded local bus that made me certain I was going to get COVID. When we finally unfolded ourselves and got off the bus in Los Mochis, I was happy to find a run of the mill Mexican city (I was actually expecting it to be pretty dodgy since it is a major transport area near the US border AND a port city). After strolling around for a few hours, we then hopped on another local bus to Topolobampo, a weird little place that happens to be the starting point for ferries to Baja California. It was muy tranquilo and I happily spent a few days recovering there from a pretty hectic travel schedule until I reluctantly began the next part of my trip down Mexico’s Pacific Coast.
It’s your brother. You have not spoken to me for 10 years now. I have reached out to you in every method I know how. So, might as well try here again.
All I know from the last time we talked was that you were angry about not getting bequeathed Dad’s frequent flyer miles from his estate.
I cannot understand that level of hatred for something so meaningless. First, they weren’t mine to provide. They were effectively gone with his passing. Second, I gave you miles from my account double anything available in his account, so you and your husband could go to his funeral, That saved you thousands of dollars and worth more then you could ever save using his miles. Finally, if I could Brest out he miles, they weren’t in increments that could not even be used by us. Only one had enough miles for a single ticket.
I get mother wanted us to never have a relationship and I imagine that has a lot to do with your frequent estrangements. You felt the same way about Dad and that all worked out. Heck, you dedicated this blog to him.
I tried to reach out to you through mother. I had contracted Coronavirus and wanted to have a chance to speak to you with it got worse. She would not make that connection during a pandemic. She claims not to meddle in our lives.
So, here I am trying again after a decade. I always wanted to have a chance to travel with you, so we could honor Dad. That was all he really wanted was for us to be together. And for us, the only opportunity for that was travel.
Love,
Your brother, Erich