Since we started Lupita Travels nearly two years ago, we have been meaning to start a travel blog on the website www.lupitatravels.com. Covid-19 upended many of these plans like it did for many others. Slowly but surely, we are trying to find our way back to normalcy. This is our first, and hopefully not the last, article for the travel blog.
Mexico is home to numerous Canyons including the well-known Barrancas del Cobre in Chihuahua. (A list of some important canyons in Mexico can be found at the end of this article.) My companion and I visited Barrancas del Cobre in late October of 2020, and it was one of the most wonderful experiences of my life.
Barrancas del Cobre, located in the southern part of the state of Chihuahua, is a group of six canyons in the Sierra Madre Oriental carved out by six rivers which merge into Rio Fuerte that empties into the Gulf of California. It is 65,000 square kilometers in extent and larger than the Grand Canyon in the United States. The walls of the canyon are a copperish hue, hence the name. (Canon del Cobre)
You can reach Barrancas del Cobre in comfort by boarding the “El Chepe” train (Ferrocarril Chihuahua al Pacifico). Chepe Express runs from Creel in Chihuahua to Los Mochis and the Chepe Regional runs from Chihuahua to Los Mochis. El Chepe, considered an engineering marvel, covers a distance of 673 km through highly rugged terrain and contains 37 tunnels and 87 bridges. Although construction on the railway started in 1900, it was not completed until 1961 due to the rugged nature of the terrain it covers. You can take the El Chepe from either Chihuahua or from Los Mochis and we decided to go to Los Mochis since we had never been there before.
Los Mochis was founded by American utopian socialists who were followers of Albert Kimsey Owen, a civil engineer who envisioned a city of the future in Uhuira Bay. Los Mochis, unlike other typical Mexican cities, has wide streets that are arranged in a rectangular grid like many American cities. We flew into Los Mochis from Mexico City and stayed in Los Mochis for a couple of days. We went to the top of Cerro de la Memoria where you can get a panoramic view of Los Mochis and enjoy the sunset. We also visited the Jardin Botanico Benjamin Francis Johnston that was within walking distance from our hotel. Parroquia El Sagrado Corazon de Jesus, a whitewashed church was right across from our hotel.
One day we hired a taxi to go to Topolobampo, a port city on the Gulf of California. One of the best places to visit in Topolobampo is the El Maviri Beach. It is an elongated island between the Topolobampo Bay and the Sea of Cortez. You can also go to La Paz from Topolobampo by overnight ferry. We took a boat ride on the Topolobampo bay and spent time on the El Maviri Beach. When we were visiting Maviri beach, our driver had to suddenly leave and take a teenager who was bitten by jellyfish to a clinic. Next day, when we were waiting to board El Chepe, she and her family were also waiting for the train, and we introduced ourselves and had a short conversation. In the evening we went to Stanley’s Restaurant in Topolobampo on a hill from where you get panoramic views of Topolobampo and the surroundings. You can also watch the sunset while enjoying a drink or an evening meal. Many people come here to see the sunset and take photographs. Near Topolobampo there is a bat cave or Cueva de los Murcielagos with millions of bats. Unfortunately, the time of the year we went, the bats had migrated elsewhere.
To reach Barrancas del Cobre we took the “El Chepe” train from Los Mochis to Divisedero. Due to Covid-19, timings for El Chepe were changed and the train departed Los Mochis in the afternoon. It was nightfall by the time we started going through the Copper Canyon and could not enjoy the scenery. By the time we reached Divisedero, it was night and a van from the hotel picked us up at the train station. El Mirador, the hotel where we stayed, has panoramic views of the canyon from every room. We booked an all-inclusive plan as there are not many dining options nearby. Due to Covid-19, and the time of the year, the hotel was not very crowded. We purchased tickets to Parque Barrancas near the hotel where we could take one of the longest ziplines that crosses the canyon. Unfortunately, due to an increase in Covid cases in Chihuahua, the park was closed with little notice, and we could not do what we wanted to do. Even after multiple requests, our ticket money has not yet been refunded. We visited Divisedero one afternoon using transportation provided by the hotel. The hotel had a nice fireplace in the lobby and the barkeeper kindly lit the fireplace for us so we could enjoy a warm evening. It was a wonderful experience. While we were staying in El Mirador, during a quick trip to our room to retrieve something, we found the room flooded from leaky plumbing. Luckily, it was in time to rescue our belongings. The hotel gave us a different room for the night!
On the last day of our visit, we took a taxi to Chihuahua airport to catch our return flight to Mexico City. On the way we stopped at the Menonite museum in Cuauhtemoc, the only large Menonite community in Mexico.
Barrancas del Cobre has numerous things to offer, and we barely scratched the surface. Next time we go, we plan to spend more time hiking and get a closeup view of the canyon.
Wishing you safe and happy travels,
Lupita
If Lupita Travels can arrange a tour for your group in the Puebla / Cholula area, please contact us and we will be glad to help.
Other Canyons in Mexico
- Parque Nacional Cañón del Sumidero
- Canon de Guadalupe
- El Salto Canyon & Waterfall
- Canon de Namurachi
- Sierra Tarahumara (Copper Canyon)
- Barranca de Oblatos
- Batopilas Canyon
- Peguis Canyon
- Tres Molinos
- Parque Barranca De Amanalco
- Huapoca Canyon
- Arroyo Grande
- Little Devil Canyon
- Arroyo de las Tinajas (Canyon of the Tanks)
