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Mountain Biking In Mexico’s Copper Canyon

February 15, 2008 on 6:12 am | In Bicycling, Travel |

I just returned from a week-long mountain bike trip in Las Barrancas Del Cobre (Copper Canyon), a canyon system in southwestern Chihuahua state of truly remarkable scope and scenery:

The trip was organized by Western Spirit, a bike expedition company about which I have only great things to say. On this trip, we stayed in local inns and lodges rather than camping.

The trip started out in the town of Creel, a full days’ drive south of the border starting from El Paso, Texas. Creel lies at an elevation of almost 8,000 feet, and it snowed heavily on the morning our trip started! The storm cleared out fast, but temperatures stayed near the freezing point that day and it was very blustery. The landscape around Creel is dry but forested; lots of medium-size pine trees, a mixture of pinon and a local type of ponderosa. There are lots of odd-looking eroded rock towers and hoodoos everywhere you look. This shot is from El Valle De Monjes (”Valley of The Monks”):

The next day we rode down into the true Copper Canyon system on a dirt road. Riding on dirt roads is normally not very interesting, but the scenery and the length of the descent made this one a blast. Our first views from the top looked like this:

Along the way we encountered some burros…

…more great scenery…

…and spooky silver mines:

You may note the locals’ attempt to prevent Darwin-Award-type scenarios: the spray painted legends “NO ENTRE ES PELIGROSO” and a game attempt at translation: “TIS MINE IS VERY DAGEROUS DON’T…”. Believe it or not, the day before we arrived in the canyon, an American tourist went into that very mine and fell through some rotten floorboards into a mine shaft. He had to be rescued, but luckily survived with only a few scratches and a story that he might or might not want to share. (His traveling companions told me about the episode at our hotel.) You can see one of my fellow riders in the mine in the above photo; I was yelling at him to get out of there.

At the bottom of the canyon we reached the remote but lively town of Batopilas. At 1,500 feet, the weather was balmy and fragrant; orange trees and flowers were growing everywhere. It had a beautiful town plaza with a finely decorated gazebo:

We stayed in Batopilas for 3 nights, traveling around the canyon. Then we rode back up out of it (or as far out of it as we could manage in 5 hours — the van was traveling behind us and scooping us up at whatever point they encountered us on the way up and out). I didn’t make it to the top, but I did manage to climb for 4 1/2 hours straight, probably going up about 4,500-5,000 feet in the process, which was a big achievement for me.

Back at the top, we stayed at a rustic lodge in the tiny hamlet of Cusarare, populated mostly by the local Tarahumara tribe. The Tarahumara (or Raramuri, to use their name for themselves) are known for their long-distance running skills. They also are very artistic. Some of their signature crafts involve baskets woven out of pine needles (these are remarkably sturdy!). Here is a photo of the inside of the Cusarare Mission, built in the 1700s and recently restored and repainted:

There are lots more photos and stories to tell, but this is about as much as I have time for right now, so I thought I’d get it out there to share. I’ll tell myself a fib right now that I’ll get around to blogging some more about it later…