(Of Creel and Barrancas del Cobre)
Barrancas del Cobre, or the Copper Canyon, is one of northern Mexico’s most fascinating areas, yet also one of the places visited least frequently. I found it more beautiful and striking than the Grand Canyon in AZ and definitely more culturally engaging. The Copper Canyon was our second big destination on our impromptu Covid road trip. I’d never even heard of the place before Chris mentioned it, but after spending a week there exploring, I’m so glad he’d read about it.
We based in the village of Creel, where we stayed at a little hotel: Hacienda Bustillos. They had a hot breakfast cooked for us every morning to order by the most amazing rosy-cheeked women named Rosa. I even talked her into writing down her tortilla recipe for me (see bottom of post) since the tortillas she made were hands-down the best I’ve ever had.
The first order of business was to stay ahead of the wave of Covid closings, so we headed to the train station to see if the famous train, El Chepe, was still running. This is the train that goes right through the spectacular scenery of the Copper Canyon and connects Chihuahua in the north with Los Mochis in Sinaloa in the south. Fortunately for us, it was still running, but only on a limited basis. We met a guide who worked for our hotel and convinced him to do a special tour for us: we would ride El Chepe south to the village of Posada Barrancas, then he would pick us up with his car and shuttle us back to Creel, since things were closing and we weren’t guaranteed a return train ticket.
On El Chepe, which arrived at the Creel station rather late, which I guess is customary, we were the only tourists and most of the cars only had 5 or 6 people riding in them. It was absolutely perfect since both Chris and I prefer uncrowded sight seeing. El Chepe moved south at a leisurely pace through the mountains and pines and about an hour into our ride, we finally started to see down into the canyons. It was incredible, at least as majestic as the Grand Canyon, if not more so. It wasn’t long before we were arriving at the small village of Posada Barrancas. Normally, I guess this place is swarming with tourists, a lot of them Mexican nationals, and there were several upscale hotels as well as an amusement park, but with shutdown coming the place was nearly abandoned. Indeed, we had our pick of the street food and little handmade souvenirs on offer and I felt bad for the cooks and artisans who would soon be completely out of work.
After taking some pictures and walking around, we met our guide and his car. The villagers had almost denied him entry, but he talked his way around the roadblock they were constructing to come get us and take us back to Creel.
The next day was Chris’s birthday and we spent it riding bikes. The area around Creel boasted several natural sites including the Valley of the Mushrooms and the Valley on the Monks. As we went to rent our bikes we’d reserved and head out, we were followed by a street dog I recognized from the day before. (Creel was full of street dogs, but this one had a crooked smile and seemed to enjoy playing.) He followed us as we rode to the end of town and I named him Rocco. I thought he’d give up as we headed out of town, but Chris had found a stack of leftover tortillas and kept feeding him, so he kept up. Just when we were about to leave town, Rocco was joined by a second dog, this one smaller and black, full of energy. This one I dubbed Skippy. Chris shared the snacks and we headed toward the mushroom rocks with our new pets running alongside us.
The mushroom rocks were interesting, but not spectacular. Situated in a pasture next to some farms, we were visited by pigs and children as we climbed over the rocks. The dogs waited patiently below for more snacks, and after Chris dolled some out, we were on our way again, now heading to see the tall pillars knows as the Valley of Monks. The dogs did admirably well keeping up as we rode down the dusty roads, sometimes passing other cyclists, sometimes a caballero, once in a while a truck.
At last we could see the rock pinnacles rising up out of the pines in the valley. These were much more impressive than the mushroom rocks and we spent an hour exploring them and even climbing some. It looked like a really neat place to camp and several old firepits told me that I wasn’t the only one to think so.
Chris gave away the last of the tortillas before we headed back by way of lake Arareko. The poor dogs were very tired by the time we got there, especially Rocco who I guessed was older than Skippy. I was a little surprised that both dogs seemed to be afraid of the water. My dogs growing up had always been excited for a chance to swim, especially when they were hot and tired, but Rocco and Skippy were very reluctant to dip more than their front paws in.
This became a problem when Chris and I rented a little peddle boat for an hour. The dogs did not want to get in the boat, yet Rocco especially was so distraught when we started peddling out into the water that he jumped off the pier and it then became obvious he was a really terrible swimmer. Back we went, as quickly as possible, to save out adopted mutt and pull the sopping dog into the boat with us. I got pretty soaked and was sure I now smelled like wet dog. Rocco settled down in the back at once and seemed to be fine. Skippy absolutely refused to get in, so we peddled off with Skippy running alongside the shore, still seeming upset at our aquatic adventure. At last, Skippy was so sad that Chris peddled to the shore, picked Skippy up, and then we had two dogs in the boat with us. I’m not sure if they actually enjoyed the ride, but they stayed fairly calm and did pretty well for what I’m sure was their first boat ride.
We biked back to town at a slower pace since I could tell poor Rocco’s feet were hurting and we tried to take rest stops. We even paused at a roadside shack to buy more snacks…for the dogs of course. When we finally reached the hotel, both dogs were zonked and plopped down on the little porch, rousing only to eat more snacks we gave them. It had been about a 20 mile ride, so I could hardly blame them!
The next day I went on a horse ride while Chris opted to catch up on some things with his laptop. I met my caballero mid-morning and off we went, into the forest. I was surprised at how similar the landscape and flora was to the ranch I’d grown up on in southern Colorado. It almost felt like one of the trail rides I’d do on my own horse as a teen. We got to see some wild pigs which was cool, and we stopped at a beautiful waterfall at one point too. In the afternoon I rejoined Chris. We grabbed lunch at a local restaurant and found our adopted dogs to give some snacks to before we set out for the Recohuata hot springs nearby.
The hike down to the hot springs was longer than I’d thought—2 miles—but the views were totally worth it. It was a lot like the views in Zion National Park, but without the people. Arresting canyon walls rose on both sides and the color of the rushing river once we’d hiked down to it reminded me of the narrows. The hot springs themselves were free, and we had them to ourselves for a while after the only other family there left. We watched the sun set from this idyllic location and then began the long, steep hike back to the car as night fell.
The next day we found our dog friends again and I bought them both cheap burritos. Then I bought a brush and worked for a good half hour getting all the burrs out of Rocco’s coat. I’d become quite attached to the doggos and even cried a little bit when we finally left and I couldn’t take them with me. If we’d been headed home I might have tried, but I definitely didn’t want to take these dogs further into Mexico and have them run away in some foreign town. And further into Mexico is just where we were headed.
ROSA’S TORTILLA RECIPE:
8 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup vegetable shortening
Mix above ingredients together well, then add 2.5 cups of boiling water and knead until well mixed. Form into balls of dough, flatten, and fry without oil until done.
Get our latest adventures ands exclusive travel tips delivered straight to your inbox.
The Traveling Acrobats 