Copper Canyon

(Local Name: Barranca del Cobre) How to get there

By car from Chihuahua to Cuauhtémoc (104km/65mi, then on asphalted roads via La Junta (152km/94mi to Creel; by rail from Chihuahua to Los Mochis or vice versa (653km/406mi. It is also possible to fly in by light aircraft.

The scenic splendours of the Tarahumara canyons can be explored by car, horse, mule or on foot, using one of the little towns along the railway line such as Creel or Divisadero, as a base.

The Barranca del Cobre (Copper Canyon) comprises a dozen or so large gorges in the Sierra Madre Occidental in north-west Mexico. This rugged and deeply fissured mountain range is also called the Sierra Tarahumara after the area's indigenous Indian inhabitants. History

In pre-Columbian times the Sierra was populated by semi-nomadic Indians who can be regarded as the ancestors of the present-day Tarahumaras. Stone built remains and huge storage containers dating back as far as 1000 bc have been found in the region's caves. Early in the 17th c. Jesuit missionaries discovered the area while prospecting for copper, christening it Barranca del Cobre (Copper Canyon). The Tarahumara Indians occupied this rugged, impassable terrain only after being driven off the high plateaux by the introduction of large-scale land ownership. The Spanish found silver, gold, opals and other minerals in the gorges. Although plans for a railway linking Texas (USA) and northern Mexico with the Pacific were drawn up as early as 1903, the exceptionally ambitious project, involving the construction of this particular stretch of track, was only completed between 1953 and 1961.