The Copper Canyon, BARRANCAS DEL COBRE, is a system of six interconnected canyons in the Sierra Madre Occidental of northern Mexico. It is larger than the Grand Canyon and several of its gorges are deeper, and it is the home of the RARAMURI, also called the Tarahumara, who are known for running extraordinary distances in sandals cut from tyres.
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One honest note about the photographs. THERE IS NO FRAME OF THE CHEPE TRAIN HERE, and the railway is the entire premise of this post. What you see is the canyon itself, the rock formations and the cable car at Divisadero. The train is described below.
What Is Here
THE CHEPE IS THE DESTINATION AS MUCH AS THE CANYON. El Chepe, the Chihuahua al Pacifico railway, runs 653km from Chihuahua to Los Mochis, climbing from sea level to 2,400 metres through 86 tunnels and over 37 bridges. It is one of the great railway journeys in the world and it is the only passenger line left in Mexico of its kind. There are two services: the Chepe Express, tourist-class with a bar car and observation platform, and the cheaper Chepe Regional, which stops more and carries local passengers.
DIVISADERO IS WHERE THE TRAIN STOPS AND THE CANYON OPENS. A fifteen minute halt on the Express at the single best viewpoint on the line, with three canyons visible at once, food stalls run by Raramuri women, and the Parque de Aventura with its cable car, zipline circuit and via ferrata.
The rock is the second image here, and it is what the canyon is: dark volcanic and sedimentary stone in enormous eroded shapes, more wooded and less red than the Grand Canyon, and much harder to see all at once.
CREEL IS THE USUAL BASE, a logging and railway town at 2,340 metres with a Raramuri presence, the Valle de los Hongos and Valle de los Monjes rock formations nearby, the Cusarare waterfall, and the Recohuata hot springs down in a gorge.
EL FUERTE AT THE OTHER END is a colonial town in Sinaloa at low altitude, green and warm, and it is where most people join or leave the train rather than carrying on to Los Mochis.
Batopilas is the hard trip and the real one: a former silver town at the bottom of a canyon, reached by a long switchback descent, with a sub-tropical climate and a 17th century mission at Satevo.
When to Go
October and November are the best months: clear air, green from the rains, comfortable days.
March to May is dry, hazy and increasingly hot at the canyon floor.
July to September is the rainy season, with afternoon storms, the greenest landscape and the waterfalls running.
December to February brings snow to the rim and Creel, with nights well below freezing at 2,340 metres and warm days. The contrast between rim and canyon floor can be twenty degrees.
Book the Chepe well ahead. The Express runs on fixed days and sells out in high season, and the schedule changes: check it rather than assuming.
Getting There
By train, which is the point: board at Chihuahua in the east or Los Mochis in the west, or at El Fuerte, Creel or Divisadero in between.
By air, Chihuahua and Los Mochis both have airports with domestic connections.
THE ROUTE MATTERS MORE HERE THAN ANYWHERE ELSE IN THIS LIBRARY, AND IT IS A SAFETY MATTER RATHER THAN A CONVENIENCE ONE. See the mandatory reading below before you plan any part of this by road.
Is Copper Canyon Safe for Women?
The FCDO does publish advised-against areas for Mexico, and being precise about them matters more here than almost anywhere, because the country is large and the restrictions are specific rather than general. It advises against all but essential travel to the cities of Tijuana and Tecate in Baja California, to the areas of Guanajuato south-west of road 45D, to most of the state of Michoacan with named exceptions for Morelia and Patzcuaro reached by toll road, to the parts of Jalisco south and south-west of Lake Chapala and eleven northern municipalities, to the state of Colima except Manzanillo reached by air or sea, to the state of Guerrero except Zihuatanejo and Ixtapa reached by air, to a 40km strip of the Guatemalan border in Chiapas, to one stretch of Federal Highway 199, and to the city of Acapulco. That last one appears on the safety and security subpage rather than in the landing page list, which is exactly why you should read both. None of those areas includes this destination. Read the current advice yourself before you travel, because the list is revised regularly.
THE RAIL ROUTE IS EXCEPTED FROM TWO SEPARATE PROHIBITIONS AND THIS IS THE WHOLE OF THE SAFETY QUESTION HERE. The FCDO advises against all but essential travel to the STATE OF CHIHUAHUA, except, in its own words, "the Copper Canyon rail route to and from Chihuahua and towns immediately on this route including Creel", the city of Chihuahua, the Ciudad Juarez border crossing and the toll roads named with it. It separately advises against all but essential travel to the STATE OF SINALOA, except "the cities of Los Mochis and Mazatlan", road 32 between El Fuerte and Los Mochis, the 15D toll road, and "the Copper Canyon rail route to and from Los Mochis, El Fuerte and the towns immediately on this route". SO THE CHEPE IS A COMPLIANT CORRIDOR RUNNING BETWEEN TWO RESTRICTED STATES, EXCEPTED AT BOTH ENDS. Staying on the railway and the towns immediately on it is what keeps you inside the exception; wandering off it by road does not.
The FCDO attaches four instructions to the canyon itself and they are not generic. DO NOT WALK ALONE IN THE CANYON. DO NOT STRAY FROM THE TOURIST TRAIL. COMPLETE ALL YOUR ACTIVITIES WITHIN DAYLIGHT HOURS. And on the Sinaloa side, AVOID DRIVING AT NIGHT ON THE ROUTE BETWEEN EL FUERTE AND LOS MOCHIS, where armed robbery and vehicle theft have happened.
There is illegal drug cultivation in rural areas of both states and the FCDO says plainly that you could be caught up in conflict between rival groups. That is the reason the exception is drawn so narrowly, and it is why a guided walk rather than a solo ramble is the right choice in the side canyons.
The altitude and the cold are the other hazards. Creel is at 2,340 metres and winter nights are well below freezing, while the canyon floor at Batopilas is sub-tropical.
The Copper Canyon Packing List
Two climates in one trip: a freezing rim and a warm canyon floor, often on the same day.
Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron, and a long sleeve merino wool base layer for women is the most useful thing you can bring here, because the temperature range on this railway is larger than on any other trip in this library: you can leave Creel below freezing and be at El Fuerte in shirtsleeves the same afternoon. Wool covers the whole span, and on a multi-day trip with limited laundry it can be worn for days without becoming unpleasant. A heavyweight merino base layer is essential from November to March.
A Columbia Powder Lite insulated hooded jacket for the rim and the winter nights, and a Marmot PreCip Eco rain jacket for the summer storms.
Merrell Moab 3 waterproof hiking boots with Darn Tough merino socks: the rim trails are loose rock and the descents are steep, and this is not a trainers destination.
A rechargeable headlamp, because Creel and the canyon villages have unreliable power and the FCDO's instruction to finish in daylight means you want a light for the walk back to a hotel rather than for a trail.
Not linked and worth packing: A WARM HAT AND GLOVES for the rim in winter; HIGH-FACTOR SUN PROTECTION, since UV at 2,400 metres is severe; A WATER PURIFICATION METHOD; MOTION SICKNESS TABLETS if the switchbacks to Batopilas are on your plan; and CASH IN PESOS, because ATMs exist in Creel and Chihuahua and essentially nowhere else on the route. Buy the train ticket in advance online.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Essential Resources for Women in Copper Canyon
Emergency numbers: 911 for police, ambulance and fire, the single national number, free from any phone. English-speaking operators are available in the tourist states but are not guaranteed everywhere.
READ THIS BEFORE BOOKING ANYTHING. The FCDO advises against all but essential travel to the states of Chihuahua AND Sinaloa, and it excepts the Copper Canyon rail route by name at both ends: "the Copper Canyon rail route to and from Chihuahua and towns immediately on this route including Creel", and "the Copper Canyon rail route to and from Los Mochis, El Fuerte and the towns immediately on this route". The railway is a compliant corridor between two restricted states. Staying on it and in the towns immediately on it is what keeps you inside the exception. THE FOUR INSTRUCTIONS THE FCDO ATTACHES TO THE CANYON: do not walk alone in the canyon, do not stray from the tourist trail, complete all activities within daylight hours, and do not drive at night between El Fuerte and Los Mochis, where armed robbery and vehicle theft have happened. There is illegal drug cultivation in rural areas of both states and the FCDO warns you could be caught up in conflict between rival groups, which is why the exception is drawn narrowly and why side canyons want a guide. CREEL IS AT 2,340 METRES with winter nights well below freezing. ATMs are in Creel and Chihuahua and almost nowhere else.
US State Department travel advisory: the Mexico advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/mexico, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.
Main hospital: Creel has a small clinic. The nearest full hospitals are in Chihuahua, about four hours by road or a day by train, and Los Mochis at the western end. Dial 911 for an ambulance and expect distance and time to be the real constraint. Insurance that covers remote evacuation is strongly advised for this trip in particular. Private hospitals in the large Mexican cities are good and expect payment or a direct insurance guarantee up front, so carry your policy number where you can reach it rather than in the bottom of a bag. Public clinics will treat an emergency. Tap water is not drinkable anywhere in the country: drink bottled or purified water, which every hotel and restaurant supplies as a matter of course, and take the same care with ice and raw salad that you would with the water itself.
Official health authority: the Secretaria de Salud, Mexico's federal health ministry. the federal health ministry; note that the state health services in Chihuahua and Sinaloa run the clinics along the route
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in Mexico City.
Official tourism authority: the Secretaria de Turismo, Mexico's federal tourism ministry. publishes the Chepe Express and Chepe Regional timetables, which change seasonally, and the Parque de Aventura arrangements at Divisadero
Takeaways
The railway is excepted from both states' advisories by name. Stay on it.
Do not walk alone in the canyon, and finish in daylight.
Book the Chepe ahead and check the current timetable.
Rim to canyon floor is twenty degrees. Pack for both.
Solo women safety assessment: this is the one destination in tier 21 where the advisory is the whole answer and a woman travelling alone should read it rather than skim it. MEXICO'S FCDO GUIDANCE ADVISES AGAINST ALL BUT ESSENTIAL TRAVEL TO BOTH STATES THIS RAILWAY CROSSES, Chihuahua and Sinaloa, and it then excepts the Copper Canyon rail route by name in both, along with the towns immediately on it. That is not a loophole, it is a deliberately drawn corridor: the Chepe and its stations are considered a different proposition from the countryside around them, because of organised crime and drug cultivation in rural areas of both states. So the practical rule is simple and strict: travel by train, stay in Creel, Divisadero, El Fuerte and the places on the line, and do not improvise a road journey off it. THE FCDO'S OWN FOUR INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CANYON ARE UNUSUALLY SPECIFIC and they are the operative advice here rather than a caveat: do not walk alone in the canyon, do not stray from the tourist trail, complete your activities within daylight hours, and do not drive at night between El Fuerte and Los Mochis. For a solo woman that means taking the guided walks rather than the self-guided ones, which is a reversal of the usual advice in this library and is correct here. In practice the Chepe is full of Mexican families and foreign couples, the Express is staffed and orderly, Creel is a small town where everyone notices everyone, and the Raramuri women selling baskets at Divisadero are among the gentlest commercial encounters in Mexico. THE OTHER RISKS ARE ENVIRONMENTAL AND UNDERRATED: Creel sits at 2,340 metres where winter nights go well below freezing, the canyon floor is sub-tropical, and the medical reality is a small clinic with the nearest hospital four hours away, so insurance covering remote evacuation matters more here than almost anywhere. Carry pesos in cash. There is no ATM between Creel and the coast.
Reading On
Copper Canyon is northern Mexico and the railway connects two coasts. The Mazatlan packing list covers the Sinaloan city that the FCDO also excepts by name, and the Monterrey packing list the industrial north east. South, the Guadalajara packing list and Puerto Vallarta packing list cover Jalisco, with the Mexico City packing list for the capital. In Baja the Loreto packing list, Cabo San Lucas packing list and Todos Santos packing list cover the peninsula across the sea. Further south the Atlixco packing list and Oaxaca packing list cover the highlands. For the country the Mexico travel guide for women and the Mexico packing list carry the transport, the regional advisories and the practical material in full. For why one wool layer covers a freezing rim and a warm canyon floor, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
