The most spectacular train trip in the world
Copper Canyon Mexico makes a fantastic destination for an adventure vacation.
The Copper Canyon (Spanish: Barranca del Cobre) is a canyon system in the Sierra Tarahumara in the southwestern part of the stateof Chihuahua in Mexico. This canyon system is larger and deeper than the Grand Canyon in the neighbouring United States, although the Grand Canyon is larger overall than any of the individual canyons of the Copper Canyon system.
The most striking access to the area is on the spectacular Chihuahua – Pacifico railawey – one the greatest train journeys in the world. The line runs from Los Mochis on the Sea of Cortes to Chihuahua – 655 kilometres -passing though 86 tunnels and over 39 bridges. The entire trip is 397 miles and can take as long as 20 hours on the second class train and about three hours less on the first class train. First class tickets can be booked from U.S. travel agencies however the second class must be booked at the train station and the second class reportedly has a very erratic time schedule.
The Copper Canyon is home to the least accultured Native Americans in North America, the Tarahumara Indians, who are semi-nomadic cliff dwellers. The “Train Ride in the Sky” provides the only access this wilderness and is probably the most dramatic railway journey in the Western Hemisphere as it travels through 86 tunnels and over 37 trestles. I have to confess that certain places in Mexico of exceptional beauty and interest do come to mind. Among my “personal favorites,†none rates higher than the Copper Canyon, a territory of deeply eroded canyons and remote mesas in the northwestern Sierra Madre.
On this adventure (one of the few active trips offered in Copper Canyon) you’ll explore this great wilderness on foot to meet the Tarahumara in their remote villages, hike to waterfalls, and splash in cooling river pools (great bird-watching, too!). At night you’ll relax in comfortable accommodations, where you’ll dine beside a roaring fire, enjoy margaritas and spirited conversation, and view incredible nighttime skies unhindered by the lights of civilization.
