Monday, March 24, 2008

Copper Canyon Exploration - March 2008

Five canyons with a combined volume four times the Grand Canyon. And deeper; 8,000 feet elevation on the plateau and 1,700 feet at the bottom. One of the top ten train rides of the world runs through it.

Hanging out for a coffee break in Palomas while waiting four hours at the border to get our vehicle permits.

Dan, Tom, Keith and I are heading for the Copper Canyon to scout out some new routes.




Loading up our bikes at the Plaza in Creel. We were trying out some new saddlebag setups and wanted to do some riding near Creel to check them out.

Our mission:

Visit Creel, Uruachi, Urique, Batopilas, and back to Creel - Ride 600 miles of dirt - Cross some rivers - Have some fun.








This Tarahumara cave dwelling is only about a mile away from the center of Creel.



It's quite common to see the Tarahumaras using cave overhangs like this for living quarters.










Typical Tarahumara log cabins.

















San Ignacio Mission in the Park with the cave dwellings, Valley of the Mushroom rocks, Valley of the Monks rocks, and Lake Arareko.

Camping is available and hiking/ mountain biking on the trails is fantastic.









We stopped to take Pics of the "Monks" rock formations and we asked this woman if we could take a few Pics of her "washing machine".














Lake Arareko

















Cusarare Falls - Tom and Dan

We left our dirtbikes at a hotel by the highway and hiked 1-1/2 miles.












Recohauta Hot Springs - I've been wanting to visit here for a long time.

The road down to here was "spooky".














The "overlook" at Divisadero".

This would be an excellent choice for a place to stay if your budget can handle it.










The main entrance at Divisadero.





















Crossing the Oteros on the way to Uruachi.

Tom shows how it's done.













Our hotel in Uruachi.

















Keith and Dan have some fun crossing the Chinipas River.
















Our hotel in Chinipas.

This building provided offices and housing during the big mining days a hundred years ago.













Chinipas.

One of the two locomotives shipped in pieces and re-assembled for hauling the ore out of the mountains.















Gas from barrels in Chinipas.



















Riding the old railbed.

Fun!











Cerocahui Mission near the Copper Canyon Train tracks.














A wood fire to heat the hot water.

Novel and fun!















Parking in the courtyard of our hotel in Urique.
















The cemetery at this old mission in Tubares looked very old.
















Riverside Lodge in Batopilas. Owned by Skip McWilliams from Michigan.

It's a palace inside.

Only three or four groups per year stay here.











The Plaza in Batopilas.

A great place to chill.















Hotel Juanita in Batopilas.

We parked our bikes in the courtyard.















Store on the "little" plaza in Batopilas.

The owner has some great frozen bananas and frozen juice treats in the freezer.

You may be able to buy a few beers to take to your restaurant since Batopilas is a "Dry" town and only a few restaurants are allowed to sell beer.
















I love this store.

Still the same as when it was built over 100 years ago.














Wild West town!
















Ruins of the big silver processing operation "Hacienda", built by Alexander Shepherd a hundred years ago with financing from Washington D.C. backers.


Everything was brought in by burro train then. There was no road to Batopilas at that time.







Ice and water supply store from the mining days.






















Climbing out of Batopilas Canyon.
















We relaxed one day in Batopilas and hiked around while it drizzled rain all day (and all night).

We climbed out on the dirtbikes and when we hit around 6,000 feet altitude, we hit this snow and had a lot of good times riding in the mud/ snow.










We dropped Tom off in Deming, NM and he headed back to Tempe.

Keith, Dan, and I stopped in Santa Fe for some luxury hoteling. Nice!

It was a fantastic trip!

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