We will ride from Mazatlan to Chihuahua via Durango, Torreon, Hidalgo de Parral, Guachochic and Creel with a number of detours along the way. You may click the map for a close-up map centered on Creel.
We will ride from Mazatlan to Chihuahua via Durango, Torreon, Hidalgo de Parral, Guachochic and Creel with a number of detours along the way. You may click the map for a close-up map centered on Creel.
The Sierra Madre Occidental is a broad range that runs most of the length of Mexico's West Coast and averages nearly 7,000 feet in altitude. This is Hwy 40 as it climbs into the western edge. The road into the mountains started out with great turns but was a little patchy and rough. It soon turned into beautifully sinuous turns and good pavement with little traffic, mostly slow-moving trucks which were easily passed. This road is non-stop twisties that don't want to end. Most of the trip Oscar would ride ahead at a spirited pace and by the time Jeff and I would stop to take a picture or two he would be long gone. We might not see him for hours or until there was a change of course where he would wait at the intersection.
Jeff, myself, Oscar, Carlos and Carlos Jr.(L-R). The first afternoon was a short familiarization trip to Copala, a tiny mining town founded in 1565 and paved with cobblestone streets. Oscar wanted to ride too and had talked his son-in-law and nephew to drive the support vehicle and trailer which left Jeff and I with nothing more than light tank bags. All three live in Mexico City and I think they considered this trip a working vacation. This is the balcony of the hotel/restaurant where we stayed in Copala, the family that owns it was very accommodating and even delivered our dinner and drinks up here so we could dine over looking the town square. We learned that Oscar is a flight attendant for Mexican Airlines and his motorcycle adventure/rental company is something he does for fun and extra income when he is not flying around North America. This means he is not an irresponsible father riding motorcycles around the country during his time off but a hard working and responsible husband working hard to provide for his family. Hmmmm....But he still gets to ride motorcycles around the country and you can tell he loves it.
The Saint Sebastion Church, built in the mid 1600's faces the town square. A wealthy donor provided 200 pounds of gold to decorate the interior centuries ago. That's 1/3 of a pound of gold per each of the 600 residents that currently live there.
The inside was more ornate and impressive than I expected for such a small mining town that was nearly abandoned a decade ago. You can click on the photo to see a closer view of the ornate wall behind the altar.
Looking SW from our hotel after sunset.
Who wouldn't be smiling with roads and weather like this? It was nice to leave the ocean mugginess of Mazatlan behind.
A residence along Hwy 40.
Curves ahead! I never did figure out how they decided where to put these curve signs, the whole road was curves.
The rock was quite dramatic rising out of the high pine and oak forests.
Still on Hwy 40 and the twists and turns just keep getting better. The BMW thumpers were fun to ride but these roads had me wishing for sportier rubber and the more balanced handling of my Ducati.
The twisties didn't want to end.
Looking southwest through the Sierra Madre Occidental Range.
Interesting rock formations above the highway.
A short detour on a dirt road brought us to this waterfall.
Finally leaving the lushness of the Pacific side behind. Note the road in the valley below. It crosses the river as it meanders from side to side.
A little rain threatens in the distance.
We crossed a portion of the Chihuahuan Desert north of Torreon. Fortunately it was relatively mild, about 80 degrees F. Behind this mountain lies an ancient mine that produced more silver than any other in Mexico and dates back to 1598.
A narrow one lane road paved with large rocks as you see here was cut into the side of a mountain to access Ojuela Mine in Mapimi, Durango which ceased operating in 1946. The buildings in the background is where the ore was processed before the advent of rail allowed the ore to be moved by rail to nearby Mapimi.
The actual mine lies on the other side of this amazing suspension bridge that used to carry the ore across the valley below.
The man who looked after the mine told us to go ahead and ride our motorcycles across the bridge but we had already parked. The bridge was designed by the Frenchman Santiago Minguin who later designed the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. When the bridge was built in 1898 it's 318 meter length made it the second longest suspension bridge in the world.
This is a photo from the days when the mine was still operating. Between 1922 and 1925, 687 kilograms of gold and 99,820 kilos of silver were extracted as well as more than 51 million kilos of lead and a million kilos of copper.
We walked all the way through a mineshaft to the other side of the mountain where we were greeted by brilliant sunlight. In the middle was this mummified burro that fell into one of the vertical fissures and perished many years ago.
It was apparent that our guide had a genuine interest in the history of the old mine. He said the miners would carry sacks like the one on his shoulder a considerable distance filled with over 160 lbs. of ore (probably before the suspension bridge was built). After climbing up and over the mountain and back across the bridge it was time to hit the road again.
The tropical storms that preceded us by a couple of weeks created a wonderful desert bloom.
The yellow color of Jeff's BMW and the openness of these roads is making him long for his yellow Ducati.
Town Plaza of Hidalgo del Parral.
Parral city street.
Pancho Villa Museum in Parral. This is a bronze casting made from a plaster cast that was taken of Pancho Villa shortly after he was shot in the forehead.
After a night on the town and a bit of sight-seeing the following morning while Oscar had a blown fork seal on my BMW repaired we head west out of Parral on Hwy 24, back into the eastern reaches of the Sierra Madre.
Traffic was very light.
Hwy 432 looking NW towards Copper Canyon Area in the far right side of the picture.
Hwy 432 in the State of Chihuahua.
The town plaza of Guachochi. The whole town turned out for this Native American Omawari (celebration, in Raramuri language) including the Apache, Guarojio, Hopi, Mayo, Pima, Seri, Tarahumar, Tepehuan and Yaqui. A large number of indigenous people from Arizona and New Mexico participated as well. There were spirit dances, folk songs, drumming, chants, prayers, traditional ceremonial costumes, face and body painting and tribes even some traditional gastronomic samples of their respective people.
Locals filtering home as the festival winds down.