If you love the Grand Canyon, then you’ll love Copper Canyon in Mexico

Having been a question writer for the past 15 years, I’ve had the privilege of traveling to implicit 150 countries and visiting the large hitters — from the pyramids of Giza to the jungle-clad temples of Angkor Wat and the mountaintop ruins of Machu Picchu. While these icons are magnificent, I’ve learned that the existent magic of question isn’t conscionable astir ticking disconnected a list. It’s astir uncovering those “wow” moments successful places I didn’t expect.

That’s precisely what this caller bid is each about. Over the adjacent 10 weeks, I’ll beryllium taking you connected a travel done my adopted location of Mexico to find the unthinkable experiences that basal shoulder-to-shoulder with immoderate of the Earth’s astir iconic spots. Get acceptable to task beyond the well-trodden way and observe a broadside of Mexico you ne'er knew existed.

Grand Canyon vs Copper Canyon

The Grand Canyon isn’t the lone canyon that tin instrumentality a traveler’s enactment away. (Shutterstock)

To footwear things off, we’re starting with a showstopper of epic proportions. In the mountains of bluish Mexico, the world cracks unfastened to uncover a melodramatic scenery wherever sheer cliffs plunge into a copper-green abyss, carved heavy implicit millions of years by the rivers that inactive signifier it today. 

The sheer standard of it each mightiness punctual you of Arizona’s pridefulness and joy, but this is its untamed, lesser-known cousin: Barrancas del Cobre oregon Copper Canyon. While the Grand Canyon is simply a planetary icon, instantly recognizable and visited by millions, the Copper Canyon remains a acold much untamed and, if you inquire me, much adventurous experience.

The 2 stock a akin root story, some sculpted implicit millennia by the forces of h2o carving done precocious plateaus. Both boast staggering depths and widths that defy imagination. But that’s astir wherever the similarities end. Think of the Grand Canyon arsenic a perfectly produced Hollywood blockbuster, and the Copper Canyon an indie movie — raw, chaotic and unpredictable.

The blockbuster experience

Don’t get maine wrong, the Grand Canyon is fashionable for bully reason. It’s a satellite wonder, a 277-mile-long spectacle whose layered stone tells a communicative that stretches backmost 2 cardinal years. For the astir 5 cardinal radical who sojourn annually, the acquisition is often a beautifully managed affair. Paved roads pb you to stunning viewpoints, wherever you’ll find visitant centers, museums, and the reassuring beingness of parkland rangers.

It’s undeniably beautiful, but its immense popularity means that the acquisition tin sometimes consciousness a small excessively curated. While superior hikers tin brave its chaotic bosom connected multi-day treks (if they snag an overnight permit), astir of america spot it conscionable from those accessible, well-paved trails on the rim. I often consciousness similar I’m observing a masterpiece from a distance, safely separated from its true, untamed core.

Mexico’s chaotic frontier

Imagine a canyon strategy truthful immense it could swallow the Grand Canyon full — 4 times over. Welcome to the Copper Canyon, a web of six interconnected canyons successful the bosom of the Sierra Madre Occidental. And yet, portion Arizona’s marvel welcomes millions, the Barrancas del Cobre spot lone a tiny fraction of that, leaving this earthy attraction mostly untouched by wide tourism.

Despite its name, Copper Canyon really comprises six chiseled canyons successful Mexico’s Sierra Madre Occidental range. (Jens Uhlenbrock/Wikimedia Commons)

For me, what genuinely makes the Copper Canyon specified a profound spot is that it’s inactive precise overmuch alive. It’s location to the Tarahumara (Rarámuri) people, who inhabit the steep slopes of the mountains successful elemental huts and caves. You mightiness person heard of them – they’re renowned for their superhuman moving prowess. Born from a beingness successful this rugged terrain, the Tarahumara tin navigate rocky trails for miles connected end, effortlessly scaling the steep slopes of the Copper Canyon.

While I was there, I learned astir the communicative of Lorena Ramírez, a young Tarahumara pistillate who became an planetary sensation. She won grueling ultramarathons successful Europe, not successful high-tech gear, but successful her accepted flowing skirt and tire-soled huaraches. I highly urge visiting the Museo de la Cultura Tarahumara successful the municipality of Creel to get the afloat scoop and larn much astir this fascinating culture. 

If you privation a genuinely unforgettable experience, people your calendars for the archetypal play of March. That’s erstwhile the yearly Caballo Blanco Ultramarathon, a brutal 50-mile (80-kilometer) race, takes spot successful the municipality of Urique. It’s a humbling, front-row spot to ticker the astonishing Tarahumara athletes conquer their location turf with awesome grace and speed.

Highlights of Copper Canyon 

Copper Canyon is simply a hikers’ paradise, and hands down 1 of the best places to research successful Mexico for outdoor lovers. The legendary three-day trek from the aged metallic mining municipality of Batopilas to Urique is an epic travel on past paths that weave done mango groves and bougainvillea-filled gardens, a satellite distant from the pine-clad rim. You’ll request a bully usher and a sturdy brace of legs, but the reward is full immersion successful the wilderness. 

For those who don’t person clip for a multiday trek, my extremity is to enactment astatine 1 of the unthinkable canyon-rim hotels successful Divisadero, similar the Hotel Mirador oregon Hotel Divisadero Barrancas, and bash guided, abbreviated hikes from there. Picture pulling backmost the curtains astatine sunrise and being greeted by the silent, immense expanse of 3 canyons stretching earlier you, and past hiking on the rim proceeding stories from a Tarahumara guide. It’s a humbling, front-row spot to the canyon’s grandeur that a elemental roadside viewpoint conscionable can’t replicate.

Near the Divisadero bid station, the Parque de Aventuras Barrancas del Cobre offers a changeable of adrenaline for thrillseekers. You tin soar crossed the canyon connected 1 of the world’s longest ziplines or, for a little hair-raising (but nary little jaw-dropping) view, glide implicit the chasm connected the aerial tram. Either way, the views are breathtaking!

All aboard El Chepe

But the implicit champion mode to acquisition the Copper Canyon is aboard the Ferrocarril Chihuahua al Pacífico, affectionately known arsenic El Chepe. This legendary bid travel is an engineering marvel, traversing 37 bridges and 86 tunnels arsenic it winds its mode from the coastal metropolis of Los Mochis to the highlands of Chihuahua.

To embark connected this unthinkable journey, you’ll request to get to either Chihuahua City oregon Los Mochis successful the authorities of Sinaloa further south. Both cities person airports with connections from large cities successful Mexico and the United States. I personally similar to commencement my travel successful the precocious altitudes of Chihuahua, and past descend towards the lukewarm coastal plains disconnected the Pacific Ocean. It’s a fantastic contrast!

Now you person different prime to make, and this truly comes down to your question style. The Chepe Express is your comfortable, scenic-focused enactment that runs betwixt Creel and Los Mochis, offering 3 classes of service: Tourist, Executive, and First Class. The higher classes supply entree to a eating car with panoramic windows, a bar, and an open-air terrace for unbeatable views. Book tickets online successful advance, particularly if you’re readying to question successful the vacation season.

The Chepe Regional, connected the different hand, is simply a much basic, local-bus-on-rails acquisition that covers a longer way from Chihuahua City to Los Mochis, making much stops on the way. While it’s chiefly utilized by locals, tourists tin besides thrust successful the tourist-class car. The Regional tin lone beryllium booked astatine the bid stations successful Los Mochis oregon Chihuahua. For the afloat taste immersion, the Regional is simply a large bet.

Beyond the viewpoint

The Grand Canyon is, without question, a bucket-list destination. But for travelers who, similar me, get a peculiar thrill from earning their experiences, the Copper Canyon offers a different, much profound benignant of experience.

Here, you aftermath up to it from a cliff-edge edifice room, you soar done it connected a zipline, and you travel into its precise bosom aboard a legendary train. A hike isn’t conscionable a locomotion connected a well-trodden way but a rugged transition into a antithetic culture, a antithetic world. 

The rugged but beauteous terrain of Mexico’s Copper Canyon. (Unsplash/Jorge Franco)

If you’ve stood astatine the rim of the Grand Canyon and felt that tug, that tendency to spell deeper and link with a spot connected a much quality level, past it’s clip to battalion your bags. Mexico is calling.

​​Nellie Huang is simply a nonrecreational question writer and self-proclaimed Mexico-holic. She’s the writer of Lonely Planet’s Mexico guidebook and has written hundreds of articles connected Mexico for assorted publications. Read astir her adventures worldwide connected wildjunket.com and travel her updates connected Instagram @wildjunket.