Barrancas Del Cobre

Can you imagine driving your van down the Grand Canyon? Of course not, there is no road. But in the corner of northwest Mexico called Chihuahua there are six huge canyons more than a mile deep and because they supposedly are covered in a greenish hue they call them collectively the Copper Canyon. 

We drove GANNET2 down toward the village at the bottom called Batopilas, 24 miles of zigs and zags. 

Honestly I had no intention of driving the canyon until I saw the road to the rim was paved. It used to be hellacious, dirt one lane with no guard rails or anything. No way was I going to risk our home on a dirt mountain track. But pavement, well that’s different! 

Layne hates heights but she was game and I promised we’d turn back if it got too gnarly and I really wasn’t sure how much fun this would be. The approach road to the rim was in rather poor condition, especially considering it was paved just two years ago. I think the tar is made of rice paper! 

You know you are entering the main canyon when the road, surrounded by pine trees, starts to dip and go down hill, which is when the nervous van driver puts his van into manual first gear. 

See the cow above? It’s ambling on the approach road. Below you see the scrub on rock and the angle of descent. Oh and a guard rail propping up a fallen rock. There’s lots of those on the downhill zig zags, just one more thing. 

We were nervous, I cannot deny it. Layne was looking out across the void but I was watching the road. One great thing: there was not any other traffic air I did not have to hug the edge! 

The building below was unoccupied it turned out. It was lonely. 

I have no idea what mangled the guard rails. I don’t know how you can drive this without paying attention, without having good brakes and so on. But there was lots of mangling along the way. 

Whoever engineered the road did not plan for rock falls or washouts so there is gravel everywhere making a one lane road essentially! 

Some bits were excellent! Enjoy the view… carefully. 

Some bits were rather rough! Down we went.

At least here we had berms on each side of the sole lane left through the landslide. No problem! 

Retaining walls anyone? Cement? 

The best part was the sign warning of airborne problems! No kidding…we worried just a little something might fall on our heads. 

I don’t know if it’s copper colored but the views are spectacular of course. It’s not at all like the Grand Canyon which is much more stark and sculpted. The Barrancas are huge and deep  but the greenery and growth softens the stark desert lines of the Grand Canyon. 

Mexico’s loneliest souvenir shop. 

Notice how we are hugging the left lane away from the rim!

Halfway down the canyon we came across this problem, so I stopped and walked it. Bear in mind the road from the village of Batopilas in the canyon to the coast is extremely rough by all accounts with water crossings and conditions that require four wheel drive. If we went down we had to come up. 

I looked down the one track fort trail across the huge mudslide and I puckered. It was steeper than it looks and I pondered how we’d get back up. Going down would have been easy enough, rolling and staying away from the edge. 

The problem coming back up would be the slippery soft surface with no room to maneuver. I stepped to the edge and looked down…straight down. 

I could see no tree post or boulder to anchor the winch and if we started to slip we could easily slide off the edge. That’s happened before to us in Guatemala however in that case the ditch was a foot deep and the winch dealt with our inability to go up. Our van weighs 9300 pounds which is a lot of mass in less than perfect circumstances. 

Beyond all those considerations we were still twelve miles from Batopilas and we had no guarantees the rest of the road was in perfect condition.

It just didn’t seem worth it. We have it our best shot plus we were in a wide spot where we could actually around. So we did.

It would seem obvious wouldn’t it that where goats wander Promasters probably shouldn’t. The crosses confirm some other people haven’t been so lucky. We kept moving. 

It was a relief to climb out of the place with no further problems. We felt turning back was the right thing and had no regrets. 

There’s an old gravel pit a few miles up beyond the rim and we stopped for the night. A few cars went by but we had a very quiet night under the nearly full moon. 

Rusty loves the spot all to himself after a full day driving. He was happy. 

And  so were we with chili for dinner and the prospect of temperatures in the 50s overnight, good sleeping weather. 

And Starlink to make up for the absence of a phone signal all day. Not everyone likes to be in touch but we enjoy having this amazing satellite connection. 

Great wild camping all to ourselves. 

I find it hard to scoff at our good fortune and our gadgets when the locals, Tarahumara Indians in this case carry trees home on their backs. 

Rusty led the way to total relaxation. 

Just as well as we had some wild mountain driving ahead through empty mountains to and beyond the little town of Creel where Copper Canyon tours originate.