Going down and down and down . . . . . . . to the bottom of the canyon

Having spent several days taking in the breathtaking highland scenery in and around Creel, we decided it was time to go down to the bottom of the canyon. The Copper Canyon is, in

fact, made up of a series of 7 canyons, the deepest of which is the Urique Canyon.

View of Urique from top of the canyon rim

So we set off from Creel on Thursday 5th May and made our way some 80 km to the town of Urique at the very bottom of the deepest canyon. The last 40 km was dirt road and the final 20 km was all hair pin bends, a lot of it single track with no guard rail and drops of 1,000 ft.

In all we dropped from 8,000 ft at the rim to 1,500 ft at the bottom.

Sat nav impression of the road to Urique

Unsurprisingly, it was very hot when we go to the bottom, about 40 degrees C.
















We made our way to the Entre Amigos campsite where we set up camp for the next few days. The campsite was set in a lovely cultivated garden filled with fruit trees and flowers, humming birds and other beautiful birds which we couldn't identify. The site was managed by Tomas who, each morning, gave us fruit from the trees for our breakfast - prickly pear, papaya and grapefruit - delicious!!

We fell in love with Urique - we hope the following photos help to show why

View up from the canyon bottom

Red Cardinal

View from the campsite

Collared  dove on prickly pear

Spot the camouflaged lizard

Urique High Street

Alan keeping cool

Lucy parked up at Entre Amigos campsite

Mexican gate hinge (worn out sole + coca cola tops)

Car wash Urique style

Urique river in the canyon bottom

Adult and juvenile birds (unidentified)

We left Urique on Sunday and made our way back up the canyon to Creel. They are beginning to tarmac the road from Urique upwards so it is closed for most of the day whilst they work on upgrading the road. We were reliably informed that the road would be open between 1 pm and 2 pm. We got to the closed part of the road over an hour before it was going to open. Much to the amusement of the flag man we deployed the canopy and got the chairs out. Shortly after the 'patron de camino' came along and decided to wave us through anyway.

Waiting for the road to open

Having retraced our path back to Creel and then Chihuahua, we are now in a rather seedy town called Gomez Palacio (nothing palatial about it) in the hope of reaching the pacific coast in the next couple of days.