We left Creel at 8:30. The road from Creel to Samachique started off a bit like any other “road through the hills,” but after the first 20 miles or so, it turns into the most amazing, most scenic, twistiest, bestest, superlative-est motorcycling road I’ve ever ridden. Tony would later describe it as “like a 35 mile version of the Rattlesnake Grade but with better pavement and no gravel.”
Don’t tell Gustavo I said that. :deal Tell him I said it was a pleasant and scenic road in fairly decent condition.
OK, maybe it’s not as twisty as we would later find on El Espinozo del Diablo, but there is very little traffic on this one.
Anyway we rode to Samachique and got some gas. Some pictures I took on the way: The road goes down this canyon, crosses the river, and climbs out the other side. Can you see the road cut on the ridge ahead?
More ridges and road-cuts:
Gustavo:
30 seconds later:
A partial panorama from what seemed to be the highest point on the road:
After a couple hours of enjoying this amazing paved road we eventually turned off onto a gravel road to Batopilas, a village at the bottom of Copper Canyon.
My DL got a bit tired and had to lie down for a minute. We’d only gone a few miles on the dirt, and we found some more construction crews spreading truck-loads of fist-sized rocks on the road, probably to cover up some fairly silty areas. I ran a little wide out of a hair-pin turn, thought I had it made, and suddenly the front wheel jumped into the ditch and down I went.
The crash bars did their job well, and the only damage was some scratches on the fairing. I more or less hopped off the bike, but managed to push or jam my thumb a bit. Fortunately it didn’t really bother me after that day. Noel stopped and helped me pick up the bike, but didn’t bother to take a picture. :rofl
Eventually the road covers several miles of plateau, then begins to descend along a tributary into the Copper Canyon (Barranca Cobre). Our first view, looking down the tributary:
As you get into the canyon proper, it becomes clear by looking down that you have a long way to go. How many miles of twisty dirt road can you see or infer from this pic?
You might notice it is also a bit steep! We all made a lot of camera stops on the descent down to the bridge in the picture above. As you get part way down the hill, you start getting a sense of just how big this canyon is.
Noel taking a picture:
This descent part of the road is/was fairly well graded, and there was a tour bus that we passed. After the bus packed up all its passengers, it started flying down the hill. I hesitate to imagine how many people in that bus got car-sick – bouncing, twisting, and dropping elevation :puke1
Gustavo and Tony:
Tony rounding a particularly tight corner:
I think it took us a couple hours to go the 8 or so most scenic miles. I remember thinking that for day four of an eleven day ride, this trip was completely amazing, and I couldn’t imagine how my brain could absorb another seven days of scenery like this. Remember, this canyon is bigger than the Grand Canyon, and you can’t ride your moto to the bottom of the Grand Canyon!
Finally we got down to the bridge and crossed the river. How many pictures of this bridge are here on AdvRider? :D
It was much warmer at the bottom of the canyon than it had been at the top. With the slow speeds and all the dust, I would have jumped into the cool green water, but it didn’t look like there was anywhere to get back out!
There is another bridge shortly after the main one, crossing a tributary:
Both of these bridges have “car track” boards lying lengthwise over fairly uneven cross-members. It’s not hard to ride over unless you worry about it!
We stopped less on this side of the river, partly because we were all getting dehydrated and/or hungry. I did stop when I saw a wrecked car down the hill:
No, you can’t see it very well. It’s that red stuff behind the greener of the foreground bushes. You can also see a trail on the other side of the river used by the Raramuri. There were trails winding all through the canyon. Where they met the road, sometimes it seemed there was an informal bus stop. I even saw an old Blazer parked next to one. Now that would be a heck of a commute to anywhere!
A nice road cut:
As you turn a corner in the canyon, it gets a bit greener:
But there are still some imposing cliffs:
Finally, the bridge back across the river to Batopilas:
View back the way we came from near the bridge:
Batopilas was a surprisingly (to me) large town. We arrived apparently shortly after school was let out, and there were easily 200 kids walking down the street as we rode through. Many smiled and waved, but a few tried to play dirty tricks, and one even threw a rock at Gustavo. Tony stopped to take a picture of the bridge, and when he didn’t respond to some requests for pesos, one of them tried to grab his tail pack. This was a very different response than we got anywhere else, and I wonder why.
Anyway, we went to a hotel near the plaza and across from the cathedral and had some lunch. Us gringos were hot and dehydrated, and wanted to eat light. Noel had an appetite, though, and polished off a big plate of ribs. Gustavo or Tony took a picture of our table with 15 empty soda bottles and cans between the 4 of us. :1drink
Somewhat rested and restored, but still hot, we resolved to take only a few pictures on the way back out, and it took us only about two hours to get out (versus the over three hours we spent coming down).
Here’s the opposing view from that road cut above:
And a gnarly tree determined to survive right beside the road:
And Gustavo riding past some goats
No, the camera didn’t quite focus correctly for this one, which is too bad. In addition to the goats, you can see how sharp some of the curves are, and a little road buttress.
We stopped again for gas in Samachique. Then we had to ride that darn twisty road back to Creel. Shucks, them’s the breaks!
It started getting dark for the last few miles, and I caught up with Noel. He has quite a lighting system on his BMW, and I was happy to be following him into town.
When we arrived back at the hotel at about 6:30 (yes, 10 hours is a pretty long day for 180 miles) it looked like a BMW R1x00GS club had taken over the parking lot. The MotoAventuras guys have arrived in force: 12 or so of them. While I’m feeling a bit wiped out from partial dehydration with some heat exhaustion symptoms, these guys are ready to party! You know, tequila is a liquid.
Well, I balanced out the tequila by drinking a liter of water in about 15 minutes – wow, I’m going to have to find a way to carry more than the ~2 liters I drank each way.
After meeting most of the MotoAv guys and getting my Guatemala shot glass, my Dominican Republic shot glass, and my MotoAventuras hat, we headed to the town party spot for dinner.
Ruben (red and white shirt) really knows how to be the life of the party, and Noel was not far behind him. Look out Creel, the MotoAventuras are here! :freaky
I was a bit slow that night, but really enjoyed getting to know all of them. I felt like I really connected with some of them the next night, despite my poor Spanish speaking. Most of them speak somewhat better english than I speak Spanish, but I do understand a fair amount of Spanish, so while I didn’t always pick up the details of the conversations, I could usually get the basic gist.
Overall it was a truly amazing day.