It is a land of long flat valleys, mesquite and thorn scrub, adobe villages, dry creek beds and low blue ranges on the horizon, with the Sierra Madre Occidental rising to the west.
Durango as a whole has a reputation as film country. Hollywood shot hundreds of westerns on its dusty plains, and John Wayne was a regular. The ride gives that feeling: broad skies, old ranch gates, cottonwoods along the creeks and the occasional dust devil. The area north of Durango city is also home to Mennonite farming colonies, whose families arrived from Canada and Chihuahua in the twentieth century, and you will see their cheese and apple stalls beside the highway, along with fields of beans and oats.
The riding is of the long-distance, open-road kind. Federal Highway 45 runs north to Chihuahua and south to Durango and Zacatecas, with wide shoulders, big trucks and long straight sections where wind is the main hazard. Side roads are good for exploring, but surfaces can be rough, and cattle on the road are common. The usual Mexican advice applies: avoid riding after dark, watch for topes, the speed bumps that appear without warning at village edges, and use toll roads where they exist for smoother tarmac and better safety.
Fuel is available in Nuevo Ideal and in larger towns, but distances are long, so top up whenever you pass a station. Durango city, about a hundred kilometres south, has everything you need.
Winter nights are frosty and spring brings dust and wind, while summer rains in July and August turn the desert green and the creeks run brown. Autumn, with clear skies and warm days, is the best season. If you intend to look for the cave, ask in the village; local knowledge counts more than any map.