Chihuahua is the biggest city in Mexico's biggest state, and it is a long way from anywhere. Around 800,000 people live on a high desert plain at about 1,400 metres, with the Sierra Madre Occidental rising to the west, and the city has the businesslike feel of ranching and manufacturing country: wide avenues, big trucks, boots and hats that are not for show. Its cathedral, built in the eighteenth century from pink stone, dominates the main square, and Pancho Villa, who operated in this region during the Revolution, has a museum in the house where he lived. As the start of the Copper Canyon route, it is the place to sort out everything you need.
Fill the tank here and buy water and snacks, as the road west into the sierra passes through long, thinly populated stretches. Fuel stations and workshops are plentiful in the city, and less so as the road climbs. The route heads toward Creel and the canyons, through Cuauhtémoc, a town with a large Mennonite community whose families came from Canada in the 1920s and who farm the plains, make cheese and drive horse-drawn buggies. You will see men in overalls and women in long dresses at the roadside stalls, selling cheese and apples.
The riding opens with straight, fast highway across ranchland, where you can see rain falling a long way off. Then the land begins to fold, pine trees appear, and the road climbs toward the high country, with bends and views over forested ridges. Surface quality is generally fair on the main highway, and trucks are frequent, so overtaking needs thought. Winter can be bitterly cold and bring frost and snow at altitude, while summer brings strong sun and afternoon storms. Spring and autumn are the best seasons.
The Copper Canyon itself is a network of gorges larger and in places deeper than the Grand Canyon, home to the Rarámuri, or Tarahumara, a people famous for running enormous distances in sandals. Chihuahua is where you can try regional food before the journey: machaca, dried shredded beef with eggs, chile con queso, and burritos in the style of the north. Get an early start, and before long the city will fall behind and the sierra will begin.