Durango was founded in 1563 by Francisco de Ibarra as the capital of Nueva Vizcaya, a huge northern province that stretched toward the unconquered frontier, and it still has the look of a frontier capital that became rich and then politely stopped. The historic centre is a tidy grid of colonial buildings in pink and yellow stone, with the Plaza de Armas at its core and the great baroque cathedral facing it. Mining money, mostly silver, paid for the arcades, mansions and theatres, and the streets are remarkably free of the clutter you find in larger cities.
Durango also has an unlikely cinematic history. Its dry plains and sierra made it a favourite location for American Westerns from the 1950s on, and John Wayne, among others, shot films here. You can still visit an old film set outside the city. The city's other claim to fame is its scorpions: the alacran is the local emblem, there is a scorpion festival, and the sellers in the market offer them in candy form. The food is good, too. Caldillo durangueno, a beef and chile stew, and the thick gorditas are staples.
The riding that matters begins to the west. The highway from Durango to Mazatlan crosses the Sierra Madre Occidental in one of Mexico's most famous mountain drives, famous for its long climbs, switchbacks and the stretch known as the Espinazo del Diablo, the Devil's Backbone, where the road runs along a narrow ridge with drops on either side. A modern bridge, the Baluarte, which is among the highest cable-stayed bridges in the world, now carries part of the route. It is a serious road, with fog, trucks and occasional rockfalls, but it is magnificent when the weather is clear. Durango city itself sits at about 1,900 metres, so mornings are crisp.
The city has all the fuel, hotels and restaurants you need, and the old centre is easy to walk in the evening, when families fill the plazas. If you are planning the mountain road, fill up before you leave and give yourself daylight; the sierra has its share of long stretches without services.