For nearly three centuries, the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro was the royal road linking Mexico City with Santa Fe in New Mexico, a route some 2,600 kilometres long that carried silver south and settlers, missionaries, soldiers and goods north. In the state of Durango, it crossed a vast semi-desert of scrub, cactus and rocky hills, and the stretch between Nazas and San Pedro del Gallo is one of the sections inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2010. Along the road, haciendas, chapels and waystations grew up wherever water could be found.
Today, the landscape is much as travellers on the Camino Real would have seen it: wide, empty and sunbaked, with dry riverbeds, creosote bushes and distant mountain ranges shimmering in the heat. Nazas, a small town of about thirty-six hundred people on the river of the same name, is one of the few green spots, with cottonwoods and irrigated fields along the water. The river was historically vital for agriculture in the Laguna region downstream.
Riding here is about distance and solitude. The roads are long and straight, with occasional curves over low passes, and traffic is light. Surfaces are generally paved, but expect potholes, loose gravel on the edges and livestock wandering across, especially at night. Fuel stations are far apart, and there is no town of five thousand people nearby, so fill up whenever you can and carry extra water. Summer heat is intense, often over forty degrees, so ride early and rest in the shade.
The nearest larger cities are Gómez Palacio and Torreón to the east, and Durango city to the south-west, each a few hours away. In the small towns, simple restaurants serve gorditas, carne asada and the local cheese. Take your time, stop at the old chapels and haciendas along the way, and imagine the mule trains and ox carts that once crawled across this landscape on their way to the silver mines and the far northern frontier.