🇲🇽 Mexico · The North
Copper Canyon is one of those places that seem too big to be true. In the heart of the Sierra Tarahumara, in the state of Chihuahua, the land opens into a canyon system so vast that, added together, the canyons cover more ground than the Grand Canyon and at several points are even deeper. There are six main canyons, rivers that have carved the landscape over millions of years, rock walls dropping hundreds of meters and a sea of pine-covered peaks running to the horizon.
But the canyons are not just spectacular geology: they are, above all, the ancestral home of the Rarámuri or Tarahumara people, famous the world over for their long-distance running culture, their life in caves and hamlets scattered across the sierra and their deep bond with this rugged land. Traveling here means looking in on a different Mexico, where monumental landscape and living Indigenous culture are woven together at every turn.
The star of the trip is the Chepe train (Chihuahua al Pacífico), one of the most spectacular railway routes in the world, which crosses the sierra between tunnels and bridges to the lookout at Divisadero, hanging over the abyss. This guide covers the essentials: how to get there and get around, what to see in Divisadero and Creel, what adventure activities the park offers and how to approach Rarámuri culture with respect in one of the most impressive corners of the country.
Copper Canyon was carved over millions of years by the rivers running down from the Sierra Madre Occidental, producing a system of six main canyons. Since pre-Hispanic times, the sierra has been the territory of the Rarámuri (Tarahumara) people, who took refuge in these mountains and canyons, partly to resist the advance of Spanish colonization. In the colonial period Jesuit missionaries arrived and founded missions in the region (as at Creel, Cerocahui and Batopilas), leaving a mark still visible in churches and communities. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the canyon floor, especially around Batopilas, saw silver mining booms that drew fortunes and adventurers to remote, almost unreachable places. The name 'Barranca del Cobre' (Copper Canyon) comes from the greenish-copper color of some of its walls, associated with the presence of minerals. The great change in accessibility came in the 20th century with the building of the Chihuahua al Pacífico Railway, a titanic feat of engineering completed around 1961 that finally joined the high plateau with the Pacific across the sierra. That train —today the Chepe— turned the canyons into a tourist destination, and in recent decades infrastructure was built such as the Copper Canyon Adventure Park at Divisadero, with lookouts, a cable car and ziplines. The region is today a protected natural area and one of Mexico's great nature destinations. The full history is on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The largest state in Mexico, between the desert and the Sierra Tarahumara: land of the Rarámuri and of ancient Paquimé, of the Copper Canyon and the Chepe train, and a key stage of Pancho Villa's Revolution.
Read the history of Chihuahua →No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Standing on the edge at Divisadero, you look down and you cannot see the bottom: the land simply opens into an abyss of rock walls dropping more than a kilometer, with clouds floating below your feet. It is hard to believe that this canyon system —six canyons which, added together, are four times bigger than the Grand Canyon— was sculpted, drop by drop and century by century, by rivers that today look like threads of silver in the depths. This is the story of how water, volcanic fire and time created one of the most colossal landscapes in the Americas, and of how a people, the Rarámuri, learned to live in it.
Copper Canyon is the result of millions of years of geological processes in the Sierra Madre Occidental, the great mountain chain that runs through northwestern Mexico. The region is largely made up of volcanic rock (ignimbrites and tuffs) piled up during intense periods of volcanic activity tens of millions of years ago, which formed a vast raised plateau. Over time, the tectonic uplift of the whole sierra carried those materials to great heights.
Erosion then worked on that raised plateau for millennia. The rivers rising high in the sierra —such as the Urique, the Batopilas, the Septentrión and others feeding the basin of the Fuerte river, which flows into the Pacific— cut the rock as they went, digging ever deeper canyons. The result is a system of six great canyons (among them Cobre, Urique, Batopilas, Sinforosa and Septentrión) which together cover more ground than the Grand Canyon and, at several points, match or exceed it in depth.
This extreme geography explains one of the region's most surprising features: the enormous difference in altitude between the high parts of the sierra (cold, with pine forest, above 2,000 meters) and the canyon floor (warm, almost tropical, a few hundred meters above sea level). That variation creates a remarkable diversity of climates, vegetation and wildlife over very short distances.
Long before any European presence, the Sierra Tarahumara and its canyons were home to the Rarámuri people, also known as Tarahumara. 'Rarámuri' means, on the most widespread reading, something like 'those of the light feet' or 'foot runners', in reference to one of their most famous cultural practices: long-distance races, in which they cover tens or even hundreds of kilometers over mountain terrain, sometimes kicking a small wooden ball (the game of 'rarajipari').
The Rarámuri developed a culture deeply adapted to the hard environment of the sierra. They live scattered in hamlets, caves and rancherías spread across the mountains and canyons, farm corn, beans and squash, and keep a cycle of life tied to the seasons: in winter many families go down to the warm canyon floor and in summer they climb to the high country. Their worldview, their festivals (such as the deeply syncretic Holy Week celebrations) and their crafts (pine-needle basketry, weaving, carving) are still very much alive.
Throughout history, the sierra worked as a refuge: the Rarámuri withdrew into the least accessible canyons to escape the pressure of Spanish colonization and, later, of mining and mestizo society. That relative remoteness allowed them to preserve much of their language, their customs and their identity. Today they are one of the most important cultural presences in northern Mexico and an inseparable part of the experience of visiting the canyons.
The arrival of Europeans in the Sierra Tarahumara was led above all by missionaries of the Society of Jesus. From the 17th century, the Jesuits pushed into the sierra to evangelize the Rarámuri and other peoples, founding missions that became the first settled European-style population centers in the region. Missions such as Cusárare, Cerocahui, Sisoguichi and others left churches and a religious mark still felt in the communities.
The relationship between missionaries, colonial authorities and Rarámuri was complex and often conflictive. There were several Tarahumara rebellions during the colonial period, in response to abuses, forced labor in the mines and pressure on their land and their way of life. Many Rarámuri chose to withdraw into the deepest, most inaccessible canyons, which let them keep their autonomy and their culture to a greater degree than other peoples.
The expulsion of the Jesuits from the Spanish domains in 1767 left the missions in the hands of other orders and, in time, many declined. But the Christian presence, mixed with Indigenous beliefs, gave rise to a very particular religious syncretism, still visible today in the great Rarámuri celebrations. The old missions are today one of the cultural and historical attractions of a trip through the sierra.
The canyon floor, apparently so isolated, hid an enormous wealth: silver. From colonial times and, above all, through the 19th century, places like Batopilas —at the bottom of the canyon of the same name— lived through extraordinary mining booms that drew capital, adventurers and workers to spots reachable only after days of travel by mule track.
Batopilas became one of Mexico's great silver districts. In the late 19th century, the American businessman Alexander Shepherd bought and developed the mines in the area, modernizing them and investing large sums. The splendor was such that Batopilas became, according to local tradition, one of the first towns in Mexico to have electricity, generated by the force of the river, deep in the floor of a remote canyon. From that period there remain the San Miguel mining estate (the 'Hacienda Shepherd', today in ruins), old houses and an air of prosperity frozen in time.
Near Batopilas also stands the mysterious church of Satevó, known as the 'lost cathedral', a colonial church in the middle of nowhere whose exact origin has been lost to historical memory. The contrast between the grandeur of that mining past and the present isolation of these canyon-floor towns is one of the most fascinating experiences in the region.
For centuries, Copper Canyon remained in near-total isolation, reachable only by mule tracks and mountain paths. All that changed with one of the great feats of railway engineering on the continent: the Chihuahua al Pacífico Railway. The idea of joining the Chihuahua plateau with a Pacific port, crossing the Sierra Madre Occidental, took shape in the late 19th century, but the enormous technical difficulties of the terrain meant the work dragged on for decades.
The hardest stretch, the one crossing the sierra, required boring dozens of tunnels and building numerous bridges to span the canyons and the drops. The line was finally completed around 1961, joining Chihuahua with Los Mochis and the port of Topolobampo, in Sinaloa. The journey, with its impressive run of tunnels, bridges and canyon views, soon won international fame as one of the most spectacular train trips in the world.
The railway —today known as the Chepe— completely transformed the region: it brought the sierra communities closer to one another and to the rest of the country, and it opened the canyons to tourism. From then on, places like Divisadero and Creel became destinations, and in recent decades infrastructure was developed such as the Copper Canyon Adventure Park, with its cable car and its ziplines. Today the region is protected in various natural areas and combines its geological and natural value with the living presence of Rarámuri culture, in a balance that responsible tourism seeks to preserve.
Copper Canyon is today one of Mexico's great nature destinations and a natural heritage of enormous value. The region holds extraordinary biodiversity, the result of its range of climates and altitudes, with pine and oak forest in the high country and tropical-type vegetation on the canyon floor, plus rich wildlife. Various areas of the sierra have protective designations, such as national parks (Cascada de Basaseachic) and protected natural areas, aimed at conserving this unique ecosystem.
The tourist development of recent decades, driven by the Chepe and by projects like the Copper Canyon Adventure Park, brought economic benefits but also challenges. The presence of tourism raises the need to balance development with conservation of the environment and, above all, with respect for the culture and the rights of the Rarámuri people, the ancestral inhabitants of this land. Questions such as the fair sharing of tourism's benefits, access to water and land, and the preservation of traditional ways of life are part of the current debate.
That is why responsible tourism matters especially in the canyons: visiting communities with local guides, asking permission before photographing, supporting the Rarámuri economy by buying their crafts directly and respecting both the natural environment and local customs. Done with respect, a trip to Copper Canyon lets you not only admire one of the most imposing landscapes on the continent but also come close to an ancient culture that is still alive in the sierra.