Copper Canyon?  Never heard of it, you say.  Well, neither did I not long ago. What and where is it, and why should anyone want to visit it?  Copper Canyon lies in north central Mexico in the state of Chihuahua. It is actually a series of six connected canyons which collectively are FOUR times the size of the Grand Canyon. It is even deeper than the Grand Canyon, 6,000 feet deep in places! So having visited Grand Canyon several times I was simply eager to see this canyon system and compare it to our canyon. It is not easy to get there as there are not many towns in the area big enough to have any airport of substantial size so you must drive there. The other really intriguing aspect of the trip is that one usually visits the canyon system by riding a fairly famous train,The El Chepe Express, through it.

We first heard about the Copper Canyon trip when we took another trip with Uncommon Journeys in 2021. I was intrigued and we signed up for this 12 day trip. It starts on El Paso, TX with travel to central Mexico where we catch the train through Copper Canyon. After exploring the canyon area we again revert to travel by van to the Sea of  Cortez and ultimately back to the US, arriving in Tucson, AZ.

We went to El Paso one day early and met our fellow travel companions and tour manager (Christopher Tidmore) when we gathered for an introductory dinner on November 7. It turned out to be a fairly small group of 9, plus our tour manager, Christopher. Several couples had to cancel at the last minute, including our friends from Colorado. Beside my brother and wife, shirt tail relatives of Yvonne (Barry & Joann Flynn/Joganic) made up our group of 6. A single fellow from San Francisco and a woman from Kansas with her mother-in-law made up the rest of our small travel group.

We left El Paso the morning on November 8, headed to Chihuahua, Mexico, our first stop. The plan was to cross the border where we would transfer to another vehicle and pick up our local Mexican tour guide and driver( Abraham). The border crossing went fairly smoothly although we were required to remove all the luggage from the bus, then reload it into the same bus before proceeding. We met our smaller, 17 passenger van on the city streets of Juarez.

The company does a good job of stopping on a regular basis for restrooms, stretching our legs and picking up snacks. They provided bottled water as needed. Because of the small group we were able to stretch out in the van and everyone could have their own window! Lunch was at a local restaurant where we had the first of many future Mexican meals (Alert: meals during the trip ended up more varied than I expected).

We arrived in Chihuahua late in the afternoon and stopped to visit the former home and museum of Pancho Villa, the hero of the Mexican 1910 revolution.

We also visited the nearby cathedral and had dinner at a local restaurant before going to our surprisingly big and modern Sheraton hotel in Chihuahua.

Day 1 of our adventure is done!