Copper Canyon & the El Chepe Train

People are surprised to hear that Mexico's Copper Canyon is actually a network of canyons, and that together they're bigger and in places deeper than the Grand Canyon. Even fewer people know you can get there with a van from El Paso.

Before the trip, we watched the State Department's advisories for Chihuahua closely and worked with a local operator we've known for years. We stuck to the main tourist route, and we never felt anything but welcome. Still, this isn't a trip for everyone, and we're upfront about that.

The first surprise was Cuauhtémoc, where Mennonite communities have farmed since the 1920s. We stopped at a cheese shop and the group bought fourteen pounds of cheese. In a van. For a week. We bought a second cooler.

Creel is a small mountain town at about 7,700 feet, and the base for the Rarámuri communities in the area. We hired a local Rarámuri guide, who took us to a cave home, Lake Arareko and a valley full of strange rock formations.

At Divisadero, you walk to the edge and the canyon just opens up below you, layer after layer. We took the cable car across part of it, and the braver four did the zip lines. Our oldest traveler, who's 74, went on the longest one. She said it was "fine" and then didn't stop smiling for an hour.

The train ride down to El Fuerte was the best day of the trip. The track drops from the high pine forests to the subtropical lowlands in a few hours, through tunnels and over bridges, with the canyon walls going past the windows. Everyone stood in the space between the cars for most of the ride. It's allowed. We checked.