November 12th - Los Mochis to Copper Canyon

Our start was delayed by our attempts to repair our Brantz, but to no avail. We decided to use the car's trip meter instead. The reality turned out differently as we managed to alter the settings of the Brantz whilst we were driving and made it work more or less normally.
The day's drive consisted of two parts: the 100kms drive from Los Mochis through the verdant plain leading to the Sierra Madre mountains, where the second part of the drive would be on nearly 250kms of gravel roads ending at our hotel on the rim of Copper Canyon at 7400ft above sea level.
We were surprised how green the countryside was as we left Los Mochis, quite unlike Baja. The road was more or less straight heading east for the mountains passing through some very pretty Mexican towns, with old buildings surrounding a central square.
After two hours we turned off onto an old mining track. This was the start of some of the most spectacular mountain roads and scenery we have seen. The road wound its way into the mountains getting narrower and narrower. Any vehicles coming the other way caused quite a problem. The road surface became progressively worse with boulders strewn all over the road. It wasn't long before we came across one of our cars with a puncture. The car was being driven by one of the Dutch entrants, Do & Els Meeus. Several cars had already stopped to help, so we carried on.
The photo below was taken as the wheel was being changed.

Repairing puncture on Do Meeus' car high up in the Sierra Madre

The Sierra Madre are a truly awesome mountain range and at every turn of the road we were presented with another incredible view. I hope the photos below give some idea of how beautiful the scenery is.

The stunningly beautiful Sierra Madre Mountains

The mountains on the way up the gravel track

The road, no track, was extremely tough going, even for an off-road vehicle like mine. We couldn't believe that Roger and Sarah Lucas in their 1970 Mercedes 280SL would be able to make it through.
Further up the road we came across one of the control cars that had broken down, with Kurt, the driver, attempting to repair a broken fuel line. The road certainly was taking its toll and even rugged 4x4's were not immune from breakdowns.
A short excursion to the viewing point overlooking Urique Canyon was definitely worthwhile, with wonderful views down into the canyon, about 5000ft below. Then more tough going on extremely bad roads, for the next 40kms, until we finally arrived at our hotel We were just in time to see the canyon before darkness set in.
After dark we were amazed to see the Lucas's arrive. How they negotiated these roads we will never know. Some 4 hours later the last car arrived - the GMC truck of Jim & Steve. They had suffered a breakdown which caused their delay. How they were able to navigate the mountain roads, where there are no signs, and in the dark, is truly remarkable.