Hello Arizona!

Yep, we crossed the border yesterday afternoon. Sherman has never been to Arizona before! Can you imagine, we've been traveling in a motorhome on and off for eight years now, and we've never explored Arizona...the winter RV'ing destination of the world.

So, that's why we're here...to explore Arizona (and maybe some of California and Nevada) over the next couple of months.

A nine hour driving marathon!

Holy cow, what a day we had yesterday.

We knew it might be a long day, because we were going to try to get to Hermosillo. It was going to be a 433 km (268 miles) drive, and part of it was through the mountains. What we didn't realize was how slow going that would be!

To the bottom of Basaseachi Canyon

We set out yesterday morning at about 10:30am for what we figured would be a three or four hour hike. Turned out that we were gone for five and a half hours! Pretty quiet for the morning part of the hike, and when we got to the bottom of the canyon at the base of Mexico's highest waterfall, we were the only ones there.

The highest waterfall in Mexico!

Yesterday, we drove from Creel to Basaseachi Falls National Park. It's not a long distance, only about 130 kms (81 miles) so we didn't leave until about 9:30am. But I knew that it was going to be a slow drive. The road used to be just a narrow dirt road through the mountains and it was only paved within the last 5 years.

Sure enough, it took us almost three hours to do 130 kms (81 miles)!

Six days to Quartzsite

Hard to believe that in six days we'll be in Quartzsite, Arizona. We're still 1,300 kms (800 miles) away! But, using our normal driving average of 200 kms per day, we'll be there no problem.

So yesterday, we drove from Areponapuchi back to Creel. Only 50 kms (30 miles) but it takes an hour because the road is pretty curvy. We decided to stop for the night back at the old KOA campground in Creel.

Spot the dog!

One of the local dogs has taken a liking to us, and so when we went for a 4 hour hike into the canyon yesterday, we had some company. We nicknamed him Spot, because of the large black spot he has on the left side his back. Spot was a great hiking companion.

We do sometimes miss having a dog with us, but we're still quite happy to enjoy other people's dogs for the time being.

A change of scenery for Sherman

We had such a quiet night parked up overlooking the canyon. A truly fantastic boondocking spot. We had hot chocolate and then breakfast, and then decided to walk the rim of the canyon here at Divisadero.

It's about 3 kms (1.8 miles) from the Divisadero viewing point along the rim to the cable car and activities center.

Yesterday...more spectacular stuff!

Yes, the rest of our day yesterday was just as spectacular as the first part.

We had asked about doing the longest zip line in the world, and the cable car in the canyon. It turns out that they're doing scheduled maintenance on them today and tomorrow, so if we really wanted to do them, we would pretty much have to do them yesterday.

Copper Canyon Train - What a spectacular day!

Well, as the title says, yesterday turned out to be one heck of a day! We got up early at the hotel in El Fuerte because our driver was picking us up at 7:40am to bring us to the train station in time for our 8:15 train back into the canyon. Except by the time I finished writing yesterday's blog post, we didn't have time for breakfast, and figured that we would grab something from the snack car on the train.

The train arrived on time, and we were lucky to get seats on the right side of the train!

The Copper Canyon train - Divisadero to El Fuerte

We got on the road fairly early from Creel. We knew the train didn't leave Divisadero until about 1:30pm, but we still had to get there about an hour away, and we didn't know for sure that we would find a secure spot to leave Sherman alone for the night.

Filled up the propane tank as we left Creel. It was a little expensive, at 8.21 pesos per litre but we knew we still had a few more chilly nights so better to have enough propane.

Sometimes we are too cheap for our own good!

When we woke up yesterday morning, the temperature outside here at 8,000 ft (2,400 meters) altitude was -5C (23F). Even worse, it was only 2C (36F) inside the motorhome. To make you understand how cold that is, it was one degree warmer inside our refrigerator!

Brrr.

Wandering around Creel, Chihuahua, Mexico

We relaxed for the morning, and also brought our laundry over to the office. They said it would cost 50 pesos ($4.10 CDN) to wash, and 50 pesos to dry. They only have big industrial sized machines because it's the laundry they use for the hotel. We had a lot of stuff to do, including sheets, but we managed to get it all in to one load.

For 100 pesos ($8.20 CDN) it was worth it to have it all washed, dried, and folded.

Guachochi to Creel - Wow!

We had heard that yesterday's drive was going to be scenic. They weren't kidding! What a spectacular drive! It was only 150 kms (93 miles), but it took us four hours and fifteen minutes. We rarely got over 60 km/h (35 mph) because the road was so curvy. We think it's more curvy than the Devil's Backbone highway we did at the beginning of the month. And, that does include a lunch stop and a couple of rest stops.

But again...what a drive!

Another great overnight spot!

It's always fun when we start a drive not knowing where we'll end up staying the night. It's only very rarely that we end up somewhere less than ideal. Most of the time, we're pretty happy with our overnight spot. And then occasionally, we really luck out!

We almost didn't drive yesterday. It was really foggy in Parral when we woke up, and part of the reason we are taking the route that we are is because we had heard about the fantastic scenery. Which you can't see if it's foggy.

Parral, Chihuahua. Another city worth a visit.

We only had a short drive yesterday. From Pancho Villa's hacienda in Canutillo, Durango we would drive north about 80 kms (50 miles), crossing the border from the state of Durango into the state of Chihuahua to the outskirts of the city of Parral. Should only take an hour or so, right?

Wrong.