Creel - Recowata Falls

My first full day in Creel I went for a walk around and happened to drop in at The 3 Amigos Adventure Tours shop and met Ivan. 

He spoke English and was a keen motorcyclist so we chatted about the local roads and places to go. He directed me to a local thermal pool and said that the road was a bit challenging but not too bad. He also gave me some directions to the Copper Canyon and the roads to take to Urique and Batopilas.

I took his advice to visit the Recowata thermal pools and it was a short ride out of town and a fun bit of dirt to the top of the road to the pools. The first half a kilometre was a rough stone-laden cobble road with the stones cemented in but nothing resembling smooth. It wound downhill to a carpark and a small hut, which had a boom-gate blocking the remainder of the path.

The pathway zig-zagged for three kilometres deep into the floor of the gully. It was constructed of the same rocky cobblestone and some parts were very steep, ending in a hairpin, then continuing on to the next hairpin. I couldn’t imagine riding down here and was surprised that he had mentioned it as a riding option. The crosses and names along the path where vehicles had tumbled over the edge were testament enough!

 The half a kilometre of cobblestone I had ridden down was much easier and had still taken a lot of concentration.

 At the bottom I met a group of people, a couple of Canadians, an American, two Austrians a Fin and a French woman. We hung out and swam for a few hours enjoying the magnificent setting and the body temperature water. They were a friendly group, most of them studying in Mexico on exchange and getting away for a long weekend.

The return trip up the hill was made easy for the group who took a quad vehicle that ferried people up to the top but I opted to walk, needing a bit of exercise. And exercise I got! It was really very steep and not sure how long it took but I was glad when I got to the top with burning thighs and calves and wondering how I was going to ride the bike.

I took video rather than photos so it's on my list to edit!

I managed and felt really good for having done the walk. By the time I was at the top it was nearly closing time so I returned to my hotel and had a good solid sleep.

The following day I actually took the rest day I had promised myself in Creel and it was late in the afternoon when I visited Ivan again to go over the roads to Urique and Batopilas. He told me that it was most suited to a bike around 400cc, not really to my 1200cc bike that was loaded up. He described the road between Batopilas and Urique as one of the most challenging in Copper Canyon and after that road everything else will seem quite simple.

I asked how it compared with the cobbled road to the thermal pools, and he explained that it was no comparison, and if I wasn't confident to do the road to the thermal pools that I would probably not have the skills for the Batopilas to Urique road. He painted a picture of steep hairpins on dirt roads with steep edges, frequented by mining and road-building trucks. They don't give way to motorcycles.

Armed with this knowledge I decided that I would go to Urique first via El Divisadero where there was an adventure park with zip lines and views over the canyons. I would go to Urique, decide if the roads were doable for me and work it out from there.