Riding El Chepe: The Complete Copper Canyon Train Guide
Published Jul 3, 2026 · updated Jul 3, 2026
El Chepe is the last real long-distance passenger train left in Mexico, and the honest truth is that the ride itself is the destination. The line climbs from sea level near the Sinaloa coast up into the Sierra Tarahumara at around 2,400 meters, crossing 37 bridges and passing through 86 tunnels on the way. The mistake people make is treating it as an A-to-B shuttle and doing it in a single day. Do that and you’ll spend hours staring at canyon views you can’t stop and photograph. Break the journey over a few nights, and it becomes one of the best trips in the country.
The two trains, and which to book
There are two services running the same rails, and picking the right one is the first real decision.
Chepe Express
The newer tourist train, launched in 2018, with a bar car, an open-air terrace car, a dining car, and reserved seating in three classes (Turista, Ejecutivo, Primera). It runs the scenic core between Los Mochis and Creel, and it does not go all the way to Chihuahua city. It runs only a few days a week, so you have to plan around its schedule. This is the one most travelers picture, and the terrace car is where you’ll actually get the unobstructed photos.
Chepe Regional
The older, cheaper workhorse that runs the full line all the way to Chihuahua city, stops at more small stations, and runs more days of the week. It’s more basic, no fancy terrace, but it’s how locals and Rarámuri families actually move through the Sierra, and it’s a fraction of the Express fare.
The call: book the Express for the headline Los Mochis to Creel stretch if you want comfort and the terrace car, and you’re happy to end at Creel. Book the Regional if you want the full length through to Chihuahua, a lower fare, more departure days, and don’t mind a plainer ride. Plenty of people mix them: Express for the canyon core, Regional for the leg on to Chihuahua.
Where to actually break the journey
Don’t start in Los Mochis. It’s a hot, flat port-adjacent city with nothing to hold you, and the first stretch out of it is the least interesting flat farmland. Here’s the sequence that works, running east and uphill:
El Fuerte, Sinaloa
The smart place to board. A colonial town founded in 1564, with a hilltop fort replica, a calm plaza, and river birdwatching along the Río Fuerte. Starting here instead of Los Mochis skips the dull flat section and gives you a proper town for your first night. See more around Sinaloa.
Barrancas del Cobre and Divisadero
The stop you cannot skip. This is where the Sierra tears open and you’re standing on the rim of a canyon system deeper than the Grand Canyon. At Divisadero the train pauses for a scheduled few minutes at the lookout, just long enough to buy a gordita cooked over wood coals by Rarámuri women on the platform, the unofficial signature snack of the whole line. Get off here for a night if you can: the Parque de Aventuras Barrancas del Cobre has one of the world’s longest ziplines and a cable car (teleférico) out over the gorge, and the sunrise from the rim is the reason people say the trip changed them.
Creel
The highland logging town at around 2,300 meters, piney and cool, and the base for the surrounding sights: the Cusárare waterfall, the Valle de los Hongos and Valle de las Ranas rock formations, the Lago de Arareko, and the hot springs at Recohuata. It’s also the practical gateway to the Rarámuri (Tarahumara) communities. A good, easy overnight with cheap guesthouses and taco spots around the main street.
Chihuahua city
The far eastern end, worth a day if you took the Regional the whole way. Walk the cathedral and Plaza de Armas, visit the Museo Casa de Villa (Pancho Villa’s mansion) for revolution-era history, and eat the beef the north is known for. More on the region across Chihuahua.
What a friend who lives here would tell you
Buy the point-to-point segments you’ll actually use, not one long straight-through ticket. Both trains sell leg-by-leg fares (El Fuerte to Divisadero, Divisadero to Creel, and so on) precisely so you can hop off and reboard a later train, and that’s the whole point of the trip. A single ride-through ticket wastes the entire experience.
Sit on the correct side. Going uphill and eastbound from El Fuerte, the best canyon drops tend to favor the right side of the car, though on the Express the terrace car makes side moot, just walk out there for the big moments.
And book ahead in high season. Semana Santa (Easter week), the summer holidays, and the fall clear-air months fill the Express fast, and it only runs a few days a week, so a walk-up seat is a gamble.
Timing and money
Ride between October and March for clear, cold canyon air and the sharpest views. Summer (roughly June to September) brings afternoon thunderstorms and haze that grey out the gorge, though it also greens everything up. Winter mornings in Creel and Divisadero drop near freezing, so pack a real jacket even if you flew in from a Sinaloa beach that morning.
Carry pesos in cash. Small Sierra towns like Creel and the Divisadero rim run on cash, and card machines are unreliable up there, approximate but consistently true. Fares are hard to pin down because they shift by season and class, but budget meaningfully more for the Express than the Regional, and expect the full canyon-core segment to be the priciest single leg, all approximate.
The bottom line
The winning trip is El Fuerte to Divisadero to Creel over three or four days, on either train, adding the Regional leg to Chihuahua only if you want the city and the history. Board at El Fuerte, not Los Mochis. Never blow through Barrancas del Cobre without at least one night on the rim. Buy the segments separately, ride October to March, and let the line itself be the point.