We spent a second night (Tuesday) at the Barrancas del Cobre lodge, then went back to the railroad station. Our private car was waiting for us on the siding, and we boarded it again for the trip back to the town of Divisadero. The train switched us off to another siding, and we hopped on a bus for a short ride to our hotel, the Posada Mirador.
Wow! There's no other way to describe this hotel. It may have the most spectacular view of any hotel in the world. Certainly more spectacular than any other we've stayed at. Below you can see how its 32 rooms are nestled into the side of the canyon wall.
First stop was our room, with its spectacular view of the canyon.
There are actually six major canyons in the Copper Canyon "system." The deepest is Urique Canyon (6,136 feet). Our room at the Posada Mirador Hotel was on the rim of the Copper Canyon (5,770 feet). If you want to get a sense of how big this really is, consider that the United State's Grand Canyon is only 4,674 feet deep and is only 1/4 the size of the Copper Canyon's area—25,000 square miles! This is one of those cases where my camera—even at hi-res—can't begin to capture the grandeur of the scenery.
Every room at the Posada Mirador is on the canyon side, and has the same spectacular view.
Even the family-style dining room emphasizes the canyon view.
As soon as we arrived, we took a short hike to a nearby point on the canyon rim.
Looking back, this was the view of the hotel.
The weather here changes in minutes. We went from bright sunshine to ominous thunderstorms within ten minutes. And this Tarahumara woman raced ahead of us to set up shop on this cliff just before we got there.
©2001 Doug Kaye