In Creel

Creel is more than 7500 feet above sea level. The air is fresh and filled with O. We arrived a bit early on our train. And I was happy to be able the stretch my legs and breathe. The train was due to go on to Chihuahua, a major city in this part of Mexico.

The train has cars with 68 seats in each car and it goes daily from Los Mochis to Chihuahua – from sea level over mountains 8000 feet high to a major Mexican city nearest to El Paso Texas.

The train is comfortable (we were in First class right near the Dining Car) and although the track has its moments of rocketing to and fro, it is mostly a comfortable ride.

Our gradual rise in elevation brought us to the convergence of two rivers that formed the dam and the El Fuerte River that is the heart of the massive irrigation system that feeds both Mexico and the USA.

The train travels above the river for miles. First there are fields and scrub near the tracks, the there is sub-tropical deciduous trees, the sac e climb higher we see the pines more and more. But before then we musty climb. The train engine cannot small the mountains, instead it navigates back and forth with switchbacks, some 180 degrees!

The most mind blowing is the 3-level climb. The final is a a set of turns entirely inside a tunnel in the mountain – we went 180 degrees to keep going up! Above you can see the track crossing turn one and we were on our way after level two to do the tunnel turn.