Mexico Copper Canyon — Creel to Batopilas Descent
202.91 €
The dirt road descent from the Copper Canyon rim at Creel to the canyon floor at Batopilas — a 2,400- metre descent over 80km of unpaved switchbacks through pine forest to desert, a single local bus the foreground subject.
Description
The Copper Canyon (Barrancas del Cobre) of Mexico’s Sierra Tarahumara is a canyon system deeper and more extensive than the Grand Canyon — the descent from the rim town of Creel at 2,400 metres to the subtropical canyon floor at Batopilas at 400 metres by dirt road takes 4-6 hours and traverses four distinct ecological zones. This image was made on the mid-descent section where the road has passed through the pine-oak forest zone and entered the mixed chaparral: a local bus — the sole public transport on the route — is negotiating a steep switchback ahead of the photography vehicle, the canyon depth visible immediately to the right of the road as 800 metres of open air. Shot at 1/250 second on a 50mm prime through the open window of the following vehicle, the bus’s scale against the canyon void communicates the descent’s character.
