RIO URIQUE

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

Río Urique is the river that flows through the famous Barranca del Cobre (Copper Canyon) proper. It can be divided into three sections based on easy access points: an upper 76 km class IV section from Puente Norogachi to the Puente Umirá, a middle 88 km section of class V with many portages through the main Barranca del Cobre from Puente Umirá to the town of Urique, and a third 45 km section of class III-IV (only 45 km on Río Urique) from the town of Urique to the confluence with the Fuerte and then on to Tubares (the take-out).

The first section, the “Gates of the Urique” run, is one of the finest in the region and begins in the mesa area of Norogachi. There are dirt road access points in this area to several villages, but the easiest to use and locate is on the main road to Norogachi. Launching here and continuing on down to Umirá will give 76 km of beautiful river. The first 21 km section down to Puente Siquirichi is generally class I-II with some braided channels and shallow shoals. These flatter initial sections require good rainfall to get enough water to make floating over the wide shallow shoals easy. About 4 km past Siquirichi the bigger rapids start and within 8 km the river enters an imposing gorge with high walls and a gradient of >100 fpm, with many challenging rapids. When the rapids start not as much water is needed for enjoyable floats. The river level can be ascertained at Puente Umirá when driving to the put-in from Creel. This canyon section contains many class III-IV rapids and several class V rapids that can be portaged. A little over halfway through this stretch where the gorge opens up, the river passes between spectacular pillars reminiscent of a gateway. Just around the bend, an astounding wide sliding falls (Cascada Urique) is encountered by some fantastic pillars on river right. Here, looking downstream from river level, the river seems to drop off the face of the earth. Upon inspection, however, it is found to be two fun class III-V sliding falls where the river drops vertically probably 20 m, followed by a third 2 m drop. This is one of the most amazing places in the Copper Canyon country for paddlers. Downstream of Cascada Urique, the river enters gorge again with the usual high-elevation coniferous trees and sandstone-type cliffs, and numerous runnable class III-IV rapids continue all the way to the take-out at the Umirá Bridge. These upper sections will generally require 2-4 days to float through, depending on where the put-in point is and how much water is flowing down the river. On my trip from Norogachi to Umirá, I spent one night on the river, but would have preferred two for a little more exploration time. If you’re lucky enough to find it raining when approaching the Norogachi turnoff, it would be possible to put-in even farther upstream and add ~40 km more to the trip.

The second section goes through the famous and notorious Barranca del Cobre, and is only for experts willing to take on the challenges of an expedition-type trip of 5-10 days with many class V rapids and portages (and I mean a lot of portages). The scenery on this section is spectacular, and the rapids are extremely challenging, at both low and high levels. It starts off with some runnable class V drops (including a clean 6 m falls), around the “Incised Meanders” in the first 4.5 km, but then slams into a steep gorge section (70m in 2 km/~200 fpm) with house boulder choked drops requiring numerous and creative portages. This section ends around km 7 where Arroyo Umirá enters on the right. Although the next ~5 km section still drops at 30m/km (~150 fpm), most of the rapids are runnable class IV-V to Arroyo Basihaure (km 12), where several more portages are likely just upstream and a little downstream of the arroyo. More portages are likely when approaching a horseshoe bend around km 15.5, and then in a “Fantasma Falls” section at ~km 19.5, named for water pouring out of a tunnel in the canyon wall on RL that looks like a ghost from upstream. Just past here one enters the “Barranca del Cobre” proper where copper mining took place. Downstream, a trail follows the river from km 20-48, the canyon is more open, some abandoned structures are to be found, and nearly all rapids are runnable (with the exception of a sieve at km 33). Around Arroyo San Ignacio (km 39), the river turns to the southwest and within two km reaches a trail that ascends to Divisadero. This provides an access point, albeit with a ~1300 m vertical climb (~4300 ft) and 10 km hike. Below here the river is often in more open canyon areas, and everything is generally runnable class III-IV with the possible exception of a spectacular narrows section around km 63, where a medium-high water portage over boulders may be necessary. The last 12 km section down to Urique (km 75-88) is class II-III with only 15 m/km gradient (30-40 fpm). Thus, if you don’t mind numerous portages, potentially wildly fluctuating water levels, and very challenging rapids, the trip will be one of the most rewarding in the world. [Overall on our trip we had ~20 portages: ~7 in first section to Arroyo Umirá, 4 near Arroyo Basihaure, ~3 by the Horseshoe Bend, ~4 in the Fantasma Falls area, and two more downstream. This number could probably be reduced significantly with a higher, more optimal flow.]

The third section of the river below the town of Urique is a 61 km stretch that goes through Barranca Urique with gradients of 5-20 m/km (25-100 fpm) and contains runnable class II-IV rapids. A trail follows near the river for the first 28 km (kms 88-116) to a place called Cuesta Colorada. This trip starts with class II-III rapids down to “Cambio” a class IV rapid at km 96.5 where the river cuts through limestone and a steeper section begins. Although Richard Fisher commented that this section required a 1/4-mile portage for their raft trip, I found all the rapids runnable and only of class III-IV difficulty at the lower flow. At very high flows some rapids may approach class V, but everything would still be runnable. This section goes through one of the deepest canyons in North America, with elevation difference from river to rim peak on either side 1840 m-1990 m (>6030 ft!). After the steeper section ends a few km downstream, there are only class III rapids for the remaining 30 km to the confluence with Río Fuerte (at km 133). Below here it’s only 6 km to the take-out at Tubares. Before completion of Presa Huites, one could continue on down through the Fuerte Canyon another 86 km to Agua Caliente, then take the Copper Canyon train back up to Creel. Unfortunately, when full, the Huites reservoir comes up to a point just ~10 km downstream of Tubares, prompting the alternate Tubares take-out and long drive (~8 hr) back up to Creel.

FLOWS

As with most of the rivers in the region, the best time to catch good water levels is during the monsoon season from mid-July through mid-September. Occasionally, winter storms will bring waters levels up as well, and it is during these storms that the highest flows are encountered. Often after a strong winter storm, things will remain runnable for several weeks. During the month of August, Río Urique has a mean flow of ~27 cms (~800 cfs) at Siquirichi, and ~40 cms (~1400 cfs) just upstream of Urique. These should be considered medium optimal levels as well for the easier sections above Umirá and below Arroyo San Ignacio, with flows above 2X this average being high. For the Barranca del Cobre section, optimal would be about half that of the easier sections. While each individual paddler and group must determine their own limits within which they will attempt descent, in general, higher flows are always better, since they usually will not last more than a day or two, and thus you can always wait for levels to drop. Because high water can make river difficulty a class higher, you may deem the conditions too dangerous on your trip and decide to spend a layover day or two while waiting. Thus it’s usually better to plan on a potential extra day or two for the trip through the Barranca del Cobre section. On the opposite side of the water issue, it is more likely that you’ll encounter suboptimal flows, which are usually sufficient to pass down the canyon but not very fun. On our 2001 descent through the Barranca del Cobre, we had only ~3 cms (~80 cfs) at Umirá, and 6 cms (200 cfs) at Urique. Although still enjoyable for the canyon experience and scenery, the whitewater was not as challenging, pin and broach potential was increased, and progress was much slower. But there are some benefits of low water - the river water gets clearer and warmer, inviting swims in the green pools between rapids, you don’t get pushed around as much, and water levels can usually only get better (an optimistic view - important for lengthy multi-day expeditions).

Below are the mean flows recorded at the UriqueII gauging station (for 31 years within 1967-1999).

GRADIENT/DIFFICULTY (at a glance)

River km relative to Puente Norogachi (or Puente Umirá); gradient in m/km; feet per mile (fpm); difficulty; elevations (top of 100 m drop)

km	m/km	fpm (map)	class	elevation
-26				2300 m
10	2.8	15(18)	I-II	2200 m
21	9.1	48(48)	II(IV)	2100 m
31	10.0	53 (53)	IV-V	2000 m
47	7.7	41(40)	III-IV	1900 m
59	5.8	31 (35)	III-IV	1800 m
67.7	11.5	61(65)	III-IV	1700 m
80.6 (4.6)	7.8	41(42)	IV-V	1600 m
84.2 (8.2)	27.8	147(150)	V-VI	1500 m
88.4 (12.4)	23.8	126(140)	V	1400 m
92.5 (16.5)	23.4	129(160)	V-VI	1300 m
98.8 (22.8)	15.9	84(85)	IV	1200 m
110.4(34.4)	8.1	42(48)	III-IV	1100 m
115.7(39.7)	18.9	100(110)	V	1000 m
126.4(50.4)	9.3	49(50)	IV	900 m
134.0(58.0)	11.9	63(65)	IV	800 m
145.1(69.1)	9.0	47(48)	III-IV	700 m
154.8(78.8)	10.3	54(54)	III	600 m
173.9(97.9)	5.2	28(29)	III	500 m
179.2(103.2)	18.9	100(100)	III-IV	400 m
211 (135)	3.2	17(25)	II	300 m

Total length of Río Urique from Norogachi bridge to mouth: 209 km (138 miles)

APPROXIMATE RAPIDS PER SECTION:

Upper Urique (Papajichi to Umirá): 77 km: II(>30), III(>25), IV(25), V(6)

Middle Urique (Umirá to A. San Ignacio): 38 km: II(>20), III(>20), IV(>25), V(~23), VI(~16)

Middle Urique (A. San Ignacio to Urique):89 km: II(>30), III(>30), IV (~18), V(4)

Lower Urique (Urique to Río Fuerte): 46 km: II(>20), III(~15), IV (2)

MILE-BY-MILE DESCRIPTION

Barranca del Cobre section

0.0 km Puente Umirá. Put-in on river right (RR) upstream of the bridge. There is a path starting from the abandoned structure that crosses a small arroyo and then descends to the river. The river is in a narrow chasm as it goes under the bridge. Tom Diegel and I launched with a very low flow of ~100 cfs Sun Sep 2, 2001, starting at ~3 pm in the rain. Driver: Neche’s friend. The first stretch down to the Incised Meanders is easy (class II-III).

2.0-4.0 Incised Meanders. At the two saddles there are nice hikes up to view the river coursing around the two adjacent horseshoe bends. We hiked up the first one at km 2.1. Good campspots can be found in this 2 km section.

2.7 Incised Meander Falls #1 (V-VI; P). In a section of beautiful bedrock there are several channels with a total vertical drop of approximately 8 m. At the low flows we had, there were no clean routes, so we portaged (easily). It looked like at higher water an inviting route would open up on RL and possibly in the other chutes. However, we could see a dangerous sieve on the main RR chute that would be covered by water midway down. This has the potential to catch a bow and pin the boater, and is quite dangerous since it would be obscured by water at higher flows.

3.6 Incised Meander Falls #2 (V). As the beautiful bedrock section continues with some class II-III, there are good campspots to be found, and then another large rapid in two parts. The first fall aims to the right and is a 2 m 45 degree drop into a calm pool. About 15 m downstream from the first fall is a 6 m clean vertical falls. The pool below the falls is very large and deep - no piton worries here. This is one of the most enchanting places anywhere and one of the most fun rapids on the entire river. Downstream are several narrows sections where vertical overhanging walls squeeze the river. About 0.5 km downstream, two caves are passed on RR. The steep boulder-choked section is 1.5 km past the falls, after some class II-III rapids. On our first trip down, we decided to camp just upstream of the falls on RR (after running the first fall). The following morning we re-ran the 2m falls and then the 6m lower falls. At low water, there were some more camp spots in the next km.

4.8-6.0 Boulder Jumbles (V/P⁶). After the scenic beauty of the canyon entrance and just past a small arroyo on RL (Turuceachi), huge boulders clog the riverbed, creating sieves and necessitating several portages. Tomster commented it was “just like the Sespe”, referring to a similar reddish boulder-choked section that is portaged on that Southern California creek. We found an interesting small sauna-like cave to explore while doing the first couple portages (total portage time ~30 min). After the first portages, there is some class IV-V water that we ran (although midway down a rock wasn’t covered with enough water, making us get out of our boats to scoot over it). After some more technical water, portaging, and floating through a cave under a huge boulder on RL, we stopped for lunch. Sometimes the portaging would necessitate floating over a short pool to cross the river or get to the next staging spot. It was strenuous at times and seemed to go on forever. We may have used ropes once, but in general all could be done by hand. Below the cave part, approximately 0.5 km upstream of Arroyo Umirá, there were more portages. It took us approximately 3 hr to get through this 3 km stretch down to Arroyo Umirá. At higher water, portages might decrease somewhat due to floatable channels opening up, but this section would still have a lot of portaging.

6.7 Arroyo Umirá (RR). This arroyo enters on river right. In M. John Fayhee’s book “Mexico’s Copper Canyon Country: A Hiking and Backpacking Guide”, kayaker Bob Gedekoh wrote about a 4-day reconnaissance trip he did hiking down the arroyo and scouting out Río Urique in this section. His party hiked down the Arroyo Umirá only to be cliffed-out where the arroyo plunged 175 m just before reaching the Urique. Although he found a RL route down some steep cliff ledges to the river, the descent was unnerving for him and one of his companions. He reported hiking down the Urique a few km to “a point beyond which the riverbed seemed impassable without climbing gear.” The following day they hiked upriver through the Incised Meanders to the road near the Puente Umirá. He evaluated the river as a potential run. “All agreed that it would be a technical nightmare. The river flows under rocks as much as around them. At high water, the river would be ripe with undercuts and siphons. Portaging would be a logistical horror show.” Although we agree in general with their assessment of the stretch down to Arroyo Umirá, we found it completely passable and not as much a horror as they make it sound.

7-12 Runnable! (IV-V)ⁿ. The 5 km stretch downstream of Arroyo Umirá to near Arroyo Basihuare is mostly runnable and contains many class IV-V rapids separated by pools and easier rapids. We had two portages (P²) in this stretch due to the low water.

~10.5 Gracias Falls (V). One of the nicer rapids in this section along a right wall. “Gracias a Dios” for such a nice rapid. Tomster called this one “Outcised Meander Falls” and deemed it IV+ or V-.

~11.3 Whiz Wall (RR; then IVs, P²). Warm springs seeping out of the wall on the right, about 2 m above our low river level. In one low spot there is a little stream of warm water shooting perpendicularly out like a man peeing. We filled up water bottles here. Downstream are several class III-IV rapids, then a boat-scoutable IV+. We portaged two rapids shortly before the confluence with Arroyo Basihuare.

12.3 Arroyo Basihuare (RR). This large arroyo enters in a boulder jumble. The steep-walled side canyon might make an interesting side hike. Just downstream is the rapid Basihuare (IV+), where the river drops ~3 m in one sliding drop between boulders. We camped just downstream of the next class IV on RR. There’s a cave around here if a sheltered location is desired, but it’s a bit of a scramble to get up to it. I found some fishing poles here that apparently Tarahumara have left. There’s a long pool downstream of here followed by a low-water sieve that we could portage in-boat on RL. Class III below here until La Dominga.

12.9 La Dominga (V). Where a small arroyo comes in on RL (named La Dominga), you’ll find this technical rapid that ends with a 2 m drop by the RL wall. Don’t get stuffed up by the wall! Below here were two more portages (P²), the first due to low water (could be run RL with more water), and the next a congested boulder pile portaged RR. Then there’s a IV, some IIIs, and a couple more III-IVs before the Vado.

14.0 Vado (V-). On the map where the river makes a 90-degree turn left there is a trail crossing, and just below here is a class IV-V that we took the middle channel through ending in a 2 m drop. Below here are more technical III-IV rapids.

14.3-16.0 Technical Rapids/Portages (V/P³). We had about 3 portages in this section down into the horseshoe bend, and ran many IV-V rapids.

16.0-17.3 Horseshoe Bend (V/P³). In the first part of the horseshoe bend the river drops a lot over multiple class V rapids and some sieves. We portaged about three in here. At one spot there is a cave formed under some boulders that we passed through. There are numerous springs on RR. At one spot under the springs after portaging I seal launched into the river, only to hit the nose of my boat and crack it open. I duct-taped it up. We had lunch near the middle of the Horseshoe (2pm). There are a couple more runnable IV-V rapids to the end of the Horseshoe. It is followed by a long stretch of II-III.

19.5 Cave Rapid (V, then P³). After a big beach on RR, we ran a cave rapid here where there was a fallen plant from the wall, starting RR at the cave, and then moving left (route only available at low water). After this we had 3 moderate portages (P³) around giant boulders. Near the start of the portages, there’s a giant undercut cave on RL. The last one we portaged actually was runnable Obscured (V/P). Around here there is a ton of driftwood. A giant boulder on RL blocked the full view of this rapid. After our portage, we saw that it actually was a runnable class V in the far RL channel, but it was committing to get over there an look at it.

19.7 Fantasma Falls (V). As we got out of our boats and scouted far above this rapid, downstream it looked like a white ghost was wavering on the RL side by the wall. Quite eerie! This rapid is just above it and is a 3 m falls along the left wall. The “ghost” turned out to be water pouring out of a tunnel in the bedrock, probably something drilled for the mining in the area and abandoned, although there’s a possibility it was a natural hole that water seeped out from. The water pouring out was seemed to be the color of the river, however, making us suspect it had been diverted in there at some place upstream.

~20 Tough (V/P, V). In some technical slots Tom attempted passage and ended up swimming. We also portaged one in this area. Around here are some miner’s ruins on RR, then another class IV-V that also briefly stuck one of us (video).

20.7 Ruins (RL). We explored an abandoned decrepit homestead on river left. This is the bottom of Barranca del Cobre proper, where mining operations occurred. We found a nice beach on river right just downstream of the ruins where we camped (camp #3 at km 20.8 RR). I think this is a beach mentioned in one of Fayhee’s hikes. Across the river is a mineshaft 5 m above the river. A cable car crossing is just downstream, with an arroyo on RL that was discharging some blood red water on our trip (possibly mining operations). A trail also crosses the river here and continues upstream on RR for ~0.3 km before ascending to the rim at Tejabán. The hike on this trail is described by Richard Fisher in his book, “Mexico’s Copper Canyon”. At Tejabán, you may find abandoned structures. There was a hotel here at one time, but the first guest, who left the wood stove on while going out for a walk, burned it down accidentally. In this section of the river there aren’t as many giant boulders, and rapids are usually class II-III (maybe a few IV) for at least 5 km. It is still quite scenic and you will pass through a short narrows at ~km 23. Congratulations if you made it here, since from this point down there are only 1-2 more portages!

~24.0 Dilapidated Footbridge. This failed structure still spanned the river. The following section is generally II-III, with maybe some IV. The riverbed is much more open.

29.3 Arroyo (RL). We purified water out of this one. Reached here around noon. Before reaching the next large Arroyo Cusarare downstream there are several class IVs.

31.7 Arroyo Cusárare (RR). This is the same large arroyo that has the often-visited wide 30 m falls near Creel (about 5 km from the road). The falls are, of course, most impressive after recent rains. However, they’re still pretty when running low. Farther down in this side canyon are the Basirecota Hot Springs, thought to have curative properties by the Tarahumara. On Río Urique about 1 km below this arroyo confluence the gradient picks up a lot and boulders choke the riverbed again (it soon becomes ~110 fpm down to Arroyo San Ignacio).

32.7 &