Spend t days starting in Chihuahua, taking train all the way to Los Mochis (nonstop) where I spent the night, then took it back with a friend stopping along the way.

The end of the line by Los Mochis was long, slow and boring, and someone shot the window 2 in front of me maybe 40 min out of Mochis. The (2) automatic weapon carrying guards jumped into action. This was maybe 3 weeks after the much-publiszed (and you tubeable video) of the main street intersection on the west side of town where an army of narco-terrorists road blocked the street, snorted coke, and gunned down some people in their homes.

I still felt 100% safe as Creel is a very nice town, with many things to do. I used "3 Amigos" (www.amigos3.com) to rent a scooter for a few days. If you do that, I recommend starting early in the day, riding as far west as you can, then work your way back stopping on the return to judge time There is almost NO traffic on the man highway for 100 miles after you exit town.

I did find Creel interesting when (I think it was Fri night, but not sure) the local youth all came out in the evening in their care, ATC/ATV's, and even a horse and just "cruised the square" driving up and down the same street for hours and hours. I did find it a bit disturbing when a group of children (about 6 yrs old) came out wearing ski masks with toy guns played "narco-terrorist" on the street, as the local/state, and federal authorities were still trying to downplay the massacre that had happened recently.

The train is comfortable ("El Chepe"), but food onboard is over priced. The best views for photography is in between cars. Be prepared to "camp out" your spot as man who have taken the trip before will be camping out the good times before you know what is coming up. Divisadero is a nice stop, in fact the only real stop on the route. The scene from 1 block away from the train platform is great, and there is a hotel there with the same views. Other than the view from the station/hotel, there isn't much to do if you stay the night there, so I recommend Creel.

I would do the trip again, although the next time I would go solo, or with a more adventurous companion as the girl I went with prefered to stay in the hotel vs go out and enjoy the outdoors. I stayed at the Best Western while in Creel, the rooms were great, the lodge was great, but the constant harassment by the indigenous children asking hour after hour, day after day to buy their crafts (which you had already bought from the same kids the day before) was annoying. High class restaurants are at a minimum in town, but good values for food are a plenty. The pizza joint in the Best Western is nice, and if you eat outside, you can watch the locals/tourists interact while eating a pretty good pizza.

I also stayed 2 days in Chihuahua city. Many ways to get there, I flew in (both AA and CO fly there from their TX hubs on RJ's) and I recommend that to bypass the troubles that CJ is in. The people of Chihuahua are very proud, and very nice, and there is much Mexican history in that town if you have the time to see the museums. Also, in CHihuahua city the mariachis are very good. I think on a per mariachi basis, they kicked butt over the mariachis of Garibaldi in the DF, while Garibaldi isn't such a safe place in itself, I have never seen so many musicians in one place. I picked up some beautiful Mata Ortiz pottery at Casa de las Artesanias del Estado do Chihuahua a short walk from the museums in Chihuahua city. The store is very large with a hug variety of crafts from the ultra low end to some museum pieces. Just check the store hours in advance as they closed early on my outbound, so I had to make a return visit on my return Even Fodors says it the best place for Tarahumara pottery and wood crafts (just down the road from Fr Miguel Hidalgo's jail cell at Av Ninos Heroes 1101, Centro 614-437-1292) The standard of living in this city seemed extremely high to me. While there were no examples of extravagance, there were almost no examples of poverty, and the education levels were also very high.

If you go via Chihuahua, I recommend the museum BEFORE your train journey, as the museum breaks out in great detail, the different landscapes of Chihuahua/Sinaloa, which will come in handy on your train ride.

The canyon may be the deepest in the world, but it doesn't have the colors of the Utah/Nevada/Arizona canyons, nor the massive sheer verticals that Colca in Peru have. For hiking, I reccomend the later two, but for a train ride without effort, El Chepe was a great value.

There is no need to pay a travel agent for a tour, the hotels are easily gotten via the internet, and the train is simple as well. I paid less that 50% of what I would have paid for an agency booked/led tour, and I had the freedom to stay where I wanted, leave when I wanted, and go where I wanted. YMMV.