Canon de Fernandez, Durango, Mexico
Just southwest of the city of Torreon, Coahuila, Mexico is a national park called Canon de Fernandez. I had planned to drive through this area on a two week overland trip and wanted to visit, as the photos on-line look beautiful. However, I could not find any information on the park in English. So… if you want to visit this area, here is what I found:
Both the toll road and free road will get you to the small town and Francisco Lake. There is an exit off the toll road. We took the main road to Francisco Lake and right along this road there are several free camping locations that are marked as such. The sites vary: some have restrooms and some are quite open with room for lots of campers. All are right along the river that makes up Canon de Fernandez, which is full of birds and amazing cypress trees.
Here is a sign to one of the camping areas, which you can also see in Google Maps Street View:
We chose to drive down and camp right on the river. This was the best camping spot we had on our entire trip.
Further down the road is Francisco Lake, which you access by driving through two tunnels. We were there in November 2014 and things were very quiet. I’m sure it’s more active in the warmer months. There are several nice, cabana-like restaurants along the lake and a gravel road that continues on past the lake that we did not explore.
If you look at satellite images of this area and the topographic map you will see that there is a bridge back at the free road (Highway 40) that crosses over the toll road (highway 400) and gives you access to the back side of Canon de Fernandez to the east/northeast. We crossed this bridge to an unlocked gate and drove through the desert on a rough rock trail until we got back to the river that makes up Canon de Fernandez. There are two roads that can be seen going along each side of the river to the northeast. Neither one of these roads panned out for us, either being blocked by locked gates or overgrown to the point that we heavily damaged our roof gear despite cutting, hacking, and clearing. Heading southwest though along the river is a decent road (on the north side of the river, which you have to cross) that heads back towards the town and a series of trails that cross the river several times and provides some really beautiful scenery and huge cypress trees. We even came to a neat restaurant right on the river and trail, so I believe there is access to the town somewhere along here. We didn’t really need 4WD, but high ground clearance and tough tires were definitely needed. We headed back the way we came, through the desert to the bridge across the toll road. The scenery makes this diversion well worth it.
Just southwest of the city of Torreon, Coahuila, Mexico is a national park called Canon de Fernandez. I had planned to drive through this area on a two week overland trip and wanted to visit, as the photos on-line look beautiful. However, I could not find any information on the park in English. So… if you want to visit this area, here is what I found:
Both the toll road and free road will get you to the small town and Francisco Lake. There is an exit off the toll road. We took the main road to Francisco Lake and right along this road there are several free camping locations that are marked as such. The sites vary: some have restrooms and some are quite open with room for lots of campers. All are right along the river that makes up Canon de Fernandez, which is full of birds and amazing cypress trees.
Here is a sign to one of the camping areas, which you can also see in Google Maps Street View:
We chose to drive down and camp right on the river. This was the best camping spot we had on our entire trip.
Further down the road is Francisco Lake, which you access by driving through two tunnels. We were there in November 2014 and things were very quiet. I’m sure it’s more active in the warmer months. There are several nice, cabana-like restaurants along the lake and a gravel road that continues on past the lake that we did not explore.
If you look at satellite images of this area and the topographic map you will see that there is a bridge back at the free road (Highway 40) that crosses over the toll road (highway 400) and gives you access to the back side of Canon de Fernandez to the east/northeast. We crossed this bridge to an unlocked gate and drove through the desert on a rough rock trail until we got back to the river that makes up Canon de Fernandez. There are two roads that can be seen going along each side of the river to the northeast. Neither one of these roads panned out for us, either being blocked by locked gates or overgrown to the point that we heavily damaged our roof gear despite cutting, hacking, and clearing. Heading southwest though along the river is a decent road (on the north side of the river, which you have to cross) that heads back towards the town and a series of trails that cross the river several times and provides some really beautiful scenery and huge cypress trees. We even came to a neat restaurant right on the river and trail, so I believe there is access to the town somewhere along here. We didn’t really need 4WD, but high ground clearance and tough tires were definitely needed. We headed back the way we came, through the desert to the bridge across the toll road. The scenery makes this diversion well worth it.
