There are two roads to choose from now, the old and the new. ![]() So as I ride west out of Durango I am excited, as riding this road has been in the planning for weeks now. The one common road that I keep hearing about is the Devil’s Backbone. I have asked locals, friends, acquaintances and strangers where the good roads are in Mexico, and have done research online as well. Mexico names all its bridges, even the small seasonal creek crossings, but the Baluarte is deserving of a name more than any other. One of the new bridges is now the highest suspension bridge in the world at more than 1280-feet above the gorge’s floor. There are more than 60 tunnels (totaling more than 11 miles) and something along the lines of 40 bridges (I’ve heard varying reports of 35-100 bridges). Work began in 2010 and this incredible engineering feat was completed in late summer 2013. The government began planning more than 15 years ago to create a new road that would reduce the travel time, open up the area to development, grant access to law enforcement to the remote mountains in hopes of reducing crime, and therefore, improving the economy. The road has had a bad reputation for many reasons: it’s accident-prone and hundreds of people have died on it, these mountains have historically been remote and inaccessible enough that they are used for growing marijuana and poppies, and therefore, there has been a lot of crime in these mountains related to drug trafficking. It is the only place to cross the Sierra Madres for more than 500 miles. ![]() This 140-mile road is so curvy and twisted that it takes 7-8 hours to cross (that’s an average speed of 20 mph or less). Local legend says that when the Archangel Michael threw the devil from heaven and he landed here on earth, his backbone formed the rugged ridgeline of the Sierra Madres. ![]() Between Mazatlan on the west coast of mainland Mexico and Durango, which lies east of the Sierra Madre Mountains, there is a famous road known by locals and internationally as the Devil’s Backbone.
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