Edge of a canyon with eroded rocks
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Gallery: pick a word (February 2024)

March 8, 2024 / 41 Comments

Good words are worth much, and cost little

George Herbert

What is a good word? Is it a word that has a positive impact, which I’m sure was Herbert’s definition of the phrase? Or is it simply a word we like, one that is pleasing for its meaning, its sound or both?

Paula always gives us ‘good words’ for her Pick a Word challenge and this month is no exception. Some of them seem quite easy to match with a photo, but I decided to make life difficult for myself and use only images from my recent visit to Mexico. What’s more, I’m concentrating on just one location there, the Copper Canyon or Barrancas del Cobre.

This area comprises a group of six (some sources say seven) canyons formed by a network of rivers in the Sierra Madre Occidental range. Locals will tell you that it’s larger than the Grand Canyon, and while no single one of them is larger, as a group they are far more extensive and at the deepest point slightly deeper.

We stayed two nights in a hotel perched on the rim of the canyon and explored both the adventure park with its tourist-focused activities and the more remote and less visited Oteros Canyon. Here are just five images; no doubt many more will appear in future posts!

CHURNING

Mountain view with person on a zipwire and large cable car

Zip-rider in the Adventure Park

The stomach-churning moment when you launch yourself into the abyss on what is claimed to be the longest single span zip line in the world, at 8,350 feet. And no, I didn’t try it, preferring the safety of the gondola you can also see in this shot.

ERODED

Canyon rim with eroded rocks

The Balanced Rock

Access to this formation is nowadays fenced off, after someone apparently fell to their death here. So we could only look and photograph from a distance. It may appear as if the rock has been carefully balanced on top of the outcrop, but the effect was created through erosion.

GRAZING

Looking down at distant goats on dry ground

Goats in the canyon (photographed from the cable car)

They may be hard to make out at this distance but there are goats grazing on the canyon floor, a clue to the fact that people live there. The local Rarámuri people mostly still live a traditional lifestyle, moving between the depths of the canyons and their rims according to season.  

MAJESTIC

Panoramic shot of a canyon

The view from the Mirador Hotel

There was only one word for the view that greeted us when we arrived at the hotel here where we were to spend two nights: wow. This was the view from the balcony of our room, and similar ones were to be had from the main terrace and dining room.

SINGULAR

Woman seated by a cliff edge

Lone Rarámuri woman at sunset

I photographed this woman from the hotel’s dining room as we were sitting down to dinner one evening, taken by the fact that even someone so accustomed to this landscape would take time out to simply sit and appreciate it.

I visited the Copper Canyon in February 2024

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