Layout of Los Mochis
Los Mochis sits on flat irrigated farmland in the north of Sinaloa, about 20 km back from the Gulf of California and 25 km north-east of its port. It is a planned town rather than a colonial one: the streets run on a strict north–south grid of numbered and lettered avenues, laid out around the sugar mill that the American engineer Benjamin Francis Johnston built in the 1890s. The centre is the Plaza 27 de Septiembre with the church of the Sagrado Corazón beside it; the Sinaloa Botanical Garden, on the site of Johnston's own grounds, is the one green block in the grid.
Highway 15D, the Pacific toll road, bypasses the city to the east and carries traffic north to Sonora and south to Culiacán; the free Highway 15 runs through the built-up area. The railway station for the Chihuahua–Pacífico line is on the eastern edge of town, and the bus terminals are near the centre. Valle del Fuerte International (LMM) lies about 12 km south. Los Mochis is the seat of Ahome municipality, which counted 449,215 residents in 2020 and is the second most populous in the state; the city itself holds roughly 270,000 of them, making it Sinaloa's third city after Culiacán and Mazatlán.
Distances from Los Mochis
| Place | km | Time | How |
|---|---|---|---|
| Los Mochis airport (LMM) | 12 | 20 min | Road south |
| Topolobampo port | 25 | 25 min | Hwy 15 spur south-west |
| Playa El Maviri | 25 | 30 min | Road via Topolobampo |
| Guasave | 70 | 50 min | Hwy 15D south |
| El Fuerte | 80 | 1 h | Hwy 15 then paved road inland |
| Ciudad Obregón | 165 | 1 h 45 | Hwy 15D north |
| Culiacán (state capital) | 215 | 2 h 15 | Hwy 15D south |
| La Paz | 300 | 7 h | Ferry from Topolobampo |
| Hermosillo | 425 | 4 h 30 | Hwy 15D north |
| Mazatlán | 425 | 4 h 15 | Hwy 15D south |
| Chihuahua | 653 | 15 h | Chepe railway via Creel |
The Chepe railway, the port and the Fuerte valley
Los Mochis exists because of two 19th-century schemes. In 1886 the American utopian socialist Albert Kimsey Owen founded a colony at Topolobampo, meaning to make the bay the Pacific outlet of a railway from Texas; the colony failed within a decade. Johnston, who had come with it, stayed and built the Sinaloa Sugar Company mill in 1893, and the company town around it became Los Mochis. The railway idea outlasted both men: the Ferrocarril Chihuahua al Pacífico was finally completed in 1961, 90 years after the first surveys, and links the Gulf of California to the Chihuahuan plateau across the Sierra Madre Occidental.
That line is now marketed as the Chepe. It climbs from sea level at Los Mochis to about 2,400 m at the rim of the Copper Canyon, passing through 86 tunnels and over 37 bridges on 653 km of track to Chihuahua. The Chepe Express passenger service runs the western half, Los Mochis to Creel, in around nine hours; El Fuerte, 80 km inland, is the usual alternative boarding point for travellers who want to skip the flat first stretch. The Sierra Madre map covers the range the line crosses.
Topolobampo, 25 km south-west, is one of the deepest natural harbours on Mexico's Pacific coast and the reason for the whole scheme. Beyond the port, Playa El Maviri is a shallow sand spit on the bay, and Isla El Farallón offshore holds a sea lion colony. Inland the Río Fuerte, dammed at Miguel Hidalgo, feeds one of the largest irrigation districts in Mexico; the Valle del Fuerte grows maize, wheat, vegetables and sugar cane, and Sinaloa is the country's leading producer of maize and of winter vegetables for export. The climate is hot desert-edge, with almost all the rain falling between July and September — see the climate map. Sinaloa keeps UTC−7 all year with no daylight saving, an hour behind Mexico City.
Questions about Los Mochis
Where is Los Mochis on the map of Mexico?
In the far north of Sinaloa at 25.79° N 108.99° W, on the coastal plain about 20 km inland from the Gulf of California. It is 215 km north of Culiacán and 425 km north of Mazatlán on Highway 15D.
Where does the Chepe train to the Copper Canyon start?
Los Mochis is the western terminus of the Ferrocarril Chihuahua al Pacífico. The Chepe Express runs east from the city station into the Sierra Tarahumara, reaching Creel in about nine hours; the full historic line runs 653 km to Chihuahua through 86 tunnels and over 37 bridges.
What is Topolobampo?
The deepwater port for Los Mochis, 25 km south-west on a natural bay. It handles grain, fertiliser and containers, and is the terminal for the ferry across the Gulf of California to Pichilingue near La Paz, a crossing of about seven hours.
Does Los Mochis have an airport?
Yes. Valle del Fuerte International (LMM) is about 12 km south of the city, with domestic flights and a limited number of US services. Many Copper Canyon travellers fly in here and take the train the next morning.