Road trip!
Mexico highway 40 from Durango to Mazatlan runs through the Sierra Madres, across the Continental Divide (the Durango/Sinaloa State line) and is better known as “La Espina del Diablo” — the Devil’s Backbone. The trip takes about four to six hours on a good day, ten or so if the weather is bad.
Rolly Brook suggests bringing food and water, but there are several small communities along the route, with truck-stops and restaurants perched on the hillsides… just be very careful when entering and leaving the parking lot: it’s a long, long, long drop sometimes.
This video, by “extremejay1” of his father’s 2006 drive down (and up.. and down… and around) Highway 40 was shot on a clear day with little traffic. Buses, heavy trucks, and farm vehicles also have to use the highway… which for now is the only way through the mountains. The challenge in Mexico has always been transportation, and the present two-lane road (being slowly replaced by a four-lane divided highway) is an engineering marvel.
mexfiles.net 
And that movie is just the Durango side!! It’s practically a straight road compared to the Sinaloa side.
The movie stops at the Espina del Diablo, a narrow ridge with huge drop offs on each side just a small ways into Sinaloa.
The drive after this REALLY gets fun!! All 60 or 70 miles of it.
It’s settled, then! For any visits to Mazatlan, we fly.
In the words of Country Joe McDonald,”WHOOPEE! we’re all gonna die.