Fresnillo

If time is crucial to planning your itinerary in Mexico, utilizing Highway 49 to Fresnillo instead of Highway 45 will cut hours off your driving time. By taking this route, you leave Highway 45 at Jimenez (where you'll find fair accommodations) and by pass Hidalgo del Parral and Durango.

From Jimenez to Gomez Palacio, the highway pursues a monotonously straight path. Vados (flash flood channel dips) occur intermittently over the route, but they are shallow and well engineered and can be traversed at reasonably high speeds.

The colonial city of Gomez Palacio (Mexico's soap making capital) is just across the dry Nazas River from Torreon. Mexico's youngest major city, Torreon was founded near the end of the last century. Gomez Palacio and Torreon both have adequate accommodations and restaurants that offer Mexican as well as American repasts.

This general area is known as La Laguna because it was formerly a huge lake or more correctly,several large lakes. The fertile, rich soil yields bountiful crops of cotton and grains when given ample irrigation. Several dams have been built in the mountain headwaters of various rivers in the area to provide the irrigation required for the production of crops.

Leaving Torreon and Gomez Palacio, Highway 49 joins Highway 40, by passing the suburban town of Lerdo and leading on to Cuencame, where Highway 49 cuts south, passing through the town of Rio Grande. The road continues on until it merges with Highway 45 at La Chicharrona Junction, a few miles north of the old mining town of Fresnillo.