Chihuahua is a working northern city rather than a sight in itself, and most of what people arrange here points west, into the Sierra Madre.
The Chepe — the Chihuahua al Pacífico railway — starts here and is one of the great train journeys anywhere: thirty-seven bridges, eighty-six tunnels, and a climb from the high desert into pine forest and out over Copper Canyon. The scenic stretch is west of Creel, so an eastbound traveller wanting it in daylight should start from Los Mochis rather than here. Seats sell out in high season.
In the city, the history is the Revolution. Quinta Gameros is an art-nouveau mansion with its original interiors; Quinta Luz, Pancho Villa's house, is now a museum with the bullet-holed car he was assassinated in; and the Palacio de Gobierno holds the cell where Hidalgo was held before his execution in 1811.
Agencies here sell the sierra as a package — the train ticket, the transfers and the nights in Creel or Divisadero — which is a reasonable way to do it if you would rather not assemble a journey across the Sierra Madre yourself.