Las Glorias

Las Glorias is the best-known beach in Guasave municipality, about 36 to 42 km southwest of the city depending on the route, on the Gulf of California. It offers more than 7 km of soft sand beside the mouth of the Sinaloa River, once called the Petatlán. For years it was mostly a weekend spot for families from Guasave, Salvador Alvarado, Angostura and Sinaloa de Leyva, but it now draws more and more visitors from other states and abroad. Locals credit it as the birthplace of chicharrón de pescado, crisp fried fish bites.

At the far end is La Bocanita, a small beach where the river feeds Macapule bay, with a lighthouse at the tip of a stone jetty built to keep the channel open. From the jetty you can watch the fishing boats come and go and the sun set over the water. Behind it rise the Copas de las Dunas, tall sand dunes used for camping, dirt-bike rides and sand play, with a view of Isla Macapule, a barrier island about 22 km long. To the east the El Chihuil estuary runs parallel to the Bellavista dunes, and the river mouth spreads into a mangrove-lined wetland with herons, gulls, frigatebirds and cormorants. Local fishermen take visitors by boat through the estuary channels. Nearby Isla de Pájaros is a nesting ground for seabirds and shorebirds.

Seafood places, restaurants, palm shelters and beach umbrellas line the sand, along with the long-running Hotel El Moro and a growing number of holiday rentals; Wikivoyage also lists the Hotel Playa Las Glorias and a few simple guesthouses. Take care in the water: local press calls it a dangerous beach, with frequent accidents caused by currents. It fills up at Easter, when the city's traffic department opens an alternate route from La Ensenadita toward the Guasave road to ease the jams.