To help break up the 14 hour drive from the city of Chihuahua to the rafting put-in on the Rio Tutuaca, we stopped at the seemingly obscure Mexican national park of Cascada de Basaseachic. We drove for ages from the sparse low desert landscape near Chihuahua (very much reminiscent of southern Arizona) to the surprisingly lush pine forest highlands of the Sierra Madre Occidental. Between our thoroughly overloaded passenger van and the winding mountain roads the drive seemed to stretch on forever. We arrived to Basaseachi town a little before dark and settled into quaint cabaña rooms, an endearing mix of Mexican and Bavarian styles. The temperature was surprisingly cool and it was interesting to see a component of wood construction instead of the default cinder block structures standard throughout rural Mexico. Bright and early we drove to the parking lot at the end of the road, the only tourists around at this early hour. We strolled the pleasant trail over a swing bridge and alongside a muddy brown stream leading to the lip of Cascade de Basaseachi, the second tallest waterfall in Mexico at 246 meters. Unsurprisingly the waterfall's cliff edge was thoroughly blocked off with metal fences, but they were generous in letting you get to the edge and walk around much of the water-carved platform just above the falls. It was hard to truly get a sense of the falls from this vantage with just the top visible rolling over the cliff out of sight, but the views of the canyon landscape, towered rock formations, cliff-hugging viewpoint structures, and the natural bridge just above the falls were stellar. It was a nice taste of the landscape for a short walk to a view point.
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| A viewpoint I was looking forward to (frontispiece view) |
After breakfast back in the town we drove around to the Rancho San Lorenzo area where most of the falls viewpoints were as well as access to the base of the falls. Because of the long drive ahead of us we were given disappointingly little time to enjoy the many trails here, back to the car in 1hr40min. We were told it would take about an hour to go to the bottom of the falls and an hour back up. Kevin, Adriana, and I rallied to fast hike/jog our way to the major overlooks and then down the very steep trail to the base of the falls. Both the overlooks provided excellent views of the falls, only marred slightly by boring clouds and the morning shade.
We past several Mexican couples and families on our rush to the base of the falls, counting minutes and realizing the pain we would experience trying to rush back up the steep trail. Once down at the canyon bottom we were pleasantly surprised to find a side creek waterfall that had been dammed up to create a perfect swimming pool. If only we had more time! We rushed to the base of the falls and only had about 5 minutes to snap photos in the mist before we would need to turn around for the punishing climb back up. Somehow I managed a very sweaty 35 minutes back up the trail, stopping briefly at the overlook a third of the way up. We ended up being a forgivable 5 minutes late in the end. It was probably just as well to get the physical abuse as we would spend the rest of the long day driving.
It was a neat waterfall and part of Mexico I am never likely to revisit. Maybe we were outside of tourist season but it seemed like an obscure park that few venture to see.
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