Basaseachic Falls
Cascada de Basaseachi
Interesting facts
- The neighbouring Piedra Volada fall was only explored and measured in the mid-1990s by a caving group from Ciudad Cuauhtémoc, though local guides had led people there for generations.
- Spanish-language sources note that "Piedra Volada" is likely a misreading of "Piedra Bolada", a name referring to a nearby spherical rock formation rather than a flying stone.
- In the Rarámuri language the word basachí refers to the coyote, and the falls' name is usually rendered as "place of coyotes".
- Basaseachi does not appear in any colonial-era document, which suggests the area was unsettled and probably fell under the Tomochi mission.
- After the 18th century settlers were drawn to the surrounding mountains by mineral deposits and high-quality timber.
- The national park around the falls was decreed in 1981 under President José López Portillo.
- The Candameña River that leaves the foot of the falls is one of the streams that form the Río Mayo.
- The mountain trogon found in the park is nicknamed the "Mexican flag bird" because its plumage echoes the colours of the national flag.
- Reptiles recorded in the park include the Texas horned lizard and two rattlesnakes, the rock rattlesnake and the black-tailed rattlesnake.
Why it is worth it
Basaseachic Falls drops 246 metres in a single free fall from the rim of the Candameña Canyon, high in the Sierra Madre Occidental of Chihuahua. It was long counted as the tallest waterfall in Mexico, until the measurement of nearby Piedra Volada in the mid-1990s; Piedra Volada is taller but runs only in the rainy season, which leaves Basaseachic as the country's highest waterfall with a more lasting flow. The water comes from two mountain streams, the Arroyo del Durazno and the Arroyo de Basaseachi, which join just above the lip before plunging into the gorge.
Below the falls the stream takes the name Río Candameña, after the canyon it has cut — one of the deepest in the Sierra Tarahumara, with walls that rise as much as 1,640 metres. The landscape was shaped by tectonic fracturing that opened rifts and raised blocks, and then by long erosion of wind and water. The name is generally traced to the Rarámuri (Tarahumara) language, in which it is linked to coyotes; the Rarámuri lived in these mountains before the Spanish colonial period, and Europeans first reached the falls in the 18th century.
Since 2 February 1981 the waterfall and its canyon have been protected as Basaseachic Falls National Park, created by federal decree and covering some 5,800 hectares. The park is a stronghold of the pine–oak forests of the northern Sierra Madre, where many microclimates on steep terrain support a wide range of conifers and oaks. Among its wildlife are cougars, white-tailed deer, collared peccaries, Montezuma quail and the mountain trogon, a bird endemic to the Mexican highlands.
Getting there
The falls lie about 3 km from the village of Basaseachi, in the municipality of Ocampo, and roughly 265 km west of the city of Chihuahua; the town of Madera is about 113 km away in a straight line. Access is by Federal Highway 16, which crosses the Sierra Madre between Chihuahua and Hermosillo. The nearest airport in a straight line is Ciudad Obregón (CEN), about 182 km away on the far side of the mountains; by road the usual approach is from Chihuahua International Airport (CUU).
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Basaseachic Falls on the Basaseachic River is the second-highest waterfall in Mexico, located in the Parque Nacional Basaseachic at Cañón Basaseachic in the Copper Canyon region of northwest Mexico, near Creel, Chihuahua. It is 246 meters (807 ft) tall, second in Mexico only to the Cascada de Piedra Volada.
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