Day 11 brought sunshine, yet we still got soaking wet!
When I stepped outside after an undisturbed night's sleep in the
warm comfy bed, I was happy to see the rain had stopped. The
sun hadn't made it out yet, but the day looked promising.
The plan was to visit the park and hike to the bottom of the
waterfall. I actually had no clue what it was going to look
like, so I had no expectations regarding what I would see. I
had actually never seen a waterfall in person before, so I was
looking forward to the hike.
First things first though... I needed to eat...
Me walking into the dining facility for some breakfast.
After breakfast, Brewer, Gangplank, Vegas and I all took off to the
park to check out the waterfall...
We probably walked a mile or so before entering the rocky trail that
took us to the waterfall. The maintained path followed the
river to where the waterfall spilled over the cliff...
And as we walked along, the sound of flowing water got louder.
We rounded the corner and saw this...
Impressive, huh? It gets better...
There was a small deteriorated fence in place to keep people from
getting too close to the edge. But apparently they hadn't
planned for the likes of Gangplank, Brewer and I. I mean, it
wasn't much of a fence... and besides, there were no signs saying
NOT to jump over the fence...
We each took our turn sliding cautiously on our bellies to the edge
of the waterfall and peering in awe over the edge...
And what exactly did we see? WHOA! Straight down...
1,023 feet!
According to the
World Waterfall Database, the waterfall at Basaseachic is
probably the most famous waterfall in Mexico. Often cited as the
tallest, Basaseachic Falls is easily one of the most impressive in
the country. There is a natural rock arch at the brink of the falls,
which would make this the tallest waterfall in the world with an
arch spanning the waterfall. We've seen figures for the height of
the falls ranging from almost 1100 feet down to about 700 feet.
Without seeing topographic maps, we can't be too sure, but we feel
that the present figure is close to accurate.
This is the arch mentioned above that the water runs under before
making the 1,000-foot drop...
We did some more exploring along the water-eroded and sometimes
slippery rocks at the top of the waterfall before hiking down to the
bottom...
If you look behind where Brewer is standing, you can see the
rushing water.
The hike to the bottom was about a mile and a half and a drop in
elevation of over 1,000 feet. Since there are 5,280 feet in a
mile, if you do the math, you can quickly figure out we'd be
dropping about 1 vertical foot for every 8 horizontal feet we
walked. Not a big deal going down, but coming up...
Unlike the path to the top of the waterfall, the path to bottom
wasn't nearly as well maintained. It was a path, but there
were sections of it that were more rugged than others. It was
a fantastic descent.
There was one spot along the trail with an outstanding view of the
entire waterfall. And if you look at the very top of the
picture below, that's where we were standing and looking over the
edge earlier....
... now look at the bottom of the waterfall... that's where we ended
up... right in the middle of that spray!
As we continued our descent, the greenery became more lavish as a
direct result of the spray coming from the waterfall.
As we got closer to the bottom, the path just sorta disappeared.
But again... there were no signs or anything, so we kept going.
The relentless spray from the waterfall is hard to put into words.
Imagine talking a shower with your clothes on, only the water wasn't
coming down on you, it was hitting you in the face so hard it hurt
your eyes. I guess this is how protestors feel when the
water-cannon truck shows up to disperse the crowd.
Pictures were pretty much impossible to take without a scuba-diving
camera. And I cannot begin to tell you how happy I was that I
carried the Nikon in the Pelican case. Not only did it protect
the camera from the spray of the waterfall, it protected it from
several slips as well.
The ground and rocks at the bottom were very, very slippery.
You can see the surfaces we were climbing over if you look to the
bottom...
A couple of times I lost my footing, and the Pelican case containing
the Nikon would go flying into the air and bounce off several rocks
before coming to rest in the mud. Not only was the case filled
with foam, but it was 100% water proof. Me on the other
hand...
We found cover from the water in small "cave" that had been formed
from a very large section of rock that had fallen from the cliff
face high above. We were able to crawl through the small
opening and climb across to the other side...
We tried to make it across the river to the other side where there
was a lush green pasture, but there was no way to get across safely.
And while I'm adventuresome and all that, I really didn't feel like
getting swept down river... I was wet enough already.
I must thank Brewer for this next picture. We were able to
find shelter from the spraying water behind a large rock, and we
thought it would make a nice picture to have the waterfall behind us
as we stood soaking wet while posing for the camera...
Thanks Brewer!
Once I realized there was no possible way for me or my clothes to
get any wetter, I figured it was time to head back up. As we
climbed to a spot where we were safe from the spray, we stopped and
poured the water from our boots and rung out our socks.
Now as easy as it was to hike to the bottom, I can assure you it was
not as easy to hike back to the top. Hiking up 1,000 feet in
Houston where the sea level is around 50 feet is a whole lot
different than hiking up 1,000 feet at 8,000' elevation. I
have to admit I took my time. I'd rather make it all the way
to the top slowly than make it half way up dead. Gangplank on
the other hand told us he lives at about 7,000'. He climbed to
the top like a mountain goat. Brewer did much better after
woofing down a Cliff bar. Me? Well, slow and steady wins
the race. Besides, I figured you guys might like it if I
stopped and took some more pictures...
Pretty exhausted as I exited the trail, I was glad to see the little
stores at the top of the climb. We stopped for a snack, and I
bought a few trinkets after saving a whopping $0.50 using my Mexican
bartering skills!
As we enjoyed our snack, I watched these two children playing.
The little boy played with his plastic truck, while the little girl
kept herself entertained with a rock and stick...
Unlike the dog in Creel, it appeared this little fella didn't
like soaking wet gringos...
On the walk back to the cabins, Thor came riding up...
From afar the damage to his motorcycle wasn't even noticeable.
I had packed an extra turn signal indicator ('cause someone
usually breaks one of those on every trip), so I had helped Thor
install it the previous day. The rest of the damage was
cosmetic...
