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Basaseachi Falls from the Window

Downstream from Basaseachi Falls

We had originally thought of coming to Basaseachi Falls back in April when we were driving from Hidalgo de Parral to Madera and came within ?? miles of the falls.. e decided against it at the last minute since we had only a 21 day permit for the car and thought we didn't really have time. In the end that was perhaps the wise choice since we weren't equipped for really cold weather and as it was very cool in August, we assume it would have been much cooler still in April.

Gerry on the lip of the falls

We drove up to Basaseachi from Ciudad Obregon on a country road that we weren't sure was paved. Luckily we found a friendly policeman just after we turned off the main highway who assured us that the road was good. It was our first real mountain climb in the car since California and we wern't sure how it would do. Happily there were no problems, the road was fine, and the countryside was gorgeous.

We were more than a little confused when we reached the area near the falls. We found a small guesthouse in the village of Cahuisori thinking we were in Basaseachi and only found out later that the village of Basaseachi was 4km further along the highway. We should digress here to add that while we managed very well by now to express ourselves in Spanish, we still had lots of ground to cover to comprehend what native speakers said. Jan tried several times to engage our landlady in conversation, but found her pronunciation so hard to understand that she gained very little in the way of information from the exchanges.

Jan Crossing above the Falls

We decided against rushing over to the falls on our first afternoon for two reasons; first because we had read that a hike to the falls took several hours and second because Jan was still recovering from her battle with the watermelon and wanted as much time as possible to baby her poor wounded back. But after eating a leisurely lunch courtesy of our landlady and soaking up some rays on the tiny porch of our cabin, we did drive over to the head of the falls and learned all that was necessary for a successful hike the next day.

We were up and dressed early the next day, ate a quick breakfast in the room, packed a lunch, and were at the falls by 8 a.m. As you can see from the way Jan is dressed, it was cool when we set out. There was no-one to take any money, so we parked the car near the food and souvenir stalls and set off along the trail to the head of the falls. We quicky noticed that we had a new companion. One of the stray dogs from the parking lot was following us.