Cascada de Micos — Intricate Explorer

Today the research finally paid off. FINALLY. We shot at Cascada de Micos just north of Mexico City, and even jumped off a waterfall or two.

To understand this story, you need to know a little context first. Most importantly, Cascada de Micos is a river consisting of seven waterfalls, all back to back.

Now if you read the reviews of Cascada de Micos, there’s conflicting reports. Some people say to park at the bottom, where you’ll be forced to pay an entrance fee AND a tour guide to take you to the waterfalls. The price includes a lifejacket and a guy that takes you to all seven waterfalls, plus shows you where to jump off them, if you’re interested. Sounds fun.

But we ALSO read other reports saying you can park at the top of the waterfalls for free, then simply walk in and see the two biggest falls yourself- the other five weren’t worth it.

Naturally, we aired towards this choice, because we didn’t want to pay a guide. Not to brag, but we’re from Colorado and we know how to handle ourselves on a .3 mile hiking trail. Every beautiful, even remotely popular landscape in Mexico seems to have “mandatory tours” at the entrance waiting to take your money. It’s a scam.

Thus we rolled up to the top, parked in a random gravel parking lot, and walked right in. No questions asked, nothing. See, the locals don’t OWN the waterfalls. They just make you think having a guide is the only way to see them. It’s social engineering 101.

Once we were in, it was like a mini paradise, all to ourselves. Here’s my photo of the first waterfall, that we saw immediately upon entering:

**“Flow Verde”**
*Taken on* *Sony a7rIII* + *Tamron 17-28mm f/2.8*
[ISO 50 ~ 17mm ~ f/18 ~ 1.3s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)

I don’t have much to say about this photo, other than I love the flowing grass/leaves in the foreground, and the rush of the water… I pulled out the greens/blues to make it a bit more surreal.

A couple minutes after this pic, a couple tour groups rolled up with life vests and swam to the other waterfall, which isn’t pictured in this post. We watched them as they clung along a rock wall and swam UNDER the waterfall… It looked pretty dope. We waited about 15 minutes for them to come out and did the exact same thing ourselves.

It was scary as fuck without a life jacket, I’ll give them that. Imagine a jet engine roaring directly in your face. I swam under it for second to say I did it than bounced. While we were doing that, I watched them jump off the waterfall I just shot. We followed them and jumped off as well, but a little to the side because we didn’t have vests. It was quite the thrill.

After that I was just about swum out, but hungry for one more photo. This one scene was just too good to pass up… It had EIGHT (or nine?) mini waterfalls surrounding this one plant: