This post shares everything you need to know about visiting Cascada El Salto, a vibrant blue waterfall and pool in the Huasteca Potosina region of San Luis Potosi, Mexico.
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About Cascada El Salto
Cascada El Salto is also referred to as Cascada Salto del Agua and was one of our favourite waterfalls in La Huasteca Potosina.
Whilst the waterfall here doesnât flow year-round (in the wintertime it is diverted for a hydroelectricity plant), this is one of the most beautiful natural sights we have ever seen.
We visited at the end of March, and the falls were roaring which we didnât expect but were pleasantly surprised to find.
The falls cascade into a huge, open pool surrounded by vine-clad canyon walls, filled with the most brilliant shade of milky blue water.
The water flows over clay shelves into several smaller, calmer pools before continuing down the river.Â
Swimming around in the near-silent canyon was almost eerie, and we both had a warm feeling here, reminding us how incredible nature is.
CASCADA EL SALTO QUICK FACTS đ
- đ Location:Â Google Maps location
- đ° Cost to visit: 30 pesos per person + 50 pesos mandatory life jacket rental
- â° Opening hours: unclear, previously 24 hours but a gate has recently been installed
- đ» Official website:Â no official management
What is La Huasteca Potosina?
Cascada El Salto is just one of the many waterfalls found in La Huasteca Potosina.
But what is Huasteca Potosina? Before I go any further, I will explain a little bit more about this stunning part of Mexico.
La Huasteca is a geographical and cultural region that spans seven states in the northeast of the country, along the Gulf of Mexico. This area gets its name from the Huastec people who populated the region at the height of their civilization around 750 to 800 AD.
La Huasteca Potosina is a smaller part of the wider Huasteca region, located in the state of San Luis Potosi.
It spans 20 different municipalities around the state and is a hub for nature and adventure tourism. The region is blessed with unique geography, filled with stunning rivers, vast canyons, caves, thundering waterfalls and lush rainforest.
If you’re a nature lover like we are, this region is simply paradise and it was one of our best surprises in Mexico!
GRAB A COPY OF MY HUASTECA POTOSINA EBOOK!
Huasteca Potosina is easily the most underrated place we visited in Mexico.
We still can’t believe how few tourists make the journey to this magical wonderland of waterfalls, but I think a big reason is the lack of information out there.
So, I decided to put together a Huasteca Potosina Travel Guide ebook to help anyone who wants to visit this part of Mexico. This ebook is designed to be a go-to quick reference guide for the region, to help you easily plan your own Huasteca adventure.
This 82-page ebook covers everything you need to know about the region, from the best time to visit, how to get there, the best method of transport to get around and of course the top things to see and do!
You’ll find the best waterfalls, other unmissable attractions, recommendations on restaurants, accommodations and tours, and a 7-day road trip itinerary.
There is also the option to add a customised Google Map that has over 50 locations pinned by category, allowing you to easily visualise our recommendations across the region and map out your route.
Find out more about the guide here.
Where is Cascada El Salto
Cascada El Salto is located in the northern part of La Huasteca Potosina. It is just outside the small town of El Meco and near to the larger town of El Naranjo.
To reach the falls by car takes:
- El Naranjo: 30 minutes
- Ciudad Valles: 2 hours
- Tamasopo: 2 hours 30 minutes
How to get to Cascada El Salto
GETTING AROUND THE HUASTECA POTOSINA REGION đ
La Huasteca Potosina is a large region that spans over 20 different municipalities in San Luis Potosi.
Although there is public transport between major cities and towns around the state, many of the best waterfalls and natural sights are not accessible by public transport.Â
The closest you can get to Cascada El Salto with public transport is the town of El Naranjo, around 30 minutes away.
We highly recommend renting a car for your time in La Huasteca Potosina. This is what we did, and the directions and information we provide in this post will be from the perspective of having your own wheels.
Alternatively, you can consider renting a taxi for a half or full day to take you to one or more of the waterfalls. We would suggest agreeing on a time and price in advance so the taxi driver will wait for you. The cost for a daily rental should be at least 1,000 pesos, but you’ll need to negotiate.
The other option to visit sights around the region is with a tour. Either a fully inclusive package that includes visits to multiple sites across a few days. Or individual day tours from a home base, which would be Ciudad Valles.
To learn more about navigating the La Huasteca Potosina region, check out our complete travel guide here.
By car
Cascada El Salto is very close to the town of El Meco, an easy 10-minute drive. However, the directions are a little confusing and Google Maps isn’t entirely accurate.
You can put the falls in your Google Map, and it will take you 90% of the way correctly.
As you get close, the road you are on will come to an end at the entrance to a hydroelectricity plant. From there, turn left down the dirt road and continue for a few hundred metres until the road forks. From there, go right.
The road is unpaved and starts to become quite bumpy and rocky. You can drive all the way to the entrance of the falls (a few hundred metres) if you feel comfortable doing so.
Or you can park your car basically anywhere after the road forks, and walk the rest of the way. It will only take you a few minutes. There is a shaded area where you can pull in under some trees that seemed like the unofficial car park for small cars.
đ Depending on how and where you are arriving in the Huasteca Potosina region, you can rent a car from:
By tour
El Salto is a common spot for tours to visit. We know, just as we were leaving about 10 tour buses pulled up in procession and hundreds of people filed out!
But good news if you don’t want to drive, as there are day tours here from Ciudad Valles:
- El Meco Waterfall and El Salto Waterfall Tour: this tour combines a visit to Cascada El Salto and nearby Cascadas El Meco, including a boat ride in a wooden canoe to get up close to Cascadas El Meco.
Accessing Cascada El Salto
Once you’ve navigated the car park and bumpy road, it’s a bit of a climb to get to the main pool, as there isnât much formal infrastructure here.
There are a number of clay âshelvesâ for lack of a better word that separate the pools that you can climb over, and also use as a spot to sit down and put your stuff.
It can be very slippery, so be careful. I would recommend bringing a dry storage bag for anything you donât want to get wet.
We brought far too many bags with food for breakfast, camera, drone etc. and didnât realise it would be a bit tricky to get everything across dry!Â
Costs to visit Cascada El Salto
As of 2023, there is a 30 peso entry fee per person. Car parking remains free. There is also a (loose?) requirement to wear a life jacket, which can be rented on-site for 50 pesos.
This is one waterfall where I would actually suggest having a life jacket, especially if you want to swim all the way across to the waterfall as the current is extremely strong.
When we first visited, there was no entry fee and access to the waterfall was unregulated, open 24 hours a day. This seems to have changed now, and it is being managed like a proper tourist attraction.
Facilities at Cascada El Salto
There arenât many facilities at Cascada El Salto, which is what makes it so special.
There are a few small food stalls as you enter, selling chips and snacks. But if youâre going to be hungry for a meal, I would suggest planning ahead and bringing some food along. We brought our breakfast to have at the falls and it was magic!
They have recently built a toilet here, but that is the extent of the facilities. Once you start the short journey down to the main pool area, there is no development at all.
In terms of activities, there is nothing formal on offer here. It is one of the more relaxing waterfalls in the area, but we absolutely loved it.
The main pool is huge and you can spend a while swimming around. Either across to the fall itself or around the sides of the canyon where you will find little caves. There are a few rocks where you can jump into the pool as well.
If you do want to swim across to the falls and stand underneath them, be aware it is a long way and the current from the waterfall is strong. I was tired quickly and couldn’t make it the whole way. Brayden did and he was fine, but very tired and would have appreciated a life jacket to float on.
There is also a short hiking trail you can take to reach the top of the waterfall. It’s steep but doable, and you’ve got a gorgeous waterfall waiting for you to swim afterwards! You can follow this trail on AllTrails, there are also guides on-site who will lead you on the trail for a fee.
When to visit Cascada El Salto
There are two elements to this question – what time of the year is best to visit the La Huasteca Potosina region in general, and what time of the week is best to visit Cascada El Salto.
THE BEST TIME TO VISIT HUASTECA POTOSINA đ€ïž
The best time to visit the waterfalls of Huasteca Potosina is between November â March.Â
By November, the rains have stopped and the weather is mild, and the falls are flowing. It can be a little chilly in the region in the peak of winter, but the waterfalls are at their best.
By the end of March, at the tail end of the dry season, the falls will not be very strong. Some can even close (such as the popular Cascada de Tamul) due to lack of water.
July â October is the wet season, and this is not a good time to visit the region. Although there will be a lot of water and the falls will be thundering down, it can be very dangerous and often impossible to get close to the falls.
You wonât be able to swim or take boats right up close to the falls if there have been heavy rains and many of the rivers flood. Sediment gets churned up and the usually crystal clear blue waters will be brown and muddy.
Cascada El Salto is a bit of a different story when it comes to the best time to visit.
During winter, the nearby powerplant (that you encounter when you drive in) diverts the waterfall completely for hydroelectricity. If you visit during this time (approximately November – February), you won’t see a waterfall at all.
The pools themselves are still incredibly beautiful, and I would say worth a visit anyway. We visited in late March and were fully expecting there to be no waterfall, but were pleasantly surprised to see it flowing with full force!
Cascada El Salto is definitely one of the lesser-developed waterfalls in the region, but it is not immune to large tour groups.
Visiting first thing in the morning on a weekday is going to give you the best chance of having the place to yourself. And if you visit during the winter when the waterfall is not flowing, I imagine it would be very quiet.
We visited on a Sunday morning of a long weekend and were so lucky when we arrived. There were a couple of small groups, but eventually, they cleared out and we had the entire place to ourselves for about 30 minutes.
But as we were leaving an insanely large group of people, probably over 200, had arrived on a hoard of tour buses. Cue our exit! I canât imagine it would be anywhere near that busy during the week, or even on a normal weekend. But go early and you might get lucky as we did!Â
Other attractions nearby
Cascada El Salto is part of a group of waterfalls that is sometimes referred to as the ‘turquoise route’. This encompasses Cascadas de Minas Viejas, Casada El Salto and Cascadas El Meco.
Cascadas El Meco is just a few minutes away from Cascada El Salto so combining the two is obvious. And Cascadas de Minas Viejas is around an hour south, past El Naranjo.
We approached the region as a road trip style, staying in different places each night, rather than returning to Ciudad Valles each day. To help you plan your route, this is what we did before and after visiting Cascada El Salto.
Over two days, we followed this route:
- Depart from Ciudad Valles and drive to Cascada El Aguacate (1.5 hours)
- Continue north to Cascadas de Minas Viejas (1 hour)
- Drive onwards to El Naranjo and stay the night (0.5 hours)
- Drive to Cascada El Salto in the town of El Meco the following morning (0.5 hours)
- Move from Cascada El Salto to Cascadas El Meco (15 minutes)
- Drive to Cascadas de Micos (2 hours)
Where to stay when visiting Cascada El Salto
Where you stay completely depends on how you are approaching your itinerary in La Huasteca Potosina:
- đĄ Base yourself in Ciudad Valles and do day trips each day; OR
- đ Road trip style, staying in different locations each night
Here are some recommended accommodation choices, no matter which option you’ve gone for:
- đŠ Stay near the falls in El Meco – El Meco is a very small town, but it is possible to stay here, either camping further upriver from the falls, or at a cabaña or local hotel. There are two camping spots on the river, called El Sundial and Centro Ecoturistico El Meco. Both offer similar amenities like bathrooms, a restaurant, tent area. The entry fee is 40 pesos per person, and camping is extra (I think 50 pesos per person). If you want something more comfortable, Hotel El Salto del Meco is a beautiful option right next to Cascadas El Meco.
- đ Stay in El Naranjo – if you want to stay close to Cascada El Salto but want a few more facilities, El Naranjo is only 20 minutes away and has a little bit more going on. There aren’t too many options listed on the online booking platforms, but a quick search on Google Maps and we found some gems. Both Hotel Bella Vista and Hotel Rio Paraiso are located right on the river and offer basic, but charming rooms. We stayed at Hotel Bella Vista and couldn’t stop gawking at the incredible blue river right outside our door! Hotel del Valle is a more standard hotel-style option in town.
- đ© Stay in Ciudad Valles – if you’re using Ciudad Valles as a base, we recommend Casa AMMAH for a mid-range option, with exceptional reviews, lovely hosts and a communal kitchen. If you’re on a budget, we stayed at Hostal Casa Huasteca and really loved it. Or if you want a little splurge, Hotel Casa Ortiz is a stunning option with a pool.
Final thoughts on Cascada El Salto
We were so blessed with the timing of our visit to Cascada El Salto and we couldn’t believe that we had the entire place to ourselves for at least half an hour. On a Sunday, of a long weekend (not planned, oops!).
This beautiful waterfall definitely has a very special feel to it, and it may be because it has barely been developed at all.
Whether the waterfall is flowing or not, the pools are magical and I highly recommend a visit no matter the time of the year!
đŠ Looking for more amazing waterfalls to visit in La Huasteca Potosina?
We have a list of the ten best here, as well as comprehensive guides to a number of other falls: