South
Fork Hondo Falls
Hondo means “deep” in
English
These photos were taken
Oct15, 2010... a quite dry time.
The Rio Hondo was well below normal flow that day.
South Fork Hondo Falls as shown in this
photo is about 100 feet high.
However it is part of a continuous cascade more than 400 feet high. It cuts thru one solid mass of granite
bedrock the whole way. In the
photo below you will see parts of this cascade that I didn’t include as South
Fork Hondo Falls… and maybe it should be… I don’t feel that it matters.
This photo of South Fork Hondo Cascade is
taken looking straight down a sheer cliff more than 100 feet above.
This photo is of 24’ high Lower South Fork
Hondo Falls. It is about ½ mile below
the main falls.
See more photos of other
near-by waterfalls, at the bottom of this page.
beta facts:
name- South Fork Hondo Falls
height- ±100’
type of waterfall- a tiered-cascade
elevation- 10,300’
GPS coordinates- ±36°32.916’N 105°27.768’W
flow- perennial
season-May thru Oct …earlier is better
accommodations- none
ownership- Carson National Forest
access- fairly difficult... ah... better
read the essay below
nearest town- Taos Ski Valley is about 3½
miles north of here
NOT FUN fact- private land with “Keep Out” signs
makes it difficult to access this South Fork Rio Hondo Canyon
essay bro
South Fork Rio Hondo is wonderful...!!!
AND... difficult to access.
Private land of a small community known as Taos East, with its “Keep
Out” signs creates a challenge to enter this South Fork Rio Hondo Canyon. The first quarter mile has to be
climbed around and the “climb” is a steep and crumbly class 3 scramble 400 to
600 feet high. Some of the
hillside is so steep that you must grab the earth with “all-fours” to keep from
sliding on loose rocks and dirt back down to the bottom.
Then once you have by-passed the no
trespassing area you will find a trail that is so old that much of it has
reverted back to nature. Many
fallen trees must be either climbed over or scooted under. However navigation does get easier as
you progress up the canyon.
About 3½ miles in you will come upon a very
interesting blockade... “The Rock Fall”.
The creek flows thru a short section of gorge with sheer sidewalls about
100 feet high. This little box
canyon is about 30 feet wide. A
large portion of the southwest wall recently collapsed completely filling the
gorge from sheer wall to sheer wall with rocks and boulders... 40 feet
deep... Scrambling up the Rock
Fall is easy enough but crossing the pond above is a challenge. Fortunately the abnormally dry previous
weeks had lowered the water level so that I could barely circumvent the
left-hand side with a combination of cliff side hand holds to keep me from
sinking deep into very soft, black, gucky mud…
I estimate that this rock fall has buried a
30-foot high waterfall... I sooo wish I could have seen it before it got
buried. I am sure it was a
beauty. The total absence of any
moss or lichen on the freshly spalled wall as well as the fallen rock, tells me
that this rock fall must be less than two years old.
If anyone who reads this remembers this
waterfall... please tell me about it!
Or better yet if anyone has a photo of this waterfall before the rocks
covered it... please share it with me...
Today you can hear the water flowing deep down under the rock pile
before it exits far below... neat place...
Another fifty yards upstream is a beautiful
waterfall 25 feet high...
Lower South Fork Hondo Falls. It is easy to get around.
About a third of a mile farther upstream is
a wonderful water-show... in fact... a double water-show... Two separate sets of waterfalls on two
separate creeks. The two largest
tributaries of this drainage join here.
Both of these creeks dance beautifully between sheer granite walls down
splendid cataracts and cascades over four hundred feet high... Photos of the falls and cascades of the
South Fork of the Rio Hondo are seen above and photos of the falls up Cataract
Fork of the Rio Hondo are shown underneath the map below.
Take notice on the map below that the
northeast face of Vallecito Peak called Granite Wall, is about 1000 feet high
and sheer. Has it ever been
climbed... I doubt it.
Please do a right-click “save as” to print yourself
a copy of my map below as it is far more accurate than any other map available.
Enhanced
National Geographic 7.5’ topo map
Thin
red lines above are one-mile squares
Here are two photos of South Fork Rio Hondo Pond
These next photos are of the waterfalls found within
the 400’ high Cataract Fork Cascades
this un-named 20’ high waterfall is above Cataract
Fork Falls
this is the 40’ high top tier of Cataract Fork
Falls. The whole waterfall with
all its tiers is shown below.
all three tiers of Cataract Fork Falls make this
waterfall more than one hundred feet high.
Lower Cataract Creek Fall is about 40’ high... it is a
beauty...!!!
Avalanche Creek is full of huge spruce logs deposited
by many snow avalanches thru the years...
but this 40’ high waterfall is nice anyway...!!!
This photo was shot during a very low-water time. I’m sure that all the exposed rock in
this photo would be covered with beautiful frothy-white waterfall foam during
late May and early June snow runoff.
Send questions and comments to dscott@TheMarbleSculptor.com