Canyoneering | Infiernillo Canyon
Hype:
A spectacular limestone canyon in a beautiful highland area. This canyon is deep, often dark, with long sculpted travertine passages filled with emerald to aquamarine water and lots of swimming. You will rappel down steep conic travertine accretions covered with moss into grand cathedral-like grottos. Slides that shoot you out into open space 12 feet above the water. You'll want to do this canyon more than once. The upper part of the full route is beautiful, with many jumps and swims, and several rappels. Once you reach the commercial route (there is a very obvious trail coming down RDC), the first rappel can be jumped but is shallow and somewhat technical. The second is difficult to get up to the anchors and is on a thin ridge. you can jump this, it's plenty deep. the third rap is mandatory (though you could get off partway and slide/jump) and drops you into a spectacular cathedral-like grotto.
Canyon Rating: 3C 
Time: 5-7 hours
Longest Rappel: 13 rappels to 90 ft
Fees: None, Optional shuttle
Recommended Ages:
 | 0-3 |
 | 4-11 |
 | 12-19 |
 | 20-49 |
 | 50-69 |
 | 70+ |
Recommended Months to Visit:
| Jan |
| Feb |
| Mar |
| Apr |
| May |
| Jun |
| Jul |
| Aug |
| Sep |
| Oct |
| Nov |
| Dec |
Navigate to 21.233890, -99.622530.
By Jeremy Dye
Jeremy Dye, Luke Galyan, Tracy Kwan, Ryan Hone, Napo Acuna,
On Saturday, We did Infernillo Canyon and had a great time. We drove both vehicles to the top of the canyon. The property owners at the top cater to canyoneers, and we arranged for them to shuttle one of our cars down for us and to fix us lunch after the canyon. Infernillo Canyon cuts through limestone, so the walls were covered with cave-like features. There was lots of flowstone and stalactites. The water had so many dissolved minerals that the logs in the water were coated in travertine. Many of the waterfalls had cones of rock formed from the flowing water. The canyon was awesome with lots of jumps and slides.
We finished the upper, more technical section very quickly. Napo had told our shuttle driver to meet us at the bottom at 3:00. We were going too fast, so we slowed down during the second half of the canyon. We made it to our shuttle pickup point at 2:15, about 45 minutes early. Unfortunately, the shuttle people didn't think we could actually finish by 3:00, so they decided to pick us up at 3:45 instead. That meant we had to wait for 1.5 hours for our shuttle car. When they picked us up, we loaded all the gear in the back of Napo's car and piled in. There wasn't enough room for everyone, so Tre and Tom rode on the back bumper.
Back at the trailhead, we enjoyed an awesome lunch of local cuisine.
El Cerrito Archaeological Site
Rappels
Swimming
Wading
Fixed Anchors
Wetsuit Generally Required
Forest
