Conditions:Matacanes-20250406063023

Latest:	2 Apr 2025 (1 month ago)

Reported by:	Triggerfish (60 reports)
Quality:	Amazing
Waterflow:	Moderate Low
Wetsuit:	Thin wetsuit
Water temperature:
Difficulty:	Normal
Time:

Team: 4 people with experience level Intermediate to Advanced

Trip report URL: https://youtu.be/slcA h7sqfI?feature=shared

Comments: Brought our own gear, unguided. Had 3 days, did Matacanes, Hidrofobia, Chipitin. I’ll include some general info here that goes for all.

Rough surfaces eat up backsides! Maybe it’s cause we went early in season and the travertine wasn’t so polished, but many slides are pretty rough, and we all said these canyons were the roughest on pants we’d ever done.

We were all happy we wore 4/3 full wetsuits through all the canyons.

Impact vests added just the right amount of flotation.

Glad we took repellent - lots of gnats. Also, believe the poison oak hype. It’s avoidable, but widespread.

Bolt farms at every drop. No webbing or links were needed.

Did have to break out a pig rig to pull down rope at Matacanes R2 (RDC). Self-inflicted. Pretty sure we just put a twist in the last foot or two by pulling a little too fast.

I directly drank from springs/seeps, which were widespread in Matacanes, much more rare in Chipitin-Hidrofobia. We also purified creek water.

Food and WiFi were available at a little restaurant in Potrero - dinner was about $7/plate, and we gladly ate there after canyons. Just call or text ahead to arrange it and avoid waiting a while for your food.

Random local guys hit us up for “entry fee”, twice on way into Matacanes, once at top of Chipitin trail. In all cases, we answered that we already paid, naming the guy who brought us up there and arranged shuttles, and whose place we camped at.

Definitely arrange shuttle pickups from bottom of Matacanes and Hidrofobia. The road march back from Adjuntas to Potrero Redondo would be brutal (the drive is brutal too, but far better than a steep road march).

Aside from encountering some friendly locals at the bottom of Chipitin falls and near the end of Hidrofobia, we saw nobody in the canyons (all done on April weekdays)

All condition reports

Date	Quality	Waterflow	Wetsuit	Difficulty	Time	Team	Reported by
18 May 2025	Amazing	Moderate	Thin wetsuit	Normal	5 hours	3 people Advanced	Shaunaexplores (6 reports)
Comment: Unreal canyon. Definitely lives up to the hype with incredible limestone formations, pristine turquoise water, and epic jumps I will be dreaming about for months. Brought our own gear and went unguided thru Matacanes, Chipitin, Hidrofobia, and Cueva Tierrosa over 2 days. We worked with Aldea for shuttles and lodging. Highly recommend! If you're not renting two 4x4 vehicles, shuttle services are going to be necessary for both Matacanes and Hidrofobia. The drive back up the mountain is about an hour. Go early to Matacanes on weekends or expect to be passing or waiting on bigger guided groups. Most guides were very nice about us sneaking by and offered to let us do jumps ahead of them since we were a small crew. So appreciated! However, as a group of 3 young women we also experienced some rude comments and obvious misogyny from some guides and passengers. Men walking up and grabbing our rigging without asking, passengers leaving their groups to try to get ahead of us, guides telling us the canyon would be too difficult for us, etc. Unfortunate but plenty of lovely guides and folks we met as well! Bolt farms at the 2 rappels. Bolts immediately LDC of the first waterfall will put you right in the flow and is by far the best spot to rig if it's open! RDC bolts look like a blast on the second rap, but we ended up on the center nose outside of the flow. Trickier overhung start so the guides avoid it for beginners, but we were able to quickly bypass a lot of groups here and get the rest of the cave and the second cave section to ourselves. The underground sections are something out of a dream. The less spoilers the better. The jump LDC before the second cavernous section is as perfect as it gets. You can also exit the second cave and backtrack on top of it to a fun bonus jump. A bit on the shallower side compared to other higher jumps, your feet might brush the bottom here. One of our group went without wetsuit, and I felt very hot in mine. Very thin wetsuit, maybe 2mm recommended for this time of year. Wear long sleeves/ long pants on the hikes in and out, there is lots of poison oak. Bring some cash in your dry bag, you can buy some celebratory beers and ceviche at the end! Hope I will get to come back to this one.
2 Apr 2025 Trip report	Amazing	Moderate Low	Thin wetsuit	Normal		4 people Intermediate to Advanced	Triggerfish (60 reports)
Comment: Brought our own gear, unguided. Had 3 days, did Matacanes, Hidrofobia, Chipitin. I’ll include some general info here that goes for all. Rough surfaces eat up backsides! Maybe it’s cause we went early in season and the travertine wasn’t so polished, but many slides are pretty rough, and we all said these canyons were the roughest on pants we’d ever done. We were all happy we wore 4/3 full wetsuits through all the canyons. Impact vests added just the right amount of flotation. Glad we took repellent - lots of gnats. Also, believe the poison oak hype. It’s avoidable, but widespread. Bolt farms at every drop. No webbing or links were needed. Did have to break out a pig rig to pull down rope at Matacanes R2 (RDC). Self-inflicted. Pretty sure we just put a twist in the last foot or two by pulling a little too fast. I directly drank from springs/seeps, which were widespread in Matacanes, much more rare in Chipitin-Hidrofobia. We also purified creek water. Food and WiFi were available at a little restaurant in Potrero - dinner was about $7/plate, and we gladly ate there after canyons. Just call or text ahead to arrange it and avoid waiting a while for your food. Random local guys hit us up for “entry fee”, twice on way into Matacanes, once at top of Chipitin trail. In all cases, we answered that we already paid, naming the guy who brought us up there and arranged shuttles, and whose place we camped at. Definitely arrange shuttle pickups from bottom of Matacanes and Hidrofobia. The road march back from Adjuntas to Potrero Redondo would be brutal (the drive is brutal too, but far better than a steep road march). Aside from encountering some friendly locals at the bottom of Chipitin falls and near the end of Hidrofobia, we saw nobody in the canyons (all done on April weekdays)
11 Apr 2024	Amazing	Moderate	Thin wetsuit	Normal	8 hours	10 people Intermediate to Expert	Herve (17 reports),Johnbcaves (158 reports),Dominik (64 reports)
Comment: Excellent canyon. Enjoyed the beautiful caves, including a lap thru the second cave.
10 Apr 2024	Amazing	Low	Thin wetsuit	Normal		6 people	K arc (373 reports)
Comment: Returning to Matacanes after four years. Truly amazing canyon. We came back a few days later to run it a second time. It's just that good. Matacanes lives up to the hype.
24 Nov 2023	Amazing	Moderate Low	Full wetsuit	Normal	10 hours	4 people Beginner to Expert	Dwentzel (18 reports)
Comment: The first part of the canyon was pretty cold. A 5/4 wetsuit and maybe a rain jacket would make it comfortable. It definitely warmed up as we descended. The water levels are lower than in May 2021 so there are fewer jumps and swims. Guide companies have also created more trails to get a "canyon highlights" version instead of swimming and rock hopping through several long sections. The caves were both in great condition. Poison ivy was going dormant for the season so didn't seem to be a factor this time.
7 Jan 2023	Amazing	Moderate Low	Full wetsuit	Normal	6 hours	9 people Beginner to Expert	Reiternick (35 reports)
Comment: World class. Less spoilers you read the better. 2 straightforward raps. We brought 1 60m and beal escaper.
23 Mar 2022	Amazing	Moderate Low	Full wetsuit	Extreme	15 hours	4 people	Coops (121 reports)
Comment: 5 stars - even with an 11hr self-evacuation and the subsequent 6 screws in my leg.
29 Oct 2021	Great	Moderate	Full wetsuit	Normal	11 hours	4 people Beginner to Intermediate	Coalemus (160 reports)
Comment: The cave sections and narrows are spectacular. There was much more creek walking than I expected considering all the hype, though. I prefer the Querétaro canyons. Sacrilege, I know. Fecund and bounteous bolt gardens at both rappels. The first pool, and water above the regaderas is frigid but it's open and you can avoid a lot of it (big pool below the entrance rap is a good swim though). After this it warms up considerably. The jump into the second cave was not dangerous looking and 2 of us did it with no problems. We had rope pull issues on R1 because the pull line for twisted around the figure 8 block but pretty sure that was operator error. The spot where kml tells you to take your wetsuit off is bad. There was another 20 minutes of swimming to deep wades after this spot. someone should update this.
8 Mar 2020	Amazing	Low	Thin wetsuit	Easy	8 hours	7 people Advanced to Expert	Logan (60 reports)
Comment: This is why canyoneers come to Mexico. If ropewiki allowed for 6-stars, this route would get 6-stars. Clearly one of the best waterpark-style canyoning routes anywhere in the world. Highlights were the two swim-through caves, two notable waterslides, and a jumping frenzy. The highest jump may be the one at the initial rappel, from a perch about 30 feet above the pool you can get off rope and jump into the boil. Total Time: 8 hours. Approach, 1.5 hours, 3.5 miles, mostly downhill on a dirt road and well-maintained trail. Canyon: 5 hours. Exit: 45 minutes, 1.6 miles of creek walking. Shuttle back to Potrero Redondo: 1 hour.
7 Mar 2020	Amazing	Moderate Low	Thin wetsuit	Normal		7 people	K arc (373 reports)
Comment: Matacanes lives up to the hype. Amazing canyon!
9 Mar 2019	Amazing	Moderate	Full wetsuit	Normal	12 hours	1 people	Felixrulz (76 reports)
Comment: I did Rumerosa and then Matacanes on the same day. The 12hrs is for both. I did 13 abseils in Rumerosa.
28 Feb 2019 Trip report	Amazing	Moderate Low	Full wetsuit	Normal	6 hours	1 people	Felixrulz (76 reports)
Comment: Left camp around 7:30 (9:30 maybe. Think my camera clock was wrong). Found some canyon topos outside Aldea Matacanes. The walk to the canyon was longer than I expected and I even took a GPS reading to make sure I was going the right way. I rapped about 7m down on the first pitch, and jumped the rest. In one hour I reached the first cave. Apart from one nice section where you meander through large boulders, I didn't think much of this section. The cave was very nice. 23m +16m pull cord was all I needed. Could do with a little less. After the cave it opened back up. And again wasn't amazing. An hour and a half from entering the cave I noted flagging on the right. An escape, or maybe alternate entrance. From here the canyon narrowed getting better. And 20 mins from the flagging I jumped into an amazing section. Amazing shower heads. Was very short though. In another 20 mins I was out of the second cave. 1.5hrs to las Adjuntas. Cached gear and walked to Potrero Redondo.