Prismas Basálticos and Real del Monte
Pueblo MáGico / FormacióN GeolóGica · Huasca de Ocampo, Hidalgo
Prismas Basalticos is a gorge in Hidalgo where the walls are hexagonal basalt columns up to 30 metres tall, with water falling over the top of them from a hacienda dam. Alexander von Humboldt visited in 1803 and described them, which is how Europe learned they existed. Huasca de Ocampo, the village beside it, was among the first Pueblos Magicos. The silver town of Real del Monte sits about 40 minutes away at 2,700 metres, where Cornish miners arrived in 1824 with steam engines and never entirely left. They brought two things that stayed: the pasty, now a Hidalgo institution with shops on every corner, and football, first played in Mexico by Cornishmen on this hillside. In the English cemetery every grave faces England except one. The ex-hacienda hotels at Santa Maria Regla and San Miguel Regla are old silver-processing works you can sleep in. Come on a weekday, call ahead about the waterfall, dress for cold and fog, and eat more than one pasty.
Prismas Basálticos, Huasca de Ocampo, Huasca de Ocampo, Hidalgo, 43500, Mexico
⚠ THE PRISMAS BASÁLTICOS SITE IS PRIVATELY RUN, charges admission and keeps daytime hours, with a small adventure park attached. ⚠ THE WATERFALL OVER THE COLUMNS IS FED BY RELEASES FROM THE SANTA MARÍA REGLA DAM, NOT BY RAIN ALONE - it can be a torrent or entirely dry, so call ahead if the water is why you are coming. ⚠ REAL DEL MONTE IS ABOUT 40 MINUTES AWAY at 2,700 metres, is free to walk, and the English cemetery charges a small fee and keeps daytime hours. The Museo del Paste and the mine museums generally close Mondays. ⚠ IT IS COLD, DAMP AND FREQUENTLY FOGBOUND YEAR ROUND at Real del Monte - dress for it. ⚠ WEEKENDS BRING MEXICO CITY, two hours away; weekdays are far quieter. ⚠ HOURS AND PRICES NOT VERIFIED FOR THIS FILE.
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