Huasca de Ocampo

In a verdant canyon just outside the Pueblo Mágico of Huasca de Ocampo, the Río San Antonio has carved a cathedral of geometry. The Basaltic Prisms — vertical columns of hexagonal basalt formed by the rapid cooling of lava flows millions of years ago — rise up to 30 metres, their perfect angles softened by centuries of water and moss. A series of footbridges and stairways lets you descend into the gorge, where the river fans into the Cascada de la Rosa and the taller Cascada de San Antonio, their mist catching rainbows in the afternoon sun. The site was immortalised by Alexander von Humboldt in 1803, who sketched the columns and declared them a wonder of the natural world. Today, the canyon hums with the sound of rushing water and the occasional zip-line whoosh from the adventure park that operates on the rim.