This hike takes you through beautiful landscapes and fascinating rock formations located less than an hour from Guadalajara. It’s one of those walks even small children can do and the site, unlike so many places I’ve described, can be reached by any sort of vehicle. Can you ask for anything more?
Yes, you say. “I want the assurance that my family – and my car too – will be safe the whole time.
No problem. The River Loop is on private property owned by Agua Dulce Rancho Ecoturistico, perhaps the best organized place for camping inside the Primavera Forest, located 18 kilometers due west of Guadalajara’s periferico (beltway).
The walk starts near almost a dozen long, stone columns lying side by side. What? Ruins of a Greek monument, here in western Mexico? No, these are natural phenomena, superb examples of fossil fumaroles, long rock cylinders which originally marked the path of gases rising through a pyroclastic flow 140,000 years ago. Most frequently, you see only the tips of such columns, typically sticking out of the ground like tree stumps. Here at Agua Dulce, upheavals of the earth have exposed the columns and tilted them to a nearly horizontal position.
The trail we are on is wide and smooth. Signs indicate it’s also a bicycle path but our guide, Samuel Curiel, says “It has a steep and rough section up ahead. It’s good for hardy mountain bikers but it’s not for family cycling.”
We continue through a beautifully wooded area to a nice lookout called, of course, El Mirador. Now we pass a massive, weirdly shaped rhyolite wall and follow the curving path down to a wide, pleasant meadow where we come upon the Agua Dulce River, which rises from the earth at the campground where we left our car and meanders all over the place. In an area where most springs are boiling hot and salty as sea water, this cold, pure “Sweet Water Stream” is considered a true blessing.
On the last leg of the loop, Samuel says, “You can either walk along the main road here back to the campground entrance or we can take a short cut directly to your cars through this tall, wispy grass.” Well, the kids among us made the choice by plunging right into the wall of green, disappearing from view. Yes, here we got to enjoy yet another ambiente, as beautiful as all the rest of the route and now, after walking 3.8 kilometers, we are back at the Agua Dulce parking area. What to do next? Well, you are now less than two kilometers from delightful Río Salado, which is actually the continuation of famed Río Caliente. A soothing soak in the river’s warm, mineralized water may be just the thing to top off your hike.
In case you are staying at Agua Dulce, let me mention some of the attractions you’ll find, such as a lookout tower, a roofed dining area with plenty of tables and chairs, a sweet-water swimming hole, ponies and horses to rent, and of course, ziplines to take you whizzing through the trees. Daytime use costs 50 pesos per person and you can camp for 100 pesos. They also have a fish farm: let them know far enough in advance and you can catch and/or eat the mojarras of your choice. Best of all, Agua Dulce does not allow loud music, “especially at night.”
You can learn all about Río Salado and Agua Dulce in our forthcoming book Outdoors in Western Mexico 2 (in English and Spanish). However, we are still a few months from publication, so, if you need information in the meantime, just contact Samuel Curiel at (cell) 33-3380-9174, 33-615-9439 or 33-1003-4711.
How to get there
Take Highway 15 (Nogales) west, following the signs to Ameca and turn southwest onto Highway 70. After a mere 5.3 kilometers you will pass under a pedestrian bridge. Immediately make a left turn into the little town of Emiliano Zapata (N20 43.210 W103 37.641). You’ll see a store on your left and a fork in the road straight ahead of you. Keep right and you’ll be on a winding cobblestone road that will take you past the town plaza. Now the road becomes dirt (good quality) and 300 meters past the plaza, you come to a T where, again, you go right. Continuing southeast for 1.3 kilometers you come to another crossroad where, again, you bear right. From here you go straight south 890 meters to the well-marked entrance to Rancho Agua Dulce (N20 41.976 W103 37.137). After parking here and paying your fee, you start your hike at a locked iron gate (N20 42.044 W103 37.160) located on the road 133 meters north of the Agua Dulce entrance.
After walking southwest a kilometer and a half, you go south through a meadow for 200 meters and get onto another brecha heading back toward Agua Dulce.
The driving route from Guadalajara is on Wikiloc.com under “GuadHikes – Emiliano Zapata to Aguadulce Campground,” and you’ll find the hiking route there too, under “Agua Dulce River Loop.” Driving time from the western edge of Guadalajara to Agua Dulce Ranch is only 40 minutes.