Arco del Tiempo Trail head | Tourist Attraction

March 6th, 2024 by alvise

We arrived late so no option to go down and up in one day.
We could sleep for free in the parking lot.
Price: guide 300 pesos for group, 600 pesos pp repell (if you do not repell down you do not see anything) entry fee around 50. If you plan to sleep down in the arch cost you extra 600 for the guide. (And you need your tent etc) You can rent horses to bring you down part of the way (600 pesos) you still have to do the final part rough 400 mt elevation
Hike is 500+ mt elevation down and up, repel,is around 30 mt, if you are not able to do they set up a zip line and send you down and up with pulley. Bring your hiking poles lots or rocks sometime slippery and steep sections. If you do not like to share the place with other 40 or even 80 people do not go in weekends!
The arch himself is impressive, you can walk and swim upstream to the entry a bit of current to fight. But it is a limited experience not too much to see other than the arch. If you have the time and money I greatly suggest a tour with explora www.exploratravel.com.mx in San Cristobal, is not cheap around 12.000 pesos pp! but is a 5 day rafting down the river from the acquacero (an amazing other place to see) down passing the arco del tiempo. They supply insurance food, permits transportation and everything and I think is 6 person max per group. I discover that later and I do not do it but sound the real deal. Ps I have no affiliation with the four operator

January 13th, 2024 by sxmfamilyontheroad

new updates price
you can go in one Day, thats what we did with 2 children of 3 and 5 years old ! crazy and very hard day but awesome !
we took à horse for the children
you have to walk 3 hours to get to the rappel. the horse can only go the 2 first hours then u have to walk.
horse : 600 pesos
guide : 300 pesos
entry fée : 161 pesos /pp
rappel : 600 / pp

beter if you have time to do it in 2 days !
without kids its ok in one Day !
beautiful place !
you go directly in général cardenas and ask the locals.

May 26th, 2023 by Toyota Dolphin 1987

Wow, one of my Mexican highlights! The hike is amazing, but also demanding. Especially if you do it like me in one day, I recommend to camp the night down at El Arco del Tiempo. You can organize a guide once you’re there. They are really friendly and do an amazing job. No problems with my old, small rig to get there. Enjoy!

May 28th, 2022 by tcowan78

This was a really cool experience, if fairly tough physically! Around an 8km hike each way from the village to the canyon, with lots of topography, after a 3km drive along the track (which takes you through an unnerving river crossing!). Towards the end of the hike is a steepish ascent and then a long, steep descent of 40 mins or so - ropes available to help with the steeper sections. Ideally you'd hike in on one day, camp overnight and then hike out again the following day. There's a camping option maybe two thirds of the way in (before the steep section), with a tin-roofed shelter, or in the dry season you can camp at the base of the canyon next to the river, which would be a pretty cool experience. Camping equipment I believe can be hired in the village.

Once at the canyon, if water levels aren't too high, you can rappel down to the river below - in our case that meant directly into the river! - and explore the canyon floor/get some great photos of the arch; to get back up you use a kind of foot pulley system - I'm sure it has a technical name! - which involves ratcheting yourself up a rope with your weight on one foot, then straightening your leg until you're upright, using your hand to lift the rope further up, and repeating till you reach the top, some 30-odd metres I think - about the most tiring thing I've ever done, though probably because I never really seemed to master the technique!

A guide (I'd hesitate to go without one, partly to be sure of finding the way, partly for the remoteness of the region - no phone signal, and we found a coral snake almost as soon as we started hiking; lots of fer-de-lances/nauyacas around too apparently) costs $250 for the group, rappelling an extra $600 per person, and there's a $54pp entry fee on top. I think they said camping would be an extra $250, I can't remember if that was pp or per tent. I'm not sure I'd bother doing it without the rappel honestly, your view of the arch is a bit limited till you're down at the bottom. For reference the tours from San Cris started at $3000pp.

If water levels are too high they won't let you rappel down, and I imagine the path becomes super muddy too; we visited in the first week of the rainy season and it was already a little touch and go. The guide said they tend not to allow people in at all July through September, but it's weather-dependent. Recommend decent footwear - I opted for hiking boots rather than trainers and was glad I did, it was muddy - and rain/sun protection, adequate food and water for the distance - and something suitable to wear for the rappel; I did it in a bikini as we were going straight into water and a) felt pretty exposed, and b) the harness bit into my groin something horrible on the tortuous way back up, still sore weeks later! Footwear you can wear both for the rappel and once at the bottom, that you don't mind getting wet, would be good too; barefoot wasn't ideal.

They had no problems with us overnighting in the village the night before and after, there was a flattish spot big enough for a medium sized rjg - probably just the one though. There are pretty cabañas available too, and I suspect they'd be fine with you sticking a tent up. Toilets available by the cabañas and a tiny shop selling snacks; no showers that I saw (we really needed one by the end too!). No phone service till you're back down on the main road but you can buy WiFi from the shop fairly cheaply.

October 10th, 2021 by eric_on_the_road

This is where the trail starts. First junction take a right, and has to go through a fence a few meters after. Better to get a guide, as it’s easy to get lost.
If you have time, use maps.me as a compass to point the direction, and track your way (maps.me has this option), then you can find it and make it back safely. As a reference, I walked by 2 roof shelters, and 3 fences in total on the way. Good luck!