About Cascades de Setti Fatma
The Setti Fatma Waterfalls (Cascades de Setti Fatma or Cascades Ourika; I think is pronounced “OO-reek-ah”) was our first waterfalling experience in Morocco. Not knowing what to expect other than what we had read in our guidebooks, they were said to be a series of seven waterfalls above the village of Setti Fatma nestled in the Ourika Valley, which itself was one of a handful of valleys in the High Atlas Mountains. In our experience, Julie, Tahia, and I (along with a guide) managed to reach just one of these waterfalls (not counting the handful of smaller waterfalls and cascades en route), which seemed to have an impressive drop of about 25-30m.
Beyond this first falls, I went alone with the guide on a very rough trail high up to an overlook that allowed me to view at least two more waterfalls in addition to the first one (see photo at the top of this page). This perspective made me appreciate the context of the overall scale of just the first three falls. We had read that conceivably you can trek up to the remaining waterfalls (assuming I didn’t miscount the falls by not counting the smaller ones we saw en route to the “first”), but it was clear to me that the ascent became more difficult and dangerous the farther up I went. Thus, I can’t comment any further on the waterfalls higher up than the three that I managed to see.

Second, this excursion was very popular, which given what I had just described about the difficulty of the trail, it seemed almost crazy to think this could be possible. Nevertheless, this might be attributable to the fact that the Ourika Valley was said to be about 64km southeast of Marrakech, which itself was a very popular and busy city. We’ve read that many foreigners come to this falls as half-day or full-day trips from Marrakech, but we noticed many more Moroccans during our visit (in fact, I recalled encountering hardly any foreign tourists in the late afternoon of our visit). What was even more baffling was that amongst the folks doing the hike were women, older children, middle-aged, and even some more elderly-aged people hiking in flip flops, barefoot, or even dress sandals (in the case of some women). We had a hard enough time on the trail with our sturdy hiking boots yet they seemed to have a successful visit themselves.

In addition to these contrasting aspects of the experience, we also encountered several smaller waterfalls and cascades throughout the excursion. I wasn’t sure if these counted as part of the seven waterfalls that our guidebooks talked about or not, but I didn’t count them as such. There were also some water channels providing some small scale water diversion besides some of these waterfalls to which our guide was quick to point out that the Berber people knew how to do this before the Romans. In fact, he said that the Romans may have learned their water channeling techniques from the Berber people.

Finally, even though I carried our daughter on the hike, I have to admit that it was a little risky given the exposure to hazards. Have a look at the photo journal below and make your evaluation as to whether the risk reward would be worth it to you or not if you’re in a similar situation with kids.
Our starting point to Les Cascades de Setti Fatma was at the village of Setti Fatma in Ourika Valley. Setti Fatma was said to be about 64km southeast of Marrakech yet it took our driver about 90 minutes to two hours in each direction. Since we were driven here, we can only give the time commitment. We can’t give specific directions.
That said, if you do decide to hire your own car, besides the challenges of driving in a developing country, you do have to be cognizant of numerous police checks along this route. Our driver was even stopped at one point for speeding. So if you’re wondering why it takes so long to go about 40 miles, these are the big reasons why.
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Panoramic sweep of the Upper Setti Fatma Waterfalls as well as the steep canyon it was in from a tricky-to-reach cantina well above the first falls
Top down sweep of the first main Setti Fatma Waterfall eventually showing the scenic downstream canyon and bridge before walking into the cafe for a closer look at the falls
Right to left sweep along the stream somewhere near a bridge crossing at around the midpoint of the hike
Right to left sweep along the river in Ourika Valley as we started the hike up to the Setti Fatma Waterfalls
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