About Cascada de Nocedo (Cascada de Valdecesar or Cola de Caballo)
The Cascada de Nocedo at first glance seemed like a pretty ordinary waterfall. However, when we paid more attention to its somewhat tight surroundings within a small chasm, we realized that there was also a natural bridge right above it! That’s right, this was one of those rare waterfalls where we were also able to combine it with a natural bridge (or natural arch) sighting! Mercifully, the Arroyo Valdecésar (the creek responsible for the falls so it’s sometimes called Cascada de Valdecésar) didn’t have such a forceful flow within these tight quarters that the view of the waterfall itself wasn’t a misty mess. This contrasted with a similarly-situated waterfall at the Cascate del Varone near Riva del Garda, Italy, where that waterfall threatened to drench and destroy our electronics.
Visiting this waterfall was very easy. From the trailhead (see directions below), we followed a relatively short (maybe 100m or so) footpath crossing over a couple of bridges and being towered over by some tall cliffs. Towards the end of the trail, there was a catwalk entering the chasm, where on the final turn, we were face-to-face with the somewhat horsetail shape of Cascada de Nocedo (I’ve also seen this falls called Cola de Caballo or horse’s tail). Naturally, the closer to the end of the catwalk I went, the mistier and more difficult it was to take a photo or a movie. And given how dark it was in this little chasm, this might be a situation where a long exposure photo or a high ISO would be necessary.
The natural bridge was practically directly above the waterfall and mini-chasm. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to capture both the natural bridge and the waterfall in one frame (believe me, I tried). I pretty much either had to capture the falls or just the bridge, but not both. I heard that it’s possible to approach this chasm from the top and get a closer look at the natural bridge, but we didn’t exercise that option so we can’t comment more on it.
In any case, this entire excursion pretty much took us a mere 30 minutes, and that included the picture-taking. We were the only ones at this waterfall so it felt like a nice and intimate experience. In fact, it seemed like a lot of cars just drove past this trailhead as if hardly anyone cared this falls was here! Perhaps the lack of signage had something to do with it. Anyhow, their loss was our gain in the form of having this place to ourselves!
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