Toltec Falls

Toltec Falls is a 40-foot waterfall in New Mexico, on Rio de los Pinos.

Fed largely by snowmelt, it runs hardest in late spring and early summer and can thin to a trickle by late season.

Plungeworthy rates Toltec Falls 5.7/10 — worth a detour. The score weighs its scale, how confidently it's mapped, and its character.

A chain of waterfalls — 25, 20, 15, and 15 feet — locked inside Toltec Gorge, the 800-foot-walled canyon the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad crosses. Public land, real falls, and essentially unreachable: the only person who has documented the descent calls this “New Mexico's most extreme place.”

His route: ride the tourist railroad to Osier, Colorado, then eight miles of cliff scrambling and long, mandatory swims through rapids and over falls, where a sprained ankle becomes a survival problem. We're listing what's down there, not recommending you follow. If you want the gorge, see it from the train.

The one documented descent was done in autumn low water — and never in high water.