Presa Zimapán

Southwest of Zimapán, the Tula and San Juan rivers meet and become the Moctezuma, and at that point the Federal Electricity Commission built one of Mexico's most impressive dams. Its official name honors engineer Fernando Hiriart Balderrama, but everyone calls it the Presa Zimapán. The concrete arch wall stands 203 meters high wedged into a narrow gorge known as the Cañón del Infiernillo, whose rock walls rise hundreds of meters above the water.

Construction ran from 1990 to the mid-1990s, the reservoir filled in 1995, and the hydroelectric plant began operating in 1996. Behind the wall, a long, winding lake of about 23 square kilometers now fills the canyons and touches the municipalities of Zimapán, Tecozautla and Tasquillo in Hidalgo and Cadereyta in Querétaro.

For visitors the lake means boat rides into the narrow canyon, kayaking, sport fishing for tilapia and bass, and simple palapa restaurants at the landings. On the shore near Llano Segundo, look for El Vigilante, a 15-meter rock that seems to show a human face watching over the water.