San Pedro Mezquital, Mexico (38 images)

All photos: © Jaime Rojo / WWF Mexico

The San Pedro Mezquital, in northwest Mexico, is the seventh largest river in the country and the last to cross the Western Sierra Madre without dams or other artificial barriers. Its vast watershed expands over 7 million acres and connects the Chihuahuan Desert, in the neartic biome, with the neotropical realms of the coast and the Gulf of California, in a mosaic of ecosystems that results in a rich biodiversity. On its way to the sea,...
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All photos: © Jaime Rojo / WWF Mexico

The San Pedro Mezquital, in northwest Mexico, is the seventh largest river in the country and the last to cross the Western Sierra Madre without dams or other artificial barriers. Its vast watershed expands over 7 million acres and connects the Chihuahuan Desert, in the neartic biome, with the neotropical realms of the coast and the Gulf of California, in a mosaic of ecosystems that results in a rich biodiversity. On its way to the sea, the San Pedro Mezquital runs 355 miles through some of the wildest and more remote areas of Mexico, some of them still oozing a true wilderness feeling. The river is born by the union of its three main tributaries, originated in the highest parts of the mountain ranges of the states of Durango and Zacatecas, amid cold and silent fir forests and rich pine-oak woodlands, considered a world biodiversity hotspot. It descends towards southeast, and then turns west to cross the Sierra Madre through the Mezquital Canyon âEUR"a deep gorge of almost 3,000 feet that bisects in two the mountain rangeâEUR", to exit in the tropical valleys and alluvial plains of Nayarit, where it becomes the main artery that supplies freshwater for Marismas Nacionales, a complex wetlands system that encompasses over 1,100 squared miles between the states of Nayarit and Sinaloa and contains the largest mangrove forest in the Mexican Pacific.

For more information visit wwf.org.mx/sanpedromezquital
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