River
Balsas River
724 km from source to mouth · Mexico.
MexicoFlows into Pacific Ocean4th longest in Mexico
In numbers
Length
724km
Average flow
1,100m³/s
Basin
113,100km²
Drop
1,142m
from 1,142 m to 0 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
724 km of river and 9 stops on the way: 4 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmMexican Plateauat 1,142 m
- 95 kmMixteco Rivertributary
- 151 kmRío Atoyactributary
- 231 kmMezcala Bridge
- 312 kmEl Caracol29 km²
- 405 kmTlapehuala9,331 people
- 425 kmCiudad Altamirano25,168 people
- 428 kmCoyuca de Catalán7,276 people
- 636 kmInfiernillo Reservoir288 km²
- 688 kmLas Guacamayas37,980 people
- 724 kmPacific Oceanat 0 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Mexico
At the mouth it carries 1,146 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 2.2 seconds. It drops from 1,142 m to 0 m, 1.6 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 113,100 km², about the size of BJ. 11.1 million people live in it. Highest water: September; lowest: from February to May. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (38% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- Las GuacamayasLargest city on its banks · 37,980 people
- Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo International Airport (ZIH)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 92 km from the cityCar hire at ZIH airport (Ixtapa)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water2 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From November to FebruaryThe best months to visit
Balsas River, month by month
Highest water: September
Lowest water: from February to May. Best months to visit: from November to February.
From about 110 m³/s in the lowest month to 3,200 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The basin
Balsas River: the basin in numbers
111,464 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 11.1millionpeople live in the basin
- 100/km²people per km²
- 1,412maverage altitude of the basin
- 992mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 21.7°Caverage air temperature
- 9%protected areas
- 0.5%covered by lakes
- 14km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 66% Forest
- 22% Cropland
- 18% Pasture
- 4% Towns and cities
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Balsas River: what you find on the way
- 2Weirs
- 2Ferry piers
- 1River beachesPlaya del Río Balsas
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.4 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Balsas River in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
2lakes on its wayLakeyas
2beaches at the mouth and on the banksCoastya
66mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (2)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- El Caracolkm 32329km²
- Infiernillo Reservoirkm 657288km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Beaches (2)
At the mouth (25 km) and on the banks, by Coastya
- Playa Azul23 km away30.2°C
- Playa Eréndira11 km away30.3°C
Mountains at the source (66)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Cerro La Estaca11 km away
- Cerro Las Tortillas9.9 km away
- Cerro Paloma12 km away
- Cerro La Flor10 km away
- Cerro Azomiate12 km away
- Cerro El Potrerillo13 km away
- Cerro Tipiche13 km away
- Cerro San Marcos13 km away
58 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Photos
Balsas River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (3)
Also: Cupatitzio River, Mixteco River, Río Atoyac
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1129218) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed along the river network from the point given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Lakeyas, Coastya, Peakyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
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