[3] The site is located in a very isolated region with rough terrain, dominated principally by holm oak forest, cactus and other semi desert vegetation.

[3] The twelve meter one is called "cascada chica" (small waterfall) and "flows" off a base which is about sixty metres wide.

[7] The falls are formed by relatively small amounts of water which is oversaturated with calcium carbonate and comes to the surface through cracks or fissures on the mountainside.

[2][4] This cliff rises over fifty metres above the valley floor, where there is a natural platform about sixty meters wide.

Water constantly flows out of the springs and the process of depositing the calcium carbonate is ongoing, which can be seen on the walls of the artificial pools.

[4] The area is also of archeological interest because of the extensive system of irrigation and terraces built by the Zapotecs as many as 2,500 years ago.

[5] Researchers have studied the terraces and canals which have been cut into the sides of the mountains these cliffs are on and have concluded that they were an irrigation system, unique in Mexico.

While seepage and bank erosion were indeed problems with irrigation farming in other parts of Mesoamerica, the nearest example of anything similar is with the Hohokam of southern Arizona in 650 C.E.

Promises by state officials were made to invest the money earned at the site to raising living standards in the area, but residents claim that this has never happened.

As a result, the locals set up their own roadside checkpoints to levy a small fee, thus tourists are sometimes charged twice to access the site — once on the road and once at the entrance to the park.

[15] In October 2019, residents of Tlacolula de Matamoros, a town roughly 30 km (~18 miles) away, blocked the Pan-American Highway (Federal Highway 190) leading to Hierve el Agua to call attention to a dispute about whether an elementary school damaged by earthquakes should be repaired or replaced.

[16] In April 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread into Oaxaca, residents of San Lorenzo Albarradas blockaded the road over concerns that uncontrolled tourism would infect the locals.

[17] The current ombudsman of Oaxaca, Bernardo Rodríguez Alamilla, said that municipalities cannot legally block access or impose traffic restrictions so the state tries to dissuade them.