Challenger Falls: Belize’s Newly Found Giant
Every so often, Belize surprises even those of us who thought we knew her rivers and ridges by heart. Just days ago, a reconnaissance team led by Dr. Percival Cho ventured into the Sittee Forest Reserve and stumbled upon something remarkable: a waterfall plunging an estimated 800 feet down the face of a crater-like ridge.
They’ve given it a name straight from the pages of adventure literature: Challenger Falls, after Professor Challenger in Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World. And in many ways, it feels just like that—a reminder that Belize still holds secrets, waiting for those who walk deep enough into her forests.
If the measurements hold, Challenger Falls would become the second tallest waterfall in Belize, right after Thousand Foot Falls in Mountain Pine Ridge, and overtaking the long-recognized Davis Falls in Stann Creek.
Why This Discovery Matters
- Belize is still revealing itself. In a country where more than 40% of land is protected, discoveries like this are possible because vast stretches of rainforest and ridge remain untouched.
- It rewrites our waterfall map. Up until now, Davis Falls (~500 ft) was second on the list. Challenger Falls, at ~800 ft, changes the conversation.
- It sits on a geological mystery. Dr. Cho describes the site as lying on the edge of a crater-like formation, raising new questions about Belize’s deep earth history.
A Living Land of Waterfalls
Challenger Falls joins a family of giants that define Belize’s rugged beauty:
- Thousand Foot Falls (~1,600 ft) – Tallest in Belize and Central America.
- Challenger Falls (~800 ft, newly found) – Sittee Forest Reserve.
- Davis Falls (~500 ft) – The long-standing “number two.”
- Antelope Falls, Big Rock Falls, Tiger Fern Falls – Beloved for swimming and hiking.
Each waterfall is not just a drop of water—it’s a marker of Belize’s geology, rainfall, and living ecosystems.
Still in the “Lost World”
When the explorers named it Challenger Falls, they might not have realized how fitting that is for Belize as a whole. This is a country where limestone caves still open into chambers unseen for centuries, where jaguars leave fresh tracks at dawn, and where even in 2025, an 800-foot waterfall can suddenly enter the map.
Belize is not finished being discovered. And that is why we walk the trails, paddle the rivers, and climb the ridges.
The Sittee Forest Reserve
Challenger Falls sits inside the Sittee Forest Reserve, one of Belize’s least-documented protected areas. Managed as a forest reserve under the country’s conservation laws, it was never set up for heavy tourism. Instead, it’s a working landscape where sustainable forestry, wildlife habitat, and watershed protection overlap.
The terrain is thick with tropical forest, rising to about a thousand feet above sea level, and bordered by the Sittee River, famous at its mouth for sheltering the tallest mangroves in Belize. Villages like Sittee River and the historic Serpon Sugar Mill lie nearby, but the interior remains largely uncharted. That remoteness is exactly why a waterfall of this scale could stay hidden until now.
