Kiokong Waterfalls & Bukidnon Highlands Trek

Bukidnon is one of the Philippines' most underrated highland provinces — a cool interior plateau of grasslands, pineapple fields, and pine forests ringed by volcanic peaks, bisected by the headwaters of three of Mindanao's major rivers. Hidden within its river canyons are waterfalls of remarkable scale that see a fraction of the visitors that the more famous falls of Cebu or Davao attract, and Kiokong Falls is among the finest of them.

The trek to Kiokong begins in the cogon grass uplands above Malaybalay, Bukidnon's provincial capital, and descends through increasingly dense vegetation into the river canyon where the falls are located. The transition from open grassland to closed-canopy rainforest happens within minutes — the temperature drops, the humidity rises, and the birdsong changes completely. The guide identifies the endemic Bukidnon species along the route: the Mindanao bleeding-heart pigeon, the Philippine pygmy woodpecker, and on lucky days the Apo sunbird in the flowering trees near the canyon rim.

Kiokong Falls reveals itself in stages — you hear the roar before you see it, then the first tier appears through the trees, then the full cascade: multiple tiers of water over a basalt cliff face, dropping into a pool of dark green water clear enough to see the bottom at five metres depth. The swimming is excellent — cold, clean, and powerful from the falls' turbulence without being dangerous near the edges. Eating lunch on the rock shelves beside the lower pool, with the spray cooling the air and hornbills calling across the canyon, is a reminder that Bukidnon rewards travelers who leave the Manila-Cebu-Boracay circuit behind.