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Last Updated
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Exploring Nevado de Colima National Park
by Ron Mader
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| Located on the border of Colima
and Jalisco
states, Nevado de Colima National Park boasts two volcanoes.
There is the extinct Nevado de Colima, 4,200 meters (13,375
feet) and the younger, active Volcan de Fuego de Colima, 3,820
meters (12,533 feet). The live volcano can be climbed as long
as its not showing any signs of volcanic activity.
Inside the park Carrizalillo Lake attracts visitors for kayaking
and picnics, particularly on weekends.
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BIRDING
While the lower levels of this park have been deforested,
toward the top the lush coniferous forests are here home to
endemic birds such as the Aztec thrush, long-tailed wood partridge,
highland guan, thick-billed parrot, and stygian owl.
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NATURAL WORLD
The volcanoes provide a cool oasis of subtropical montane
and temperate forests rising up from the hot and dusty lowlands.
Besides its diversity of birds, the park is also home to the
endangered Mexican bobcat (Lynx rufus escuinapae).
The bobcat hunts rodents on the older lava flows and avalanche
deposits that tumble down from the summit of Volcan de Fuego.
In turn, the isolation at high altitudes and the inaccessible
nature of the middle-elevation montane and temperate forests,
where deep canyons descend to lower elevations, provides suitable
habitat for the elusive cougar, now endangered throughout much
of Latin America.
NEARBY
The charming town of Comala was designated a national historical
monument in 1988. It is also known as Pueblo Blanco de América
because of its picturesque tile-roofed white houses.
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VISITING?
LOCATION -- The park is located in Jalisco
and Colima
states
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TRANSPORTATION -- Travel from Colima 90 kilometers
(56 miles) north on Highway 54 to Ciudad Guzman and then another
83 kilometers (52 miles) onward and upward to Joya. There is
also a road from Atenquique (mid way between the Colima and
Ciudad Guzman) that leads to Joya.
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