MEXICO GUIDE

Exploring Nevado de Colima National Park
by Ron Mader

MEXICO WIKI
MEXICO FORUM

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.

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.

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.

VISITING?

LOCATION -- The park is located in Jalisco and Colima states

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.