National Parks in Mexico

The Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve covers the high oyamel fir forests on the border of Michoacán and the State of Mexico, at about 3,000 m. The butterflies arrive from late October and early November, settle in their colonies by December and stay until about mid-March, when they mate and head north. The best weeks are late January and February: the colonies are at full size, and on a warm, sunny day they lift off the trees by the thousand around midday and fill the air. On a cold, cloudy morning they stay clustered and still, so plan a spare day if you can.

Only a few sanctuaries are open to visitors. El Rosario, near Angangueo and Ocampo in Michoacán, is the largest and most visited, with a steep climb of roughly an hour from the car park. Sierra Chincua, also near Angangueo, has a gentler trail. Piedra Herrada, in the State of Mexico near Valle de Bravo, is the closest to the capital at around 2.5 to 3 hours by road and the easiest day trip. You walk or ride a hired horse up the trail, then a local guide leads you to the colony and keeps the group quiet behind a rope. Each sanctuary charges a modest entry fee, and guides and horses are paid separately.

Most visitors come on a tour from Mexico City, a long day of six to eight hours on the road. Staying in Angangueo, Zitácuaro or Valle de Bravo lets you be at the gate at opening, before the crowds. See our safety guide for the current advisory on Michoacán before you choose a sanctuary.

The Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt crosses the country just south of Mexico City, and several of its peaks sit inside national parks you can reach in a day. The classic is Paso de Cortés, the 3,600 m saddle between Iztaccíhuatl (about 5,230 m) and Popocatépetl (about 5,400 m), reached by road from Amecameca. Popocatépetl is one of the most active volcanoes in North America and climbing it is banned; you see it smoking from the pass. Iztaccíhuatl, the “sleeping woman”, is the hiking volcano: trails start at La Joya, a short drive beyond the pass, and fit climbers attempt the summit in a long day with a guide. Register and pay the park fee at the Paso de Cortés visitor centre.

Nevado de Toluca, an hour from Toluca, is the easiest high crater in Mexico: a road climbs to the Parque de los Venados, where private cars must stop, and from there you walk or cycle up to the crater and down to the Sol and Luna lakes inside it. The crater is closed at times for bad weather. La Malinche in Tlaxcala is the standard acclimatisation hike, a non-technical climb to about 4,460 m from the cabins at its base. Pico de Orizaba, at about 5,600 m the third-highest mountain in North America, is a glaciated climb from Tlachichuca for experienced mountaineers between November and March.

The Copper Canyon, Barrancas del Cobre in Spanish, is a network of six main canyons in the Sierra Tarahumara of Chihuahua, several of them deeper than the Grand Canyon. It is home to the Rarámuri, and the way most people see it is from the Chepe railway, which runs about 650 km between the plains of Chihuahua and the Pacific at Los Mochis, through 86 tunnels and over 37 bridges. The faster, more comfortable Chepe Express covers the most scenic section, between Creel and Los Mochis; the Chepe Regional runs the whole line.

Break the journey rather than riding straight through. Creel is the main base, a timber town with tours to the Rarámuri villages, Lake Arareco and the Valley of the Monks. Divisadero is the classic viewpoint over three canyons at once, and the adjoining Barrancas del Cobre Adventure Park has a cable car and some of the longest ziplines in the world. Urique, at the bottom of the deepest canyon, is a long, hair-raising drive down but the most rewarding stop for hikers. Plan three to five days.

Basaseachic Falls, about three hours north of Creel, drops some 246 m in one leap, the highest permanent waterfall in Mexico. It flows strongest from July to September, after the rains, and the walk from the rim to the base takes an hour or two each way. Book Chepe Express seats well ahead for Easter and Christmas, and check current conditions in the Sierra Tarahumara in our safety guide.

Sumidero Canyon National Park is the easiest big canyon in Mexico to see: launches leave from Chiapa de Corzo and from the Cahuaré jetty near Tuxtla Gutiérrez for a trip of about two hours up the Grijalva River, between walls that rise around 1,000 m. On the way you usually see crocodiles basking on the banks, spider monkeys, herons and the moss-covered “Christmas tree” rock formation where a waterfall runs in the wet season. A road along the rim from Tuxtla has five viewpoints over the canyon; a taxi or tour can do both the boat and the viewpoints in a day.

Chiapas also has the country’s best jungle. The Lacandon rainforest along the Guatemalan border protects the ruins of Yaxchilán and Bonampak, and the tour from Palenque that visits them includes a boat ride on the Usumacinta River. Near the Guatemalan border, Lagunas de Montebello National Park has dozens of lakes in shades of blue and green, a long day trip from San Cristóbal de las Casas that can include the ruins of Chinkultic. The waterfalls of Agua Azul and Misol-Ha are usually visited on the road between San Cristóbal and Palenque, at their bluest from March to May before the rains turn them muddy. For the ruins, see our historic sites guide.

Sian Ka’an, a UNESCO World Heritage biosphere reserve covering more than 5,000 square km south of Tulum, is a mix of lagoons, mangrove channels, savannah, jungle and reef. Most visitors take a boat tour, either from Punta Allen at the end of the bumpy sand road down the coast, for dolphins, turtles and fly-fishing flats, or from the Muyil side, where you float down an ancient Maya canal through the mangroves in a life jacket. Pay the reserve fee at the entrance checkpoint, and go with a local cooperative guide.

The Whale Sanctuary of El Vizcaíno protects the lagoons where Pacific gray whales mate and give birth each winter, after swimming down from the Arctic. At Laguna Ojo de Liebre, just outside Guerrero Negro, and at San Ignacio Lagoon further south, licensed pangas take small groups out among the whales, and mothers often bring their calves right up to the boat to be touched. The season runs from about mid-December to April, with the most calves in February and March. Bahía Magdalena, reached from Puerto López Mateos, is closer to La Paz and Los Cabos.

Off Punta Mita, north of Puerto Vallarta, Islas Marietas National Park is famous for its Hidden Beach, a crater-like beach open to the sky that you reach by swimming through a short tunnel. Visits are capped and only licensed operators can land there, so book a permitted tour rather than buying from a beach tout; many trips only snorkel nearby. On the Oaxaca coast west of Puerto Escondido, Lagunas de Chacahua is a sleepy park of mangrove lagoons and a long surf beach, reached by boat from Zapotalito.

In the northwest, El Pinacate y Gran Desierto de Altar in Sonora is a World Heritage landscape of black lava fields, giant round craters such as El Elegante and the largest field of active sand dunes in North America. It is a couple of hours’ drive from Puerto Peñasco; register at the visitor centre, carry plenty of water and avoid the summer heat. Above Monterrey, Cumbres de Monterrey National Park has the Cola de Caballo waterfall and the limestone walls of Cañón La Huasteca, popular with climbers.

In San Luis Potosí, the Cave of Swallows is a sinkhole about 370 m deep. At dawn, thousands of swifts and parakeets spiral up out of it, and at dusk they dive back in. It anchors a trip to the Huasteca Potosina, a region of turquoise rivers and waterfalls such as Tamul.

Mexico’s parks and reserves are run by CONANP, the national protected areas commission, and most charge a daily conservation fee paid at the gate or included in a tour price, often in the form of a wristband. Facilities are basic by US or European standards: expect a gate, a car park and perhaps a small visitor centre, with few marked trails beyond the main routes. In many places, including the monarch sanctuaries, Sumidero and the whale lagoons, the land or the boats belong to local ejidos and cooperatives, and hiring their guides is required or simply the way things work.

A car makes Baja, the volcano parks and the Yucatán much easier, but drive in daylight and stick to toll roads where you can; our getting around guide covers car hire and buses. Tours from Mexico City, Tulum, La Paz and Tuxtla are good value for the harder trips. Bring cash in pesos for fees, guides and boats, because card machines are rare at park gates.

The dry season, from November to April, is the best time for almost every park, and it lines up with the butterflies, whales and flamingos. The rainy season, from June to October, fills the waterfalls and turns the forests green, but brings afternoon storms, hurricane risk on the coasts and muddy roads. See our best time to visit guide for month-by-month weather.