Desierto de los Leones

Mexico's first national park, decreed in 1917, is neither desert nor home to lions - the "desierto" was Carmelite usage for a wilderness retreat, and the leones likely a family name. What it is: 1,800 hectares of cool oyamel fir and pine cloud-forest between 2,600 and 3,700 metres on the Sierra de las Cruces, twenty minutes above the city's western edge and routinely fifteen degrees cooler. At its heart sit the ruins of the Ex-Convento del Santo Desierto, a monastery first finished in 1611 and rebuilt by 1814, where discalced Carmelites kept silence in walled gardens; its restored cloisters, underground passages and chapel now host exhibitions, while ten ruined hermitages scatter through the woods along pilgrimage paths. Weekenders come for the trail network - popular routes run to the Cruz Blanca clearing and the San Miguel cascades - plus quesadilla stands by the monastery walls, horse rides and mountain-bike loops. When the afternoon mist rolls through the firs, the forest turns properly gothic.

History

The place was first called the Desierto de Nuestra Señora del Carmen de los Montes de Santa Fe. The first stone of the convent, its 10 hermitages and the surrounding wall was laid on 23 January 1606; the damp climate wore the first convent down by 1722, and a new one was built just to the south and finished in 1814. The forest was made a reserve in 1876 to protect the springs that supplied Mexico City, and the first national park in the country in 1917 (Wikipedia, Desierto de los Leones National Park).

What's there

• The monastery ruins - the rebuilt convent's cloisters, gardens and passages.
• The oyamel forest - firs in habitual mist, fifteen degrees below the city.
• The hermitages - ruined silence-retreats along the trails.
• Cruz Blanca and the cascades - the classic walking goals.

When to go

Dry-season mornings, November to April, before the mist and the crowds; summer rains turn trails to mud by afternoon. Weekdays give you the hermit's version.

Things to know

Altitude near 3,000 metres makes easy trails feel steeper - pace the first hour. Facilities cluster at the monastery; deeper trails are unmarked in places, so stick to popular routes or hire a local guide. Weekends fill the monastery meadows with families and speakers.

Nearby

Santa Fe's towers are just downhill; San Angel and the La Venta toll road viewpoints frame the return.

Key facts