Mexiquillo

Mexiquillo sits at about 2,600 metres in the Sierra Madre Occidental, on the old road between Durango and Mazatlan, and it collects several oddities in one forest. The rock garden is the first: a plateau of eroded volcanic formations - domes, blocks, arches and mushroom shapes scattered through the pines, walkable and climbable. The waterfall is the second: a river drops some 30 metres off a rock lip into a canyon, best after summer rains and reached by a short trail from the meadows. The third is human - the stone tunnels and cuttings of a railway that was begun in the early twentieth century to cross the sierra and never finished, leaving hand-cut portals and bores standing in the forest as ruins with no line attached. Around them, the park runs cabins, campgrounds, horse hire, zip lines and quad tracks for weekend visitors from Durango. Winters bring frost and occasional snow to the plateau, summers bring rain and mushrooms, and the pine air at that altitude is the point of the whole excursion.

What you actually see

• The rock garden - eroded volcanic shapes among the pines.
• The waterfall - a 30-metre drop into the canyon.
• The railway tunnels - unfinished stone bores in the forest.
• The high meadows - camps, horses and cold clear air.

When to go

May to October for green forest and full waterfall; winter for frost and possible snow, with colder nights and some closures. The sierra highway is spectacular in any season.

Honest expectations

Facilities are rustic - simple cabins, cold nights, cash only. Trails are unmarked in places. The old highway 40 through the sierra is slow and winding; the newer toll road is faster but bypasses the park entrance.

Nearby

El Salto's timber town is minutes away; the Espinazo del Diablo lookout and the descent to Mazatlan continue west.