Paso de Cortes / Visitor Center | Informal Campsite

Mexico

Details

Verified:
23 days ago
Altitude:
3692.0 masl
Website:
None
Contributor:
claudio.bauer

Amenities

Electricity:
No
Wifi:
No
Kitchen:
No
Restaurant:
No
Showers:
No
Water:
No
Toilets:
No
Big Rig Friendly:
Yes
Tent Friendly:
Yes
Pet Friendly:
Yes

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Description

Parking lot & shelters for tents near the visitor center. We paid 54 pesos entry fee for the national park. You can stay for free. It's almost at 3700 m altitude, so it was cold (8 degrees at day, .. in the night). You better bring warm clothes with you ;-)

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Had a wonderful time car camping here for a few days. I was here during the week so there were no vendors, and I was alone with the state police most of the time (very nice people). Only spent 1 day in the actual park (La Joya area) and they charged me $100 MXN for the 1 day. Bring everything you need as there are no services at all - no water, trash, or bathrooms. Had 1-3 bars of 4G most of the time here, no problem with calls/texts/FaceTime but everything else on the slow side.

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Perfect place to enjoy the nature, nice view to the volcanos and for a calm sleep. The people of the visitor center are very kind, and also the police is there. Good signal Telcel 4G. We slept one night, but is a place for staying more days.
IMPORTANT: if you’re coming on motorhome, don’t do the road from Puebla.

Lugar perfecto para disfrutar de la naturaleza, contemplar los volcanes y dormir relajado. La gente del centro de visitantes es muy amable y también hay policía allí. Estuvimos una noche pero es un lindo lugar para quedarte varios días. Buena señal de 4G de Telcel.
IMPORTANTE: si venís en motorhome, no vengas por el camino desde Puebla porque no está asfaltado y no está buen estado - en cambio desde CDMX es asfaltado.

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Fantastic spot to camp overnight, we cycled up from Puebla (Cholula) in 2 easy days and camped in our tent for 1 night. There are 3 roofed shelters among the pines trees just above/behind the visitor centre to give some shelter from the rain. We asked in the visitor centre and the guy said it was fine to stay - didn't pay for anything. Police were friendly too. Brilliant views of Popo. No facilities (toilets, taps, food etc). Keep it clean!

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We parked at the Visitors center and went for a beautiful hike through the volcanos! We got back right before dark and didn’t want to drive the dirt bumpy road to Puebla so we asked the visitor center if we could stay in the parking lot and they said no problem! There is also a police station next to the visitor center with 24 hr watch. We didn’t pay anything to park, stay the night or hike the volcano! It was very quite and peaceful but you will be at 12,000 ft elevation! Great spot for the night with amazing volcano views!

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We drove up from the Mexico side and after a short afternoon hike stayed on the parking lot for the night. We were told that we couldn't drive to La Joya which wasn't our plan anyway - apparently they closed that road for vehicles of a certain size. We got hit by some thunderstorms and hail in the afternoon and evening, which made for a cozy movie night. The next morning we had a great view of both volcanoes before we left for a very bumpy drive down towards Puebla. 10 or 15km of a washed out dirt road, whish I think was the worst that we have been driven so far. We managed alright - and looking at the vehicles the locals drive up there , no complaints about the rough ride.

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Came to visit and climb the volcano. Were told we couldn't drive to La Joya because our truck was too big but our friend has a Sprinter and that was the largest vehicle that could go up. Camped in the visitor center parking lot for free. Hiked to La Joya first day to acclimate, planning to drive to parking lot next day to climb. Then they said no, we couldn't go on road after all because they changed the rules and you have to get an online permit several days ahead of time. No reservation, no driving up road to starting point. Rigid, unbending, especially since we were already here and they'd told us different before. You can now as of today pay a few pesos to hike from visitor center ( it was free yesterday for us but not today) but that is 10 miles return not counting if you climbed some of the mountain. What a bummer and a mind game.

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Passage obligé avant d’aller à la Joya pour débuter la randonnée. Le chemin est en lacet de montagne mais très bien asphalté. Quelques branches basses.
On nous a demandé 232 pesos pour passer malgré qu’il aurait fallu s’inscrire 5 jours d’avance pour passer en voiture. (Whaaat!?!) on a lu ça nulle part.

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Cool spot for a night! No problems staying, in fact you don't even have to pay unless you are hiking. Great views of the mountains from the carpark if you're not a big walker. We came from the Puebla side in our 22ft class C motorhome, it is manageable but prepare for a slow and very bumpy ride.

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Spent one night. Noisy place with people in the late evening, at 2 am people with a guide watching stars speaking loud and tourists arriving from 6 am.

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spend 3 nights here with 2 vans. some wild dogs. peacefull at night sometime someone arrived late at night to go hiking. carefull about the dirt bumpy road from Puebla. the road from mexico is mutch more better.

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NO DOGS! on the trails once you enter the park but OK for the other tracks...lots of Coyotes in the evening

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Stayed one night. Great views. Next morning we did a hike and it is still 50 per person entrance fee. Felt safe with the police right next to us.

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Nice aera to park for the night. Really cold after sunset. Nice walks.

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We stayed one night, parking very calm, could hear coyotes at night! Just next to the police,they told us was not a problem to sleep here. Beautiful sunrise!
Parking lot has some level parkings. No toilets.

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Paso de Cortes national park. Parking is free and you can stay over night entrance to hike is 50 pesos per person. It is kind of cold at night lots of security patrolling we felt safe after this we drove to Puebla on the dirt road for 15 km.

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Stayed here 3 nights on the Carpark, it is free and very quite at night.
Entry to the Nationalpark is 50 Pesos pP.

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Nice view on both volcanos, and a free parking with a lot of space to stay overnight. Felt safe with the police station next to us. Just a bit of noise with fools coming late at night, and quite cold even in summer time, but it worth to come here. Don't expect much info from the info center, they just collect the money, and tell you to follow the sign, but no map available (can get it with internet on komoot app)

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Got to the parking lot from Amecameca at 6:30pm. Paved road to the center. (Long dirt road from the east- which we took when we left). Stayed the first night for free in the parking lot , lots of Policia here. Paid the $37/person entry the next morning.
Hiked a portion of the summit trail. Then boondocked on a side road between the trailhead and main gate. Left the next morning and headed east.

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Beautiful drive up on a paved road. We arrived around 5pm on a Sunday and had no one to pay to enter. We camped in the large main lot but it seems there are a handful of options in the area. Quiet at night, decent amount of vendors on Sunday evening, pretty much none on Monday. Full LTE cell signal on Google Fi. The road through the mountains is permanently closed. We saw a lot of volcanic activity.

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Great place at Paso de Cortez visitor center to spend some days observing the ash eruptions of Popocateptl to the south and the dormant Iztaccihuatl to the north. Quiet on weekdays, quite busy but not too noisy on weekends. Busses and cars start to arrive at 6.30 am. The Polica Estatal is on site so camping is save.

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We arrieved in the dark. Quite and fine and safe. No fee, no problems.

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ranger station and entrance to national park. no problem to sleep on the parking lot. we asked info about climbing izta and ranger sergio helped a lot. good english and very interesting information he gave using the 3d map. if you want info in advance you can contact us we'll be happy to help. @sofie_travels

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free place to stay with a nice picnic area. nice a quit at night, beautiful night sky too.

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Arrived late and during heavy rainfall we asked the police officer in his car if it’s o.k to stay the night at the parking lot. He says „No Problema“...so we ended up here for a rainy night.Stayed a 2nd.night without issues.

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We were not allowed to stay overnight on the parking lot, due to raised volcanic activity. Police officers, a geologist and the park ranger proposed us La Joya parking. They ask a park entrance fee for this, 36 MXN per person per day. Wondering what makes 7 km difference.

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No problem to stay overnight. In the morning nice view of smoking Popocatepetel.

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Quiet during the week, busy on weekends. The staff was actually able to tell us something about the hike when we registered. We went to look at the plastic model of the mountain together and discussed where we want to hike and camp. You can hike up to Refugio Grupo de los Cien (almost 4km one way) without climbing equipment, to get further you need at least crampons and spend a night on the mountain. Entry to the park was 35mex/person/day.

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Quiet and free. No toilets available because of failing tap water.
Didn’t see a person to charge us for the park nor for camping. Road to Popo base still closed.
Not too cold: 16C during the day and 10C at night.
Telcel 3g available.

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If you are looking for informations for the ascent of Iztaccihuatl volcan you will not find it here ! Nobody knows about it and they didn't have any maps.
You have to pay 30 pesos/p/d if you want to go to "la Joya" but if you have the annual national park card it's free!

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as described. toilets are available until 21.00 afterwards the building is closed. toilets don't have seats anymore but well...
camping and parking was free. a lot of mountain police around. super friendly. did not pay anything to park overnight.

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they asked 60 pesos per person to park overnight so we decided to drive down the road and boondock. the road was blocked heading south due to volcanic "yellow alert"

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We initially planned to stay here but decided to hike so camped closer to the volcano instead. Pretty large parking lot. We were asked to pay to hike the volcano and sleep there but you may not be asked to pay to park here. There is a temporary police building here with many police officers walking around all day. They were very nice to talk to and sounded quite bored so I am sure it would be a very safe place to park. The drive from here to Cholula is a dirt road that is somewhat slow going but not a bad road.

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Nice spot between the volcanoes, free unless you enter the upper part. Nice ladies selling yummy quesadillas. We made friendly with the park ranger and he let us park behind the visitors center away from the main parking lot, people and noise, with an unobstructed view of popo.

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Parkinglot near the visitor center. We paid 30.50 pesos per person entry fee for the nationalpark. You can stay overnight for free. It's almost on 3700 m altitude, so it was cold (8 degrees afternoon, a little snow next morning). You better bring warm clothes with you ;-) Beautiful view of the vulcan popocatepetl.

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Parking lot in front of the Visitor Center of the National Park. We previously asked for permission to stay for the night. Toilets in the visitor center. Good base for hikes.

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