Landmark 19 km northeast of General Cepeda
Mexico's first paleontological zone open to the public, with a site museum and a walkway past 72-million-year-old dinosaur beds.
Rincón Colorado is a small ejido northeast of General Cepeda, set among reddish hills that turned out to be one of the richest dinosaur beds in Mexico. The rocks here date back more than 72 million years, to the end of the Cretaceous, when this dry corner of Coahuila was a coastal plain full of rivers and swamps.
In the 1990s researchers dug up a new duck-billed dinosaur on a hill locals called Loma de la Virgen, now known as the Cerro de los Dinosaurios. The species was named Velafrons coahuilensis, and the find put Rincón Colorado on the scientific map.
In November 2018 the site opened as the country's first paleontological zone open to visitors, run by INAH. A walkway about 1.6 kilometers long leads past seven viewing windows with exact reproductions of 174 fossils of dinosaurs, other animals, and plants, and a site museum shows real fossils and replicas. Guided visits also take you to areas where excavation work goes on.
What to see and do
Visit the site museum, with fossils and replicas of the dinosaurs that lived here.
Walk the 1.6-kilometer trail past the seven paleontological windows.
Join a guided tour to see the excavation areas up close.
Look out over the Cerro de los Dinosaurios, where Velafrons coahuilensis was found.
Getting there
From General Cepeda, drive to Federal Highway 40 (Saltillo–Torreón) and head for kilometer 43.5, where a turnoff leads about 2.7 kilometers to the ejido; the whole trip takes roughly half an hour. Park in the ejido and continue on foot. INAH lists it as open Tuesday to Sunday, 9 am to 4 pm. Food, pets, smoking, and flash photography are not allowed, and professional cameras pay an extra fee.
19 km northeast of General Cepeda
Directions from General Cepeda on Google Maps
Distances are in a straight line; the road is usually longer.
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Weather mild
Rincón Colorado shares the climate of General Cepeda, 19 km away. The best months to visit are Mar, Apr, Nov, Dec.
Make General Cepeda your base
Rincón Colorado is an easy trip from General Cepeda, a Pueblo Mágico with places to stay, food, and more to see.
More around General Cepeda
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Narigua
· Archaeological site · 13 km away
Coahuila's largest petroglyph site: about 8,000 carvings on 500-plus rocks in the hills west of General Cepeda. No services.
Location from OpenStreetMap. Written by Puebloteca.