Parque Nacional El Veladero

El Veladero is the national park that protects the upper slopes of the amphitheatre of hills wrapped around Acapulco Bay. It was decreed on 18 July 1980 with about 3,159 hectares, and its high point is Cerro El Veladero, 918 metres, the mountain that rises straight behind the city. It is run by Mexico's national protected areas commission, CONANP.

The cover is medium semi-deciduous tropical forest mixed with dry deciduous forest, with scattered oaks such as Quercus affinis and Quercus laurina. More than 360 plant and animal species have been recorded, twelve of them listed as at risk: boas, green iguanas, spiny-tailed iguanas, the Mexican beaded lizard (Heloderma horridum), crested guans, ospreys and a range of raptors and songbirds. The city government reckons the park's vegetation soaks up more than two thousand tonnes of the carbon dioxide Acapulco produces.

The hill played a part in the War of Independence. In 1813 and 1814 José María Morelos and Hermenegildo Galeana used El Veladero as a barracks and supply base for their campaigns in the south, building small forts with artillery pieces, among them Fortín San Cristóbal. On 6 May 1814 royalist troops sent by José Gabriel de Armijo reached the hill, burned the settlement and took the position.

The high ground looks over Acapulco's neighbourhoods, the whole bay, Pie de la Cuesta and the Coyuca lagoon. On the southern slope, between the Independencia and Palma Sola neighbourhoods, lies the Palma Sola archaeological site: 18 granite boulders carved with human figures, mythical beings, animals and geometric shapes, dated from the Late Preclassic to the Classic period. The path to the top runs to about 500 steps.

No tourism project has ever been carried out in the park, and its biggest problem is irregular settlement: the village of El Veladero, with 735 residents in 2010, lies inside it, and land invasions keep recurring. In 2025 the city council and CONANP agreed to work together to stop them.