15 Nature Parks near Toluca, Mexico: Map & Photos

15 parks and reserves · within 60 km

There are 15 parks and reserves within 60 km of Toluca in a straight line, an hour or a little more by road. The closest is Parque Estatal Sierra Morelos, 5 km away; the farthest, Cerro de la Estrella, is 60 km. They are listed under the Pueblos Mágicos of Valle de Bravo, Malinalco, Metepec, and Villa del Carbón, which make good bases.

Parks and reserves are best on weekdays and early in the day. Bring water, and check the opening hours, since some close one day a week.

Best months, when most of these towns are dry with comfortable afternoons: Jan, Feb, Mar, Dec.

The Nature Parks 15

Parque Estatal Sierra Morelos · Nature reserve · 5 km from Toluca · Estado de México
1,255 hectares of wooded hills and lakes on Toluca's northern edge: trails of up to 9 km, picnic shelters and an axolotl house under repair.
La Marquesa · Nature reserve · 29 km from Toluca · Near Metepec
Pine-forest valleys on the Toluca–Mexico City highway, popular on weekends for horseback rides, trout and quesadillas.
Santuario Piedra Herrada · Nature reserve · 34 km from Toluca · Near Valle de Bravo
The monarch butterfly sanctuary closest to Valle de Bravo, on the road to Toluca, open roughly November to March.
Desierto de los Leones · Nature reserve · 36 km from Toluca · Ciudad de México
Mexico's first national park: fir forest above the city around a 17th-century Carmelite convent with hermitages and a whispering chapel.
Bosque de Agua · Nature reserve · 40 km from Toluca · Estado de México
The forest corridor between Mexico City, Toluca and Cuernavaca that feeds all three cities' aquifers; visit it at Zempoala, La Marquesa or Ajusco.
Los Dinamos · Nature reserve · 43 km from Toluca · Ciudad de México
Forested canyon of the Río Magdalena, the city's last living river: waterfalls, climbing walls, trout and old Porfirian power plants.
Desierto del Carmen · Nature reserve · 45 km from Toluca · Near Malinalco
A forested national park around a secluded Carmelite convent, with clifftop lookouts over the Malinalco valley.
Bosque de Tlalpan · Nature reserve · 48 km from Toluca · Ciudad de México
A 253-hectare urban park on Xitle lava: running tracks, mountain trails, a duck lake and traces of Cuicuilco. Open daily.
Parque Nacional Bosencheve · Nature reserve · 49 km from Toluca · Near Valle de Bravo
A national park of pine and fir forest on the Toluca–Morelia highway, with a lagoon, camping and quiet trails north of Valle de Bravo.
Bosque de Chapultepec · Nature reserve · 50 km from Toluca · Ciudad de México
More than 800 hectares of forest in four sections: rowboats on the lakes, a free zoo, the castle hill and the city's great museums.
Parque nacional Fuentes Brotantes de Tlalpan · Nature reserve · 50 km from Toluca · Ciudad de México
National park declared in 1936, with Ajusco springs, a lake of ducks and turtles, trails and food stalls; about 8 of its 129 hectares remain.
Corredor Biológico Chichinautzin · Nature reserve · 52 km from Toluca · Morelos
Federal protected area of 37,302 ha, decreed in 1988: pine, oak and fir forest between Cuernavaca, Tepoztlán and Huitzilac, linking Zempoala and El Tepozteco.
México Chiquito · Nature reserve · 59 km from Toluca · Near Villa del Carbón
Red and orange eroded mounds reflected in a pond at the edge of Chapa de Mota, a landscape that looks almost Martian.
Bosque Mirador · Nature reserve · 60 km from Toluca · Morelos
About 22 ha of pine forest in Ahuatepec, north of Cuernavaca; a municipal protected area since 2016, next to the Chichinautzin corridor.
Cerro de la Estrella · Nature reserve · 60 km from Toluca · Ciudad de México
Iztapalapa's hill, where the Mexica lit the New Fire every 52 years and where the Iztapalapa Passion play ends each Good Friday.