Parque Nacional Benito Juárez

Parque Nacional Benito Juárez covers the slopes of the Sierra de San Felipe, part of the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca, immediately north of Oaxaca city. Its lower edge lies only about 5 km from the city centre, and the land climbs from around 1,650 m to Cerro San Felipe, the highest point, at over 3,000 m (sources give figures between 3,100 m and 3,500 m). The park takes in land of San Felipe del Agua, Donají, San Luis Beltrán and San Andrés Huayápam. It was decreed on 30 December 1937 under President Lázaro Cárdenas and named after Benito Juárez, who grew up in Oaxaca. Semarnat puts its area at about 2,590 hectares.

The park matters to the city mainly as a water source: the San Felipe and Huayápam streams rise on its slopes, and most of their water is piped down to Oaxaca. Vegetation changes with height. Near the villages the lower slopes are cornfields, orchards and patches of the original dry deciduous forest with copal and guaje trees; above about 2,000 m comes pine and oak forest, with bromeliads, mosses and many orchids, including Malaxis pollardii, found only on this mountain. The summit is often wrapped in fog. Semarnat has recorded some 230 bird species, 67 mammals, 39 reptiles and 18 amphibians, and the park was set aside largely to protect bird habitat. Illegal logging, fires and the collection of wild orchids and dahlias are the main threats.

Most visitors use the recreation area of the Donají ejido on the park's southern edge, a few minutes by taxi from downtown. There are marked loops of about 3 km and 5 km, including the easy Sendero La Coronilla, a lookout over the city, a children's playground, zip lines on weekends and steep trails used for downhill mountain biking. Birdwatching is popular, and the walks give wide views over the Valley of Oaxaca.