Mineral del Chico

I came up from Pachuca on a combi that dropped me at the edge of the park, and I walked the last stretch into town with my bag on my back and fog sitting low in the pines. Mineral del Chico is small enough that you understand it in one afternoon — the main plaza, the parish church with its candy-pink facade, the streets that go uphill in every direction and end in trailheads. I’d been told it was Mineral del Monte’s quieter cousin, which it is, but that framing undersells it. This place has its own logic, its own rhythm. The altitude sits around 2,700 meters and the cold arrives early, before dinner, without warning.

Rock and Forest

The thing nobody tells you before you get here is how strange the geology is. El Chico National Park surrounds the town on all sides, and scattered through its pine and oyamel forest are formations of volcanic basalt that look less like natural outcroppings and more like someone stacked them — massive, rounded columns balanced on top of each other at angles that shouldn’t work. Local climbers use them as natural walls. I watched a group working a crack route on a formation called Las Monjas one morning while mist moved through the trees below them. The trails are well-maintained but not overrun. I did a loop from town out to Peña del Cuervo in about three hours, saw four other people total, and came back with mud on my boots and that specific satisfaction that comes from a forest that smells like cold water and resin.

The Town Itself

The colonial center is compact but genuine — this was a real mining operation from the 16th century, and the stone buildings around the plaza carry that history without performing it. The parish church, Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel, anchors one end of things. On the weekend a small market fills the plaza and someone is usually grilling at least one thing worth investigating. I ate a bowl of caldo de hongos at a place with plastic chairs pushed against the church wall — wild mushrooms from the forest, a deep broth, tortillas brought in a cloth-wrapped basket. It cost almost nothing and I thought about it for the rest of the day.

Staying the Night

There are a handful of small posadas and cabañas in and just outside town. I stayed at one of the cabaña clusters on the road toward the park entrance — wood stove, wool blankets, the sound of wind in the pines at 2 a.m. It’s not glamorous. The hot water was negotiable. But waking up with the forest at the window and the town still quiet below is the whole point of coming this far up.

Getting There

From Pachuca’s central bus station, combis to Mineral del Chico depart from the area near the Mercado Barreteros — the ride takes roughly 45 minutes on a winding mountain road and costs almost nothing. The last combi back leaves in the late afternoon; confirm the time when you arrive. There is no direct bus from Mexico City.