August and September mark “colliflower” season in Guadalajara. Yes, it’s time to head for Colli Volcano, which is part of the Primavera Forest.
Amazingly, you can get onto a trail up the mountainside without leaving town. Just head for Calle San Ignacio, a little street conveniently located just 800 meters from the city’s western beltway (periférico), not far from the Omnilife Stadium.
I was introduced to this trail by U.S. Peace Corps volunteer Barbara Dye who claimed it was her favorite place to hunt for wildflowers. Considering that, I recently decided to invite two botanists from the University of Guadalajara, Miguel Muñiz and Viacheslav Shalisko, to check out the trail and help me ID some of its flowers and trees. I brought along a few hiker friends as well, which turned out to be a less than brilliant idea, as I soon found out.
You see, when you are on a path in the woods with a botanist, the word “hiking” does not describe the experience. “Inching your way along the trail” would be more exact. On Cerro Colli, of course, the cause of this problem is the great variety of interesting plants you can come across with every step you take.
Right off, we came upon begonias and morning glories and the first of many Scarlet-Flowered Dahlias (Dahlia coccinia) which, of course, is the Mexican National Flower, whose bulb is edible, tasting something like a potato.
Curiously, here we also came upon the heart-shaped leaves of the camote de cerro (Dioscorea remotiflora) whose root is, in my opinion, even more delicious than the potato – and highly nutritious as well.
Taking another step, we spotted the climbing vine of Magic Beans (Canavalia villosa) which, I learned later, are both aphrodisiacal and psychedelic.
Another curious flower we found all along this trail is the fiery red Pitcarnia which I was amazed to discover is in the bromelia family but grows on the ground rather than in trees. One other plant that appeared here and all along the trail is Commelina dianthifolia, the Bird-bill Dayflower – intensely blue in color and considered “a very rare plant indeed” by gardening experts Thompson and Morgan. It is called the Dayflower because it opens in the morning but withers before the day is done. For this reason, it is also known (sarcastically) as Widows Tears.
Well, those are just a few of the wildflowers we saw along the first 300 meters of the trail, not to mention trees such as the guaje, tepame,
clethra, papelillo and the spike-covered Ceiba or Silk-Cotton tree.
Underfoot, the trail is strewn with volcanic rock like rhyolite and obsidian, which ought to remind you that Colli is a volcano which last erupted 20-30,000 years ago and, rumor has it, is not exactly dormant. There are supposed to be a few vents somewhere up at the top of the mountain which, they say, occasionally belch out hot gases.
Although this trail does not go all the way to the top of the volcano, it does provide a sufficient change in altitude for hikers to experience two different ecosystems. “The first half of the trail,” explained Professor Muñiz, “is in what we call a Tropical Deciduous Forest, whereas the upper section brings you into a Pine and Oak Forest.”
If you do this hike, believe me you will know when you’ve gone from one to the other. The change is dramatic. Suddenly the foliage is thick and the path is cool, shady and relatively flat. Here and there appear large agave plants. This, the botanists told me, is the Maguey Bruto (Agave inaequidens Koch) an endangered species which just happens to provide the fibers from which Mexico’s traditional soga or charro’s (horseman’s) lariat is made, entirely by hand, using demanding techniques still practiced in the little town of San Miguel Cuyutlán.
In no time at all you will arrive at what Barbara Dye called Orchid Hill, where, sad to say, we saw not a single orchid in bloom. I suspect, however, that we were too early and that if you go there late in September, you may find the hill exploding with Bletia orchids.
Be that as it may, your climb will not have been in vain, for on top of this hill there’s a mound of rocks from which you have an extraordinary view of the city of Guadalajara from a height of 1,907 meters above sea level (6,257 feet). And now it’s time to retrace your steps – but this time it’s all downhill.
The length of this trail is 1.6 kilometers with an altitude gain of 167 meters. You’ll find this trail on Wikiloc.com under “GuadHikes – Cerro el Colli.”
How to get there.
Get onto the western Periférico and exit at Avenida Guadalupe. Drive southwest 610 meters to Avenida las Torres (and the famous restaurant Paco’s Tacos). Turn right and go north 650 meters. Here you need to turn left onto Calle San Gregorio, but the median doesn’t permit it, so continue ahead 140 meters and make a U-turn. Follow San Gregorio west 130 meters and you’re at the trailhead (N20 39.684 W103 27.399). Driving time from the Periférico: a mere matter of minutes.