Cañón del Río Blanco National Park

Cañón del Río Blanco National Park is protected natural area in Mexico's Veracruz state.

Cañón del Río Blanco National Park
Parque Nacional Cañón del Río Blanco
IUCN category II (national park)[1]
Location	Veracruz, Mexico
Nearest city	Orizaba
Coordinates	18.82°N 97.17°W / 18.82; -97.17
Area	488 km2 (188 sq mi)
Designation	National park
Designated	1938
Governing body	National Commission of Natural Protected Areas

Geography

Cañón del Río Blanco National Park covers an area of 488 km².^[1] The park includes the upper watershed of the Río Blanco, where the river has carved a canyon through the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca, plunging over rapids and waterfalls as it descends from the mountains towards the Gulf Coastal Plain to empty into the Gulf of Mexico.

The park is in the Sierra de Zongolica, the northern sub-range of the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca. Pico de Orizaba, a volcano the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt and Mexico's highest peak, lies several kilometers north of the park.

Flora and fauna

Plant communities in the park include pine forest, oak forest, montane moist evergreen forest, and evergreen rain forest.^[2]

Conservation

Cañón del Río Blanco was decreed a national park in 1938 by president Lázaro Cárdenas.^[2]