According to a Jalisco state government website, the Sierra El Cuale (Mountain Range) is a Natural Protected Area covering 430 square miles. It is a subrange of the Sierra Madre Occidental, which according to Wikipedia is "a major mountain range system of the North American Cordillera, that runs northwest–southeast through Northwestern and Western Mexico, and along the Gulf of California. The Sierra Madre is part of the American Cordillera, a chain of mountain ranges (cordillera) that consists of an almost continuous sequence of mountain ranges that form the western "backbone" of North America, Central America, South America and Antarctica."
Locally, the Sierra El Cuale is home to more than 400 marine and terrestrial species including:
The highest peak in the Sierra El Cuale reaches some 2320 meters (7600 feet) in elevation and is the source of the Rio Cuale. That's about the same height as Castle Mountain in the Canadian Rockies. See maps here. Here is a translation of one section of the WikiMexico website:
"The Sierra de El Cuale is located in western Mexico, in the state of Jalisco. It occupies little more than 2,000 square kilometers (772 square miles) of surface, of the municipalities Cabo Corrientes and Puerto Vallarta, in the coastal region, and Talpa de Allende and Mascota, in the middle of Sierra Madre del Sur. In the Sierra de El Cuale, the river with the same name is born and flows into Puerto Vallarta. The highest area reaches 2,700 meters (8858 feet) above sea level. The climate in the Sierra de El Cuale is warm subhumid and the land is covered, in the upper part, by forests of pine and oak, and as it approaches the coast, by middle and low deciduous forests. There are around 133 rural villages, characterized by poverty and social marginalization."
Locally, the Sierra El Cuale is home to more than 400 marine and terrestrial species including:
- 41 species of freshwater fish
- 31 species of amphibians
- 80 species of reptiles
- 314 species of birds
- 20 species of mammals
The highest peak in the Sierra El Cuale reaches some 2320 meters (7600 feet) in elevation and is the source of the Rio Cuale. That's about the same height as Castle Mountain in the Canadian Rockies. See maps here. Here is a translation of one section of the WikiMexico website:
"The Sierra de El Cuale is located in western Mexico, in the state of Jalisco. It occupies little more than 2,000 square kilometers (772 square miles) of surface, of the municipalities Cabo Corrientes and Puerto Vallarta, in the coastal region, and Talpa de Allende and Mascota, in the middle of Sierra Madre del Sur. In the Sierra de El Cuale, the river with the same name is born and flows into Puerto Vallarta. The highest area reaches 2,700 meters (8858 feet) above sea level. The climate in the Sierra de El Cuale is warm subhumid and the land is covered, in the upper part, by forests of pine and oak, and as it approaches the coast, by middle and low deciduous forests. There are around 133 rural villages, characterized by poverty and social marginalization."
Birds
Flora
The wide variety of trees, shrubs and flowers is always surprising. There are nine types of vegetation here, according to the Ministry of the Environment website:
- Tropical Sub-Deciduous Rainforest
- Deciduous Tropical Forest
- Pine forest
- Oak forest
- Pine-Oak forest
- Mesophyll mountain rainforest
- Xerophilous scrub (cliffs)
- Byrsonima, Curatella or Crescentia trees (grasslands-savanna)
- Gallery Forest
See the beautiful Sierra El Cuale photo galleries provided by the State of Jalisco.