The Sierra los Huicholes is a mountain range in western Mexico. It is located in the states of

Nayarit Nayarit (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Nayarit ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Nayarit), is one of the 31 states that, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 20 municipalities and its ...

Jalisco Jalisco (, , ; Nahuatl: Xalixco), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Jalisco ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Jalisco ; Nahuatl: Tlahtohcayotl Xalixco), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Federal ...

, and

Zacatecas , image_map = Zacatecas in Mexico (location map scheme).svg , map_caption = State of Zacatecas within Mexico , coordinates = , coor_pinpoint = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type ...

. The Sierra los Huicholes is part of the

Sierra Madre Occidental The Sierra Madre Occidental 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 ...

, and is located in the southern portion of the range. The mountains are named for the

Huichol The Huichol or Wixárika are an indigenous people of Mexico and the United States living in the Sierra Madre Occidental range in the states of Nayarit, Jalisco, Zacatecas, and Durango, as well as in the United States in the states of California, ...

, a people who live in the range and in the river valleys west and east of it.

Geography

The Sierra los Huicholes runs roughly north and south, dividing the basin of the

Bolaños River The Bolaños River is a river in Mexico flowing through the Sierra Madre Occidental, and a tributary of Rio Grande de Santiago. It has a length of 360 km and a watershed of about 10 000 square kilometers. Geography The river's origin is in ...

to the east from that of the Huaynamota and its tributaries the

Atengo Atengo is both a small village and municipality of the region Sierra de Amula in the Mexican state Jalisco. The municipality covers an area of 412.42 km² and is 1,417 m above sea level. As of the year 2005, the municipality had a total po ...

(or Chapalagana) and Camotlán to the west. Both the Bolaños and the Huaynamota empty into the

Río Grande de Santiago The Río Grande de Santiago, or Santiago River, is a river in western Mexico. It flows westwards from Lake Chapala via Ocotlán through the states of Jalisco and Nayarit to empty into the Pacific Ocean. It one of the longest rivers in Mexico, ...

, and the canyon of the Grande de Santiago defines the southern end of the Sierra."Sierra los Huicholes". Regiones Terrestres Prioritarias de México, CONABIO. Accessed 12 September 2021

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Flora and fauna

The mountains are covered with tropical dry forest and dry shrubland at lower elevations. Oak forests occur above 800 meters elevation, transitioning to pine–oak and pine forests at the higher elevations with a cool climate. The mountains are home to some of the last remaining

old growth An old-growth forestalso termed primary forest, virgin forest, late seral forest, primeval forest, or first-growth forestis a forest that has attained great age without significant disturbance, and thereby exhibits unique ecological feature ...

pine–oak and pine forests in the Sierra Madre Occidental, and are also home to many limited-range and threatened species, including the

thick-billed parrot The thick-billed parrot (''Rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha'') is a medium-sized parrot endemic to Mexico that formerly ranged into the southwestern United States. Its position in parrot phylogeny is the subject of ongoing discussion; it is sometimes ...

(''Rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha''). CONABIO, Mexico's government biodiversity agency, identified the Sierra los Huicholes as a priority for conservation because of its biodiversity and areas of relatively intact habitat. Much of the Sierra is in the Cuenca Alimentadora del Distrito Nacional de Riego 043 Estado de Nayarit, a national natural resources protection area. It was established in 1949 to protect forests and watersheds for the benefit of downstream agriculture, and was redesignated a national resources protection area in 2002."CADNR 043 Estado de Nayarit". Sistema de Información, Monitoreo y Evaluación para la Conservación (SIMEC) of the Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas (CONANP). Accessed 6 September 2021

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References

{{reflist Sierra Madre Occidental Geography of Jalisco Geography of Nayarit Geography of Zacatecas Huichol