Pico de Orizaba National Park, National park with snow-capped volcano in Puebla and Veracruz, Mexico

Pico de Orizaba National Park covers 197.5 square kilometers across Puebla and Veracruz. Its volcano, the country's highest peak, rises from a grassland zone at 4,000 meters to a summit at 5,651 meters, where perpetual snow and glaciers cover the top. Below the snowline, bare gray and brown rock is cut by dark ridges and gullies, with bands of snow running down the upper slopes above forested land.

The park was created on January 4, 1937, covering 197.5 square kilometers across Puebla and Veracruz. The volcano itself formed from a violent Strombolian eruption several million years ago, on a high fold of the Sierra Madre Oriental about 3,000 meters up, which let it reach one of the greatest heights of any volcano. Eruptions were recorded during the colonial period, mainly in the 17th century.

The Nahuatl name Citlaltépetl, Star Mountain, refers to the snow-covered cone. The park lies in the Sierra Madre Oriental within the Eje Neovolcánico, and its glaciers feed the Jamapa, Metlac and Orizaba rivers; the Jamapa rises from the glacier of the same name. Above 4,000 m the cold and perpetual snow stop all vegetation, leaving alpine grassland of juniper and Cirsium nivale below the ice.

Several hiking trails and climbing routes pass through the area, with most visitors arriving via Calcahualco. Camping sites are available, and conditions change significantly with altitude.

The largest glacier in Mexico sits here and measures between 20 and 50 meters (65 to 165 feet) thick. Scientists expect the ice to disappear completely in the coming years.