Location

Hidalgo, N.L. Mexico. (Not to be confused with Sabinas Hidalgo, 50 miles north of Hidalgo.) Approximately 20 miles north of Monterrey, or 150 miles south of the border with Mexico, at Laredo.

Useful Phone Numbers

None.

Getting There

Somehow get on I-35 and go south. Each exit on I-35 is numbered according to the number of miles it is to the border. This starts at mile 1 in Laredo, so you can count down how many miles you still have to go as you drive south. (I don't recommend doing this.)

If you want to buy car insurance for Mexico on the US side, take Exit 2. You can buy car insurance 24 hours a day in the building adjacent to the Exxon station (the southwest corner), then get back on the highway. You can also exchange dollars into pesos a few blocks further south.

NOTE: It is not mandatory to buy insurance to get into Mexico, but it's not a bad investment.

Follow the blue signs for the International Bridge at the end of I-35. This bridge is open 24 hours.

Cross the bridge to the Mexican side and follow the instructions from the officer. You'll get a green or red light, red light means you have to stop at customs and be checked, green light means "go". Every once in a while they have the light rigged so that every light is a red light.

After they check your stuff, you need to get a permit for your car and one for yourself to get any further into the country. For this you have to go to the immigration office. This office is also open 24 hours.

To get to the immigration office, take a right and follow the road until it curves left (less than a mile) and follows a railroad. Stay on this road until the median widens. The immigration office is on the left side of the road, across from the first set of palm trees on the median. The place is surrounded by a white wall, 8 feet high. Make a U turn right around the palm trees and go into immigrations.

You need a passport or birth certificate and a drivers license to get your permit. You need your car's title, driver's license, and a credit card to get the permit for the car. The cost for the car permit is about $12.00.

You can pay for your permits by either credit card or cash. If you choose to pay by cash, you have to leave 400 dollars cash. No checks. That money will be refunded to you on your way back out when you cancel the permit. The money (minus a fee of around 10 dollars), will be refunded to you in Mexican currency. You cancel your permit in the same place you get it. Using cash is a very time consuming process.

If you choose to pay your permits by credit card, you don't have to cancel your car permit on your way out of the country. You can use a permit several times before it expires. Permits usually last for 6 months. If you have an expired permit sticker on your windshield, make sure you scrape it off before getting to the immigrations office. There are steep fines if your car permit expires while you're still in Mexico.

You may use your personal permit all you want before it expires.

You can also get insurance in this office, but maybe not 24 hours a day.

After you get your permit, get out of the parking lot and turn left (the same way you were going after going through customs). The road dead ends at another road where you have to turn right (There's a big monument at this intersection). Follow this road for a few miles until you get to the immigrations checkpoint. Here you have to show your ID, your permit, and your car's permit. You may get another customs red light here (they rig this one every once in a while too).

Stay on the road and eventually you'll have a choice of taking the tollway or the freeway. The tollway is about $13, two lanes each way, and is very good. There are a lot of 18 wheelers doing 20mph on the freeway, and the road is pretty crappy. They accept U.S. dollars on the tollway.

After the tollway ends (or the freeway turns back into 2 lanes each way), there is a sign for the town of Escobedo (Zona Centro) on the right. Take the side road at the first Escobedo sign and turn right at the second Escobedo sign. The name of the street is Benito Juarez. (If you go past the "Solidarity" monument on the median, you went half a mile too far.) Turn right toward Monclova at the stop light. Follow this road (Mexico 53) until it splits left toward Monclova again. Continue on 53 approximately 15 miles to Hidalgo. (If you notice a really really bad smell after five or six miles, it's a bone burning plant, and you're on the right road).

When you get to Hidalgo, the road splits to the left behind a PEMEX gas station right where the town begins (this is the second PEMEX station you'll see on this road). Take that left and follow the signs to Potrero Chico.

Club Trips

None.

Types of Climbing

Multi-pitch sport climbing is predominant. Big limestone walls as high as 1000 feet. Everything available is bolted very generously. 95% of the climbs are 5.10 and above. The routes range from slightly less than vertical to slightly overhanging. Mostly face climbing. The first pitch of many climbs can be set-up as a toprope, but must be led first.

Approaches vary from 10 yards from your car to 1 hour long, strenuous hikes. There are a many areas to be developed yet. The limestone here flakes off routes that weren't thoroughly cleaned. Use a helmet at all times, and don't park your car too close to the bases of the easily accessible climbs.

Rock

Limestone. Flaky, with a lot of vegetation-most of it sharp.

Climbing Season

All year long. You can always find shaded areas to climb in the summer, and the winters are generally mild.

Accommodations

You can camp inside the park at Potrero Chico, but it's not really set up for camping. Most people stay at Homero's Quinta, which is about 600 feet outside the entrance to the park.

The Quinta has showers and bathrooms, a few bedrooms, a big roofed patio where lots of tents can be set up, and a lot of yard space. The place is officially called "Quinta Santa Graciela," and there's a large, white painted, concrete block that serves as the sign for the Quinta on the right side of the road. It's easy to miss, so your first time, you might have to backtrack the 600 feet from the park entrance. The gates to the Quinta are red.

There is a recreational area in the park with a snack store, pools, bathrooms, etc., and it gets packed on summer weekends. Locals like to park their cars by the base of the climbs, drink beer, and listen to really loud Mexican music. You can hear the music 400 feet off the ground.

There is also a "deposito" near Homero's Quinta where you can buy beer, snacks, and T-shirts, and there is a good restaurant across the road from the PEMEX station on the way into town (with a few more places to eat in town).

Expenses

It costs $1.35 on the American side of the border to use the bridge, and $1.40 on the Mexican side on the way back. You can buy liability insurance for driving in Mexico for about $5.00 to $7.00 a day (not mandatory).

It costs $13.00 to use the tollway between Laredo and Monterrey, with the toll plaza right around the midpoint. U.S. currency is accepted on the tollway.

Gasoline is about the same price as in the U.S.. (Get "MagnaSin" gasoline if you want unleaded.)

You can camp wherever in Potrero Chico for free. Homero doesn't officially charge money for accommodations in his Quinta, but a $2 or more donation per person per night is the norm.

Guidebooks

There is a small fold-out guide written by Jeff Jackson, available at REI, with instructions on how to get there (not the way described here). The routes described in the guide are still there but many more have been added.

There is also a route log in Homero's Quinta where people can record new routes they've established.