Here’s something you don’t see everyday: An entire town wiped out by lava flows from an erupting volcano, where only the outer walls of the town’s enormous church remain.
Located an hour west of the city of Uruapan, the Lava Church of San Juan Parangaricutiro has been on our radar for probably a decade. And today, we’re excited to finally make the trek out there and see it for ourselves.
Not the most restful night’s sleep on account of the raging wildfires in the area.
We’re all hoping Patzcuaro will be a place we can recharge and sink into a routine for a while. That’s where we’re headed today…eventually.
Patzcuaro’s only about an hour from Uruapan where we are now…but in the complete opposite direction of the Lava Church. That means 3-4 hours of driving today, depending on traffic coming back through Uruapan.
On to San Juan Parangaricutiro!
Getting to Old San Juan Parangaricutiro
The Lava Church can be a bit tricky to get to. If you simply route in on a map app, it’ll send you either through the forest on a rough road or down this highway, and thirty minutes past the pueblo of Angahuan on a rough road ending at the parking lot of the site of the church.
After asking around and doing some reading, it was clear that the best way to do this trip with a Class C RV is to drive to Angahuan, then park at the Centro Turístico de Angahuan and hike in from there.
The tourist center there offers secure parking for a fee and a mirador where you can view the church from a distance.
We’ll be starting our hike at around 7,800 feet elevation and hiking about two miles to the church at around 7,500 fee elevation. Of course, when we’re done, we’ll have to turn around and hike back up the hill to our RV.
Around 30 minutes after leaving the Tourist Center, we get our first glimpse of the ruins of Santuario del Señor de los Milagros (aka, the Lava Church), obscured by mountains of the black lava rock that blanketed the village of Old San Juan Parangaricutiro.
There’s a small settlement carved into the lava fields where you can grab Gorditas, water and beer, or a guide. It hard to believe there used to be an entire town here—now buried beneath the rock for some 80 years.
Exploring the Ruins of Santuario del Señor de los Milagros
The route up to the church isn’t easy, but it isn’t the hardest trail we’ve done either.
The lava rock is stable and grippy, if uneven, and the climb up to the ruins is less than we thought. Riley needed some encouragement in spots, but our seven-year-old made it with ease.
If you’re exploring on your own, use the map below on your device to follow along. We recommend the Gaia app for this sort of thing, which uses OpenStreetMap.org maps.
In the map, above, the ruins of the church are just southeast east of the center of the image. If you don’t mind a bit of scrambling over lava boulders, you can make a little loop.
We opted to do the walk in two separate chunks: First from the main parking lot/ snack shacks, then from the covered viewing area/ shrine (where the word “Zirosto” is, above).
The trail in and around the front of the nave is arguably the most difficult part to manage if you are doing a loop.
Some quick background might be in order here. All of this happened as a result of the devastating volcanic eruption of Volcán Paricutin, just four miles to the south of where we are now.
The craziest thing is that the volcano didn’t even exist before 1943. It sprang out of nowhere from a cornfield that year and continued to spew forth lava for nine years, ultimately covering an area of 90 square miles and slowly devouring the town of Old San Juan Parangaricutiro.
The second bell tower didn’t collapse from the volcano. Apparently, they were working on constructing the tower when the volcano started to devour San Juan Parangaricutiro. It was never completed as a result.
You can actually see what the church and some of Old San Juan Parangaricutiro looked like before the lava flow reached the church in this vintage postcard image.
I took the above photo standing at the altar looking back at the front of the nave, which might give you an idea of the scale of this place. Not a small little chapel.
In fact, much of the original altar survived the devastation. Local residents attribute this to a miracle and pilgrims from across the region visit to pray and make offerings.
The Second Route
We returned to the parking lot and made our way south along the main road to the elevated platform where we found a second trail leading to the front of the ruined church.
This route takes a bit longer, but offers better views of San Juan Parangaricutiro and the lava church (and better photo opportunities as well).
By the time we retraced our steps of the second route, we were starting to feel the altitude.
Walking all day yesterday at 5,500 feet in Uruapan didn’t seem to have nearly the same effect as hiking to and around the lava fields at 7,500 feet.
Granted, it’s not the easiest thing spending a couple of hours steadying yourself on lava rock. Still, we were a bit surprised and weren’t exactly looking forward to the two-mile [uphill] return journey.
Taking a rest before tackling the steep final section back the RV.
On to Patzcuaro & Rancho La Mesa
Driving through these sorts of small towns and villages with their narrow streets and lots of activity isn’t exactly my favorite thing to do in an RV. But we made it back out of Angahuan unscathed and back on the beautiful highway leading back into Uruapan.
Unfortunately, Uruapan is one of the countless cities we’ve driven through in Mexico without a bypass.
We spent a solid 30 minutes of our two-hour trip to Patzcuaro fighting traffic through town at one of the busiest times of day.
I had high hopes for the open highway between the outskirts of Uruapan and Patzcuaro, but that wasn’t exactly a cake-walk either. Virtually the entire 30-mile stretch was under construction, and the mountainous portions were packed with slow-moving big trucks.
On top of all that, there’s about 2,000 feet of elevation to be gained between the two cities, with multiple higher mountain passes in between.
Spending four hours on the road in a single day driving from 5,500 feet up to 8,000 feet, back down to 5,500 feet, then back up to 7,500 feet isn’t easy on a vehicle of this size and weight.
And then there was the business of accessing the RV park.
I think Lori thought she was doing me a favor by opting to save this information until the end of our drive. After three exhausting days, I was just ready to be done with it. But Rancho La Mesa (our final destination for the foreseeable future) can be a bit tricky to get to.
My only solace at this point was knowing that once we got our home parked, we probably wouldn’t have to move it for a couple of weeks.
First, getting there requires making a sharp U-turn across a busy highway (with oncoming traffic speeding down a steep hill). I thought I had taken the turn sufficiently wide, but realized at the last minute I would need to either reverse on the highway or end up in the drainage ditch.
The next item of business was crossing a blind one-lane bridge over the highway. I thought for a second about sending Lori up to check if it was clear, but opted for honking/ flashing the brights instead.
Shortly after that, we arrived at an overgrown stretch of road where a utility worker was blocking traffic on a ladder. He inched the ladder over, but it wasn’t enough. He would have to remove his ladder completely and secure the wires for us to get through the narrow opening between two big trees.
Ten minutes later, we finally rolled into Rancho La Mesa.
There was just one other RV parked in the expansive property overlooking the city and Lake Patzcuaro. We found a nice little area all to ourselves where all the utilities functioned, parked, and got set up.
We wanted to take advantage of the incredible view, which meant I would not be able to back in, but rather need to pull in front-forward.
However, this posed one big problem. The sewage hose wouldn’t reach the drain. So,. I simply parked the RV at a 45-degree angle and voila!
Of course I’d never pull that sort of thing at a KOA in the States. But I don’t think anyone will mind in a mostly empty Mexican RV park in off season.
Off to a well-deserved dinner in town for all of us.
After an unexpected 40-minute walk (yep, we misjudged that one a bit), we got our first glimpse of Old Town.
Minutes later, we were grateful to finally be sitting down for dinner. And yes, we did spring for a taxi back.
One of the fancier dinners we’ve had out in a very long time. But Casa del Naranjo very much seemed worth it tonight. Muy rico.
We really enjoyed our time in Uruapan and San Juan Parangaricutiro, but now it’s time to lay low, recharge, and catch up on some much needed projects.
