Constitución de 1857

Constitución de 1857 National Park was decreed in 1962 in the state of Baja California and protects a sector of the Sierra de Juárez, north of the Sierra de San Pedro Mártir. Its name commemorates the liberal Mexican constitution promulgated in that year.

The landscape is a granite plateau of moderate altitude, between 1,500 and 1,800 metres, with rounded rock outcrops and open pine and oak woodland. That woodland is an island of temperate montane vegetation in the middle of a desert setting, and is the southern extension of the ecosystems of the mountains of southern California; that island character explains its biogeographical interest.

Its best-known feature is Laguna Hanson, a shallow, seasonal lake at the heart of the park, whose level and extent vary greatly from year to year with the rains and which dries out completely in periods of prolonged drought. Recreational activity concentrates around it: camping, walking and birdwatching. The wildlife includes mule deer, coyote, bobcat and a montane birdlife with raptors. Forest fires, persistent drought and livestock grazing around it are its main pressures. The area forms part of the traditional territory of the Kumeyaay people.