Update on the Mirador de Santa Rosa/ Santa Rosa Vista
Chapter 11 of Outdoors in Western Mexico, 2011 edition

From:Eileen Collard
DATE  Jan 2, 2015


Our goal today was to try to find the Mirador de Santa Rosa. And I think we did it!

Basically, we followed the instructions on p. 63 of Book 1 to get to Santa Lucia, starting out with GPS coordinates for La Mesita of N 20°50.161' W 103° 29.817' as a guide. We were a group of 11, plus our driver, in a large van heading out from Chapala. It took about 30 minutes to get from Santa Lucia to what we think was one of the "grassy knolls" you mention in the book. The GPS coordinates for that "grassy knoll" spot are N 20°51.634' W 103°31.856.  The distance between La Mesita and the "grassy knolls" is about 4 km. of rough driving.

We didn't see the "little roadside shrine" on the way there, but we did see it on the way back. It's on the south side of a split in the road (we called it "a glorieta") past Santa Lucia. Since the westbound lane is on the north side of the split and there's a sort of plant-filled median strip between the westbound and eastbound lanes, we didn't see the shrine until later. But that didn't seem to matter; we just kept going and came to the other landmarks you describe.  Manuel (our driver) made a mistake on the way there, and we were traveling on the wrong (left) side of the road. We passed right by the shrine but didn't see it because we were all focused on the vehicle about to drive right at us in the same lane...

We stopped for lunch, and some of us walked further on down the road to see what we could see. We climbed a nearby hill, thinking we could see even more of the panorama, but trees were in the way. The best view was around the bend in the road, to the right, about a 5-minute walk from where the van was parked. It was definitely worth the drive to see it.
We came back a different way. We turned right onto Carretera a Nextipac in Santa Lucia, which becomes Hwy 125, drove a short distance, and came to Highway 15. We turned left on that highway and continued to the Periferico. It was a lot quicker than taking the Testistan Highway.

I still prefer the views along the Hwy 23 road to San Cristobal de la Barranca and down to Huaxtla, but with the highway construction going on there now (they're making a 4-lane highway), it's not a pleasant drive from the Testistan Hiway on #23 until you get past the construction.

Incidentally, the best view of all I've seen is from the Hacienda Lomajim, off of Hwy. 23. We stayed there one year for our anniversary. Unfortunately, it's very expensive, the food was not very good, and you can't get into the property unless you're staying there or are scoping it out for an event of some sort. The highlight was when we looked down into the canyon from there and could see a golden eagle flying below us!
So, that's my travelogue. Thanks so much for your help prior to the trip and for all the effort you've put into your books. I love having them!
            Eileen Collard, Chapala