Located less than an hour from Oaxaca city, Camino a la Palma runs many miles from high in the Sierra Norte near the village of La Neveria down to Tlalixtac in the Tlacolula valley. Today’s hike will cover about 10.5 km. (round-trip) of that distance along the lowest part of the trail, which we will access a few miles from Tlalixtac. This makes a very satisfying moderate day trek, using first the service road going to five small dams strung along the creek, then a hiking and biking trail going further up the valley. The most challenging feature will be the several creek crossings we will encounter going each direction. Hiking poles will come in handy for crossing the streams if there has been recent rain.