The Volcan de Colima, also known as Volcan de Fuego is part of the Colima Volcanic Complex. Unlike Nevado de Colima, which is further to the north and nearly all located in Jalisco, Volcan de Colima sits right on the border between Colima and Jalisco. Too, Volcan de Colima is the youngest volcano is growing in one of the three calderas in the Colima Volcanic complex.

The nearby city of Colima, less than 20 miles distant, has been built upon a 2500 year old debris avalanche from the south flank of this volcano and will receives ash fall when the wind conditions are right.

Typically violently exploding several times a day and/or oozing out lava domes and flows this is a very temperamental beastie, displaying a range of styles from Strombolian to Plinian. Between explosions bouts of degassing and vigorous fumarolic activity can take place. Clearest views are during the dry season, November - April while heavy rains the rest of the year cause mass erosion and redistribution of erupted material during lahars (volcanic mud flows). Incision caused by these lahars can quickly fill up again with pyroclastic flow deposits. Plenty of photos with coordinates to show you what things are like on the volcano but overall this page has relatively little information on access to the summit as it's pretty dangerous, has an exclusion zone around it, plus the monitoring staff and civil protection guys would get upset. Similar volcanoes to Colima include Santiaguito, Reventador, Karymsky and Sakurajima (to varying degrees).

After driving about a hundred miles up the coast of Michoacan, I cross into the state of Colima where I turn northward on Federal Highway (FD) 110 to the city of Colima, next FH 54D north towards the mountains, stopping to take a photo of the Nevado de Colima, tallest of the mountains in the Nevado de Colima National Park.

Volcan de Colima on the left, Nevado de Colima is on the right in this photo.