The Sierra Madre Occidental and Oriental, the Cordillera Neovolcánica, and the Sierra Madre del Sur still have some big stretches of pine forest and oak forest, though human occupation has stripped away much of the forest around the valleys.

In the southern half of Mexico, high-altitude pine forests are often covered in clouds, turning them into cloud forests, an unusual environment with lush, damp vegetation and epiphytes growing on tree branches. The Sierra Norte of Oaxaca and El Tríunfo Biosphere Reserve in Chiapas preserve outstanding cloud forests.