The rock itself is inspiring enough to beckon climbers and hikers. The walk up to it's halfway point is a challenging hike that takes an hour and a half. Continuing on to the top is only for rock climbers. The real experts take a completely different route and can be seen as spots of color hanging by threads on a sheer vertical face, making their way to the top piton by piton. The hike to the halfway point is hot and dry, but every few hundred yards, an enterprising burro owner has enlisted his animal to supply an ice-filled cooler of bottled water and soda for sale to the thirsty hikers. Once at the halfway point, the destination for non-rock-climbers, you can observe the distinct browns and greens near the base of the rock blending together as the valleys stretch north toward San Luis Potosi and south toward Pachuca. A small capilla, or chapel, barely large enough for one person to enter and kneel nestles in a niche against a rock wall. Wait in the line that forms and step inside. The tiny alter is covered in flowers and lighted candles carried up by the devoted.

On March 21, at the Vernal Equinox, when the earth is vertical on its axis, a different sort of festival occurs. Thousands of new-age believers gather, dressed all in white trimmed with red kerchiefs, early in the morning around the base of the Peña, absorbing the energy emanating from its crystal core. The residents have a adapted to these outsiders in pragmatic ways, creating friendly restaurants, making tasty sweets, and developing a crafts industry to produce high quality wool and hand sewn lace.