Rincón de la Vieja National Park

Rincón de la Vieja National Park Review

Rincón de la Vieja National Park is Costa Rica's mini-Yellowstone, with steaming volcanic hot springs and boiling, bubbling mud ponds. The park protects more than 140 square km (54 square mi) of the volcano's upper slopes, which are covered with forest. Often enveloped in clouds, the volcano dominates the scenery to the east of the Pan-American Highway. It has two peaks: Santa María (1,916 meters/6,323 feet) and the barren Rincón de la Vieja (1,895 meters/6,254 feet). The latter has an active crater and fumaroles on its lower slope that constantly let off steam, making an eruption unlikely anytime soon. The wildlife here is diverse: more than 250 species of birds, including long-tailed manakins and blue-crowned motmots; plus mammals such as white-tailed deer, coyotes, howler and capuchin monkeys, and armadillos. There are two main entrances: Santa María and Las Pailas; the latter is the most common place to enter the park because it has the most accessible trails and there are several hotels along the road leading up to it. If you want to explore the slopes of the volcano, go with a guide—the abundant hot springs and geysers have given unsuspecting visitors some very nasty burns. In addition, the upper slopes often receive fierce and potentially dangerous winds—before ascending, check at either ranger station for conditions. The park does not have guides; we recommend the guides at Hacienda Guachipelín and Rincón de la Vieja Mountain Lodge. You must sign in and pay at the ranger station. Many of the attractions people visit in Rincón de la Vieja are accessible without actually entering the park, since the ranches that border it also hold significant forest and geothermal sites. Unfortunately that same geothermic energy has now been harnessed by a huge electricity-generating plant, evidence of which you will see on your way to Las Pailas entrance: a huge pipeline now snakes around the scrubby pastureland on the approach to the park. It's unsightly but one of the unavoidable costs of "clean" energy.