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Santa Rosa National Park Review

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Santa Rosa National Park

Address: Km 269, Pan-American Hwy., 35 km/22 mi north of Liberia, Santa Rosa National Park
Phone: 666-5051

Category: Parks
Location: Santa Rosa National Park

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Fodor's Review:

Intrepid bird-watchers, naturalists, backpackers, and campers who like to rough it are the sort that visits this national park. Renowned for its wildlife, which is easy to spot thanks to sparser foliage, Santa Rosa is the largest swath of tropical dry forest in Central America. Treetop inhabitants include spider, capuchin, and howler monkeys. If you station yourself next to water holes during the dry season, you may also spot deer, coyotes, coatis, or ocelots by day and armadillos and tapirs by night. Typical dry-forest vegetation includes oak, wild cherry, mahogany, calabash, bullhorn acacia, and gumbo-limbo.

Santa Rosa's wealth of flora and fauna is due in part to its remoteness, which also makes it very difficult to access. To get anywhere in the park, you must first hike the 7-km (4½-mi) paved road to park headquarters from the entrance gate. About halfway along this road is a wooden sign signaling that you are entering the old-growth area, with trees as old as 500 years. Within this dense, shady forest, temperatures drop by as much as 5°C.

Visit areas beyond La Casona and accessible trails near the park headquarters only if you are a hardy hiker and backpacker. In rainy season the park's rough trails cannot be accessed by even 4WD vehicles and require hours of trekking on foot. From the park's entrance it's 8 km (5 mi) to the park headquarters, another 13 km (8 mi) to Playa Naranjo —where famed Witch's Rock surf break is located (most surfers get there by boat)—and Playa Nancite —the world's only totally protected olive ridley turtle arribada, or mass nesting (accessible primarily to biologists and students; permit required)—is an additional 5 km (3 mi) beyond that. Only the first 20 km (12 mi) of trail is accessible by 4WD in the dry season.

Cost: $6
Open: Daily 8-4

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