Hiking in the El Yunque National Rainforest
Trip Start
Jan 15, 2006
1
6
9
Trip End
Ongoing
El Yunque National Rainforest,
Puerto Rico
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
The other day I took the day off for one of most beautiful hikes I have ever taken! Gale gave the interpretive tour telling us the plant names she knew as well as some other useful information. Indigo and Shane also came on the hike.
Our first stop was at the Juan Diego falls. This was just a pull over off the main road with a TINY sign that marked the entrance. Only 20-30 yards back however was a small paradise! Two waterfalls with swimming pool plunges fell before our eyes as we got closer. It was a little chilly that day, or else I would have definitely gone swimming! maybe next time...
Ok well our first REAL hike once we got to the "normal" part of the park, we hiked up this small cemented trail. The trail was very well designed as it was mostly concrete but had big cobble stones in it as well so it blended in with the natural surrounding very well
Another view from britton tower
. It was a little uneven so it even felt kind of natural. Much better than the horrible asphalt trails you see in some parks.Anyways, we learned the names of the Mira Linda, the Sierra Palm, Fonpom, Ginger, and other neat looking flora. We learned a little of the park's history as well as current development.
After our hike up this awesome trail, we made out way to Britton Tower. The tower was built in the 30's or 40's when the park service had a lot of money and could afford to put cool structures up. It looks like an old castle, but the architecture is obviously modern when you look closely. From on top of the 30 or 40 ft structure, we had an amazing 360 degree view of the rainforest, absolutely spectacular! We could see San Juan, Louquillo, lots of shoreline, far out into the ocean, and of course a great span of the rainforest. The picture of me on the castle looking edge is on top of that tower.
The hike up to that point was a bit of a workout for Gale and Indigo, so they decided to head back to the car. Me and Shane, however, kept on truckin'. We were given specific instructions to find this smaller trail a ways up the road, which not many people knew about. Holy Jesus did it take us to the land of beauty! The trail its self was no more than 100 yards long, but the trail went right through this very damp part of the dwarf forest
Britton Tower cloudy
. The mossy trees surrounding the trail on either side is a picture of this area. When we got to the end of "la roca" trail, we were standing on....la roca! meaning, the rock! Most of the rainforest is covered by a dense canopy of tree, which grow from the extremely clay rich soil. (in fact its almost 100% clay) However, at the end of the trail we saw to our amazement a huge slab of bare rock! This gave way to yet another awesome view of the rainforest, a greater span of the island, and lots of shoreline and ocean. Unlike the other views, though, we could see the Rainforestinn.com from where we were standing! Shane took out the binoculars to verify, and what do ya know that little tiny concrete looking structure was our three story cement frame on the edge of the property. We called up bill to tell him we could see the property from there.
