Trip Details
Date: June 10th, 2015
Total Distance: 2.37 mi (via Trimble Outdoors Navigator Pro on iPhone 4S)
Total Time: 2 hours 2 minutes
Total Elevation: 1135 ft gained
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Arenal Volcano located within the Arenal Volcano National Park has that picturesque perfect volcano shape with few other mountains around to obstruct its view. Like Mt. Washington, though, it remains in the clouds the majority of the time and many of its visitors who come from all over the world to see it never get to. Thankfully, for us it was crystal clear for the two days we spent in the area. Sadly, the volcano has remained dormant since December 2010 so we were not able to see its famous glowing red lava at night.
As June is within the rainy season most afternoons would experience some sort of precipitation though amounts would vary significantly. We lucked out and most of our tours were in the mornings on our trip to Costa Rica, except for our Arenal Volcano hike. The day started out clear without a cloud in the sky. Though, clouds would start to roll in and just as our hike started so did the rain. Thankfully, it was only a light steady rain. Arenal Volcano also hid behind the clouds.
The trail itself is on an active farm within the national park. Also, hiking within the national park is very limited and hiking to the summit is illegal. The hikes are not challenging and designed to accommodate all tourists. The trails through the active farm part are like walking on flat ground as you are shown all the Costa Rica produce that is grown in one location. The trails then pass by some small ponds that were made from projectiles from the 1968 eruption and a prop from the M. Night Shyamalan/Will & Jaden Smith box office bomb After Earth. The majority of filming took place within the national park.
The trails eventually start to climb the 1968 lava fields making their way to the lava field summit. Our tourist group was pretty wet and behind schedule so at the outlook we took the cutoff back down the main trail and headed out. As the hike ended Arenal Volcano came out from hiding for some good views including the steam (or fumaroles) coming off both of its summits. These are normal and do not indicate a pending eruption.
Arenal Volcano located within the Arenal Volcano National Park has that picturesque perfect volcano shape with few other mountains around to obstruct its view. Like Mt. Washington, though, it remains in the clouds the majority of the time and many of its visitors who come from all over the world to see it never get to. Thankfully, for us it was crystal clear for the two days we spent in the area. Sadly, the volcano has remained dormant since December 2010 so we were not able to see its famous glowing red lava at night.
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| Morning view |
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| Steam coming off of the two summits. |
The trail itself is on an active farm within the national park. Also, hiking within the national park is very limited and hiking to the summit is illegal. The hikes are not challenging and designed to accommodate all tourists. The trails through the active farm part are like walking on flat ground as you are shown all the Costa Rica produce that is grown in one location. The trails then pass by some small ponds that were made from projectiles from the 1968 eruption and a prop from the M. Night Shyamalan/Will & Jaden Smith box office bomb After Earth. The majority of filming took place within the national park.
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| Banana tree |
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| Cupcake enjoying some sugarcane. |
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| I am trying to suck every ounce of sugar out of my piece of sugarcane. |
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| A small pond formed by projectiles from the 1968 eruption. |
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| The set piece from After Earth. |
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| The typical trail conditions through the garden part of the hike. It is a bit more overgrown on this stretch. |
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| As we started to ascend the lava flow, the loose lava rock became more obvious. |
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| Lava rocks around the trail. |
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| Cupcake and I at the Lake Arenal overlook. |
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| Lake Arenal |
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| Arenal Volcano came into view as the hike ended. |
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| The steam was even more prevalent after the rain. |
| It looks like the GPS was a bit more steady on this hike. |
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