What could be better than starting off the day with a hike in the incredible Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve. We parked the car in their parking lot and boarded the shuttle bus that would take us to the actual entrance to the reserve. We had gone back and forth about whether we should sign up for a guided hike or just go on our own. Ultimately, we decided to take the trail on our own which proved to be a good decision.
We purchased our tickets and went through the turnstile where four different paths were before us. Someone had recommended we take the path furthest on the right for the best views. And so right we went, which proved again to be a good decision.
We began our hike up the trail and marveled anew at the lush green everywhere. While our day before had taken us to the top of the forest along the canopy, today we were in the heart of it all. Seeing the Cloud Forest from the top to the bottom was incredible.
We were thrilled to find that we would need to cross another bridge through the forest. The bridge was long and straight and not nearly as swinging as the bridges we crossed the day before in the canopy.
We passed a group of people on the bridge and heard the guide say that they would be turning around to go back down. We were so glad that we had opted to not go with a guide because we were anxious to keep going and seeing what else we would see on the trail.
The trail continued higher and higher through the forest. Two different times I almost stepped on a crab before it scuttled away off the trail. Never would we have expected crabs on a mountainside, they must have taken a detour from the beaches miles away. The forest continued to give us beautiful views around every corner and we wanted to explore every trail that branched off from where we were.
As we were reaching near the top, the trail became like a tunnel through the green. We were walking along the Continental Divide where water would run down to both the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans. To walk along the Divide made the decision of which path to take seem all the more right.
At the top we looked out over the beautiful mountains of the Cloud Forest and imagined that we could almost see the ocean. Now we could say that we had seen this area from every angle.
We went up a little farther to the lookout point towards the other ocean. After we had soaked up the views as much as we could we began the climb back down the trail. On the way down we made one more good decision and took one of the smaller trails that branched off from the main one.
On our hike we had run into a number of people from all over the world. A man from India who had taken a month off work and was moving his way through 4 continents before going back to the grind. We met a couple from the Netherlands who were on their honeymoon. And we met a family from Pennsylvania traveling for their first time internationally. Not only was the trail itself wonderful, but so were the people we met along the way.
We followed the winding path back down to the bottom enjoying the smaller trail and smaller views of the forest it gave. The day had been filled with good decisions that had given us an amazing day being so consumed by the forest.
If you enjoyed this, here are some other forest hikes that you may be interested in:
Fautaua Trail- Tahiti, French Polynesia
Johnston Canyon- Banff National Park, Canada
Hawks Nest State Park- West Virginia, USA
Thanks for coming along on this hike through the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve. May you climb higher and see farther everywhere you go.
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