El Yunque National Forest Things to Do

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The La Mina trail is the continuation of the Big Tree Trail or you can hike it down and then back up if your time is short in El Yunque. The trail is .7 miles (1.2 km) and estimated to take 30 to 45 minutes one way, rated as challenging although I thought Big Tree required more exertion. La Mina was the prettier of the two trails, it follows the water as it flows down to the falls. At the falls, you can take a dip in the cold water so bring a bathing suit. Try to do this or Big Tree first, as the day progresses the ship tours and daytrip buses start arriving and it becomes crowded and not at all tranquil. We were followed by a giggling group of American college students, once they were in the water at La Mina falls there was no way to get decent pictures so we were glad we beat them down by 20 minutes.

The Big Tree Trail is one of the two most popular hikes in El Yunque, it's .7 miles in length (1.4km) and the estimated time to hike it is 40 minutes with a moderate level of difficulty, all of the trails we hiked including this one were paved. The Big Tree trail leads to the La Mina waterfall and from there you can hike the La Mina trail back up or you can do that in reverse and hike down La Mina and then back up Big Tree. After doing it, I'm still not sure which is the better route, Big Tree left me winded even going down to the falls as it's more of an up and down trail, whereas La Mina seemed like it was all descent going down. If you do the two trails in combination, you will be about 1 mile (1.8km) from where you park, we had to walk along the road to get back to our car. From La Mina you are going downhill, from Big Tree uphill. So I think it's kind of a toss up as to which is the route that requires more exertion.

If you only have time to hike one, I'd suggest La Mina, it was the more scenic of the two routes as it follows the water down to the waterfall.

El Yunque National Forest, located about an hour southeast of San Juan, is the only tropical rain forest in the U.S. National Forest System. The forest’s 28,000 acres is home to 240 species of trees, 150 types of ferns and you may see tropical flowers depending on when you visit. You may come across tiny tree frogs, the rare Puerto Rican parrot or Puerto Rican boa although sightings are rare.

You can start at the El Portal Rain Forest Center or if you know where you are going you can drive and park at any of the trail heads and save the $4 fee for the visitor center. You can print off the information for each of the different trails from their website which lists the length of the trail, the level of difficulty and estimated time to complete. We found the time estimates to be a bit inflated but the level of difficulty accurate.

Although we didn't see a drop of rain, this is a rainforest and if you come during the rainy season, you may want to come prepared for a shower or two. The three trails we hiked were all paved and there were rain shelters dotted along the trails.

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You can hear the Coqui frogs singing in the rainforest, “Ko’Kee..” But I was not able to photograph this small frog.

We did see a lot of lizards though, even by the pool of our hotel and a lot at the El Portal Visitor Center. We also saw snails, woody insects on the plants, lots of birds…but not the elusive green parrot which has a very low number and chances of seeing it in the wild is close to NIL.

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There are some natural pools around the El Yunque Forest and our guide brought us to a big pool, appropriately called Bano Grande.

Our guide said that when he was a little boy, they were able to swim in it.

But now, there are metal bars around the pool, and I think swimming is not allowed anymore. It may be because it may be dangerous when the water level goes up fast after a rainfall (I understand since I myself almost drowned swimming in a waterfall lagoon which turned murky brown in just a few seconds with flash flooding after a rainfall in the Philippine island of Catanduanes).

But there are nice paved pathways where you can enjoy walking around the pools, and maybe trying to listen to those singing “Coqui” frogs that sound like “Co-gui”…

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There is a famous waterfall in the El Yunque Forest called la Coca Falls, sometimes people call it Coco Falls…but either way, it’s a great waterfall to see in the rainforest.

A favourite stop for tourists and even with the rain, I saw some people walking onto the rocks for picture taking – I thought the rocks would be a bit slippery, but it seemed people still ventured out to it (for a better shot without the rails). But I suggest you do that only if you have good footing!

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Yokahu Tower Observation Point at an elevation of 1575 feet above sea level (at Km 8.9) is a great place for panoramic views of the rainforest.
Also known as the Lookout Tower, the Yokahu Observation Point was named after the supreme being of the Taino Indians --- it looks like a one of the towers on a chess piece set, and I told my daughter that Rapunzel would let down her hair at anytime.
The climb up is a bit tiring, but the view is worth the trek going up! There is a little viewer at the top which my five year old son played with, and also by the time we were to go down, it started to rain again.
There is a little store at the bottom of the tower as well.

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At El Yunque there 50 species of birds, 11 species of bats, 8 species of lizards, and 13 species of coquí (a tree frog - photo 5). Also found here are several species of shrimp and fish. So sounds you hear may be either those of birds or frogs.

There are 17 endemic species of birds in Puerto Rico and many other birds that stop on the island on their migration routes.

A list of birds seen in the Forest include
* Red Tailed Hawk (Guaraguao)
* Mangrove Cuckoo
* Puerto Rican Lizard-Cuckoo (Coccyzus vieilloti)
* Puerto Rican Woodpecker
* Scaly-naped Pigeon (Patagioenas squamosa)
* White-winged Dove (Zenaida asiatica)
* Green Mango: [Anthracothorax viridis] hummingbird
* Puerto Rican Emerald
* Puerto Rican Tody (San Pedrito)
* Gray Kingbird
* Pearly-Eyed Thrasher
* Red legged Thrush
* Bananaquit (Coereba flaveola)
* Cape May Warbler
* Black Throated blue warbler
* Black-Cowled Oriole
* Shiny Cowbird
* Striped Headed Tanager
* Antillean Euphonea
* Indigo Bunting
* Black-faced Grassquit (Tiaris bicolor)
* Black Whiskered Vireo
* Pin Tailed Whyoah
* Greater Antillean Oriole
* Puerto Ricon Bull Finch
* Puerto Rican Fly Catcher
* Great White Egret (Casnerodius albus)
* Black-and-White Warbler (mariatilta varia)
* American Redstart (sectophaga runticilla)
* Northern Parula (Parula americana)
* Antillean Mango (Anthracothorax dominicus)
* Puerto Rican Tanager (Nesospingus speculiferus)
* Puerto Rican Screech Owl (otus nudipes)
* White-crowned Pigeon (Columba leucocephala)

The endangered species Puerto Rican Parrot (amazona vitatta - photo 4) lives only in a few hidden areas of the Caribbean National Forest. There are presently approximately 102 birds alive, but only about 40 in the wild. That is up from about 11-16 birds in 1968

A good book is Puerto Rico's Birds in Photographs (Paperback) by Mark W. Oberle. The book includes a CD-ROM of bird sounds and photographs and is available at El Portal visitor
Center in El Yunque

We had no need of this book because we were not in the area long enough to photograph any of the birds or the frogs. The only pictures I have are those of the signs at various sites.