El Yunque Peak

Location: Río Grande

Getting there: Drive a little under an hour from San Juan to get to the entrance of El Yunque National Forest. Having your own car is ideal, but you can also book a tour. Reservations used to be required to enter this area of the forest, but that is no longer the case. They only let in 200 cars at a time, so getting there early is a good idea. You’ll drive all the way to the end of the recreation corridor, taking a one-way road that will take you to the trailhead. Find a place to park on the road.

General Info: The trail to get there is initially the same that leads you to Britton Tower, Roca El Yunque, and Los Picachos. There are multiple signs that will show you which path to take. To get to the peak, you walk the Britton Tower trail until you get to the service road, then you follow the service road until it ends. The El Yunque Peak Hike will take you about two to three hours to go up, spend some time on the tower, and hike down. The last time I visited, I timed myself at two hours to get to the peak after stopping at the nearby Roca El Yunque for around 45 minutes. So, the time you spend on this hike can vary greatly depending on how often you stop, for how long, and your pace. The hike is paved, so you can do this hike even if it is pouring rain. The view from the top is possibly the best in El Yunque and gives you sweeping views of the surrounding forest and coastline.

Heads up: Be careful when walking, the path can get slippery when wet. If it is raining, enjoy the journey because there won’t be much of a view at the top. The first path is so narrow that only one person can pass at a time, which means that you’ll be stepping off the trail to let other people pass or walk quickly by people who step off the trail to let you pass. It would have been nice if they had made the paved path slightly bigger.