Rincon de la Vieja National Park
Rincon de la Vieja Treasures
By Explore Costa Rica.com Staff
Jul 22, 2006, 15:55

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Costa Rica Area Info: Costa Rica's National Parks

A nature hike through the Rincon de la Vieja Volcano National Park, an active volcano draped with virgin forest which lies 12 miles northeast of Liberia. You will find bubbling mud, steamy sulfur water ponds and fumaroles while you explore the 2 miles of trails in the jungle.

Rincon National Park extends over 14,083 hectares and protects flora, fauna and watersheds around the Rincón de la Vieja Volcano. It includes semi-deciduous and very moist forests, and a barren rocky terrain. The altitudes that range from 650 meters to 1,916 meters above sea level on the Caribbean and Pacific sides of the Guanacaste Volcanic Mountain Range. The climate of this National Park is so diverse that areas with a very dry season lasting 4-5 month are immediately followed by others, near the summit or on the Caribbean side, where there is constant rainfall.

There's been around 257 species of birds identified, including the resplendent Quetzal, the Black Faced Solitaire, the Great Curassow, the Montezuma Oropendula, the Emerald Toucanet, the Elegant Trogon, the Blue-throated Golden tail, the Spectacled Owl, the White-fronted Amazon, the Three-wattled Bellbird, the Green Amazon and the Laughing Falcon. Mammals that find refuge in this remote mountainous region are Cougars, Jaguars, Tiger Cats, Howler, Spider and White Faced Capuchin Monkeys, Ocelots, Tayras, Kinkajous, Two Toed Sloths, White Nosed Coaties, and Northern Tamanduas. Felines, Tapirs, Bonaparte Tinamous and Black Guans abound in the cupey groves.

Location: One of the volcanoes on the Guanacaste mountain range, straddling the provinces of Guanacaste and Alajuela. Importance: It is probably the largest area where the Guaria Morada, the orchid which is Costa Rica's national flower, can still be found in the wild.

Rincón de la Vieja National Park also protects a vast network of rivers and streams that feed the basin of Nicoya Gulf and the floodplains south of Lake Nicaragua. On the southern slope, between 700 and 900 mts. above sea level, there is a fault line with a number of fumaroles known as Las Hornillas and Las Pailas. Worthy of mention is the hot springs near the Park Headquarters. San Roque and Cañas Dulces, neighbors of the volcano, are dactic domes in which the magma was unable to reach the surface solidifying  too soon. Las Hornillas are kitchen stoves where colums of steam, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide and other gases shoot our of cracks and fissures in the earth's crust. Las Pailas are areas with geysers and bubbling mud pots, associated with hot-water underground reservoirs buried beneath layers of mud.

They extend over approximately 50 hectares. The volcano Rincón de la Vieja belongs to a larger volcano structure of nine volcanoes dating back around 1 Million years of age, the most spectacular being Santa María (1916 mts.) and Von Seebach (1985 mts).

Costa Rica Rincon de la Vieja National Park photo gallery
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