A Guide to Solo Hiking El Yunque Rainforest: Puerto Rico
Situated just a 40 minute drive from Old San Juan, El Yunque rainforest offers a pretty awesome experience for adventurous tourists. If you visit Puerto Rico you will see many tour groups offering trips to the forest, however, what about going solo? I really struggled to find a solid online guide when visiting, so here is my take on how to make the most of a visit there!
Getting to El Yunque
While this may seem like an obvious first step, getting to the trail head is not exactly simple. There is no public transportation to the base of the forest and if you plan to venture there without a tour group/guide you will need to get there and back on your own.
Option 1: Uber there
Ubers are very cheap in Puerto Rico and its definitely tempting to Uber to the forest. A one way ~50 minute trip there will probably cost you around $30. This of course does not beat public transportation, but when you have few other options it defintiely seems tempting & reasonable. However, my advice is don’t do this. I found that overall Ubers are pretty unreliable in San Juan (they tend to take a long time to come & there are often few available). You really don’t want to get stranded in the rainforest when looking for a ride back. Plus, there is almost zero service in parts of the forest. I did see a lot of other tourists around, however, how are you going to Uber back to your hotel without wifi?
Option 2: Rent a car
If you’re cheap like me you will probably not want to do this because it is fairly expensive and you have to deal with taking care of the car. Honestly though, this is by far the best option and what I ended up going with during my trip. Car rentals are relatively cheap, I paid ~$115 for 24 hours plus maybe $20 in gas to get to the forest and back. For a once in a lifetime experience this really isn’t so bad.
So you rented a car, now what?
If you plan on hiking the same route that I did you will want to set your GPS to these coordinates. This carpark is really close to the El Yunque trailhead. If you want to view the full recommended trail map check it out on All Trails. Below is a route between Old San Juan (the touristy historic old town) and the carpark linked above. As you can see Maps is saying the ride will take a little over and hour. Personally I found that this is a little bit of an over estimate.
When heading out to El Yunque, there are really two major things to note.
- The park limits capacity so if you get there too late in the day there is a chance that it will be full and that you won’t get let in. This would totally suck if you rented a car and drove over an hour so be sure to leave earlier in the morning!
- The drive is windy, narrow and you will lose service. There are definitely lots of tourists around so its not in the middle of nowhere, however, its also not a city. Bring plenty of water and be ready for a somewhat challenging drive in the tail end of the trip.
The Hike: El Yunque Peak & Mount Britton Tower
Overall, I found that there were really two popular hiking options: El Yunque trail (which leads to the summit of the mountain) and Mount Britton Tower trail (which brings you to an awesome stone tower). I ended up doing a combination of both trails (see screenshot below for my personal loop), however, you can definitely get a hike in doing either independently.
El Yunque Peak trail
Overall I found that this trail was pretty in interesting, however be prepared for low visibility and wet conditions. The trail snakes along the mountain side and is draped by thick vegetation making the view almost non existent on the assent. From a few openings in the trees I did however see some amazing views, but these were far and inbetween. Overall I found this trail to be decently challenging with a ton of loose rock, mud, and uphill incline. Below is a photo that pretty much sums up this entire journey.
As you can see there is a LOT of vegetation to walk through. I didn’t find this particularly buggy (although I can definitely see how it may be). Overall I enjoyed this route, I just wished the view was better because it got a little bit boring.
Closed routes
Beware, when I did this hike the trail to El Yunque peak was completely closed off to the public. I ignored this and hopped over three fences because I did not personally drive an hour and fly to Puerto Rico to not summit, however obviously do this at your own risk. I did find that the gated off trails were not maintained (so there was a ton of brush and falling apart trail), however, this did not seem dangerous to me. I also noticed that this section had pretty much zero other tourists. This is probably because it was gated off (LOL). If you’re like me, no tourists usually gets my interest so this actually became the most enjoyable part of my adventure!
Cloudy overlooks
After scrambling through the closed part of El Yunque trail I found a pretty amazing outlook. In the photo above its pretty hard to tell, however, I was standing on a rocky outcrop that really made it feel like I was literally in the clouds. While the visibility was terrible, this was definitely my favorite part of this trip. I had almost a 360 degree cloud view with misty jungle descending the slopes surrounding me. With my new walking stick (a branch that I broke off and sharpened with rocks) I took in the quiet and meditated because there were 0 other tourists around. I definitely recommend this spot if you aren't afraid of heights or of closed trails. Keep in mind the photo above does not give this spot justice, in reality it was almost a 360 degree view overlooking a massive rainy jungle.
El Yunque summit
After passing the cloudy outcrop you can slowly progress you way to the crux of the hike — the summit. I definitely found this part of the journey the most technically challenging. Between extremely bad condition trails and a heavy downpour, I definitely got my money’s worth! However, don’t let my comments about it being challenging deter you. The experience is definitely well worth it!
After slowly winding your way up the remainder of the trail you will pop out at a road. Personally I found this pretty strange (you hike for hours just to end up at a building). Either way, this is the end of the trail. Here sits an old vacant building shrouded in mist. It was pretty hard for me to tell its original purpose, however, it was still pretty cool. At the top of this structure lies the mountain’s highest point 3494 feet and while the surrounding view was far from incredible (it was very cloudy when I was there) it will still leave you feeling as though the journey was well worth it!
Mount Britton Tower
The cloudy view at the top of El Yunque left me feeling slightly unsatisfied. Luckily just 20 more minutes of walking will get you to a much better outlook.
Sitting at 3012 feet — a couple hundred less than El Yunque peak — Mount Britton has a significantly better vantage point with miles of visibility. If you decide to head to this tower keep in mind that the trail (like many others) was closed due to construction.
Bypassing the wooden barricades I slowly worked my way up a short (~5 minute) trail to the top of Mount Britton. Here sits a large stone tower with internal spiral staircases. At the top is the view that I came for. Overlooking the entire forest, there is an unblocked 360 degree view that goes for miles. I could actually see all the way to the ocean — making yet another sneak past closed off fences well worth it.
I left El Yunque feeling really satisfied with my journey (and ready for a drink back on the beaches near my hotel). Sometimes its really nice to leave the daily grind of work and travel somewhere amazing and insightful. After all, what are you really working for if it isn’t for doing what makes you happy. If you made it here, thank you for reading. I write these blog posts for fun, feel free to leave me a clap (or whatever a like is called here) :)
Oh also, check out the waterfalls before you leave the park. They were pretty cool, but very touristy.
