Qualla: Braulio Carrillo National Park

Braulio Carrillo National Park: Introduction

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit MongeNajera, CC BY-SA 3.0. The park exists because of a highway, which is the kind of irony Costa Rica has learned to live with. In the late 1970s, planners drew a road between San Jose and the Caribbean port town of Guapiles, cutting straight through some of the most pristine rainforest left in the Central Valley. The environmental backlash was immediate and effective: in 1978, Braulio Carrillo National Park was created to protect the forest the highway would bisect. Named for Costa Rica's third president, the park has since expanded four times - in 1986, 1991, 1995, and 2015 - growing to 50,000 hectares of dense jungle, cloud forest, and volcanic terrain. Two volcanoes anchor the landscape: Barva, whose peak reaches 2,906 meters, and the lower Cacho Negro. Highway 32 still runs through the middle, a narrow asphalt thread through a green wall so thick you can drive for 45 kilometers without seeing sky.

Image: MongeNajera | CC BY-SA 3.0

Braulio Carrillo National Park: Half of Everything

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit MongeNajera, CC BY-SA 3.0. The biodiversity statistics for Braulio Carrillo read like typos. Over 6,000 plant species have been cataloged within the park boundaries. More than 515 bird species have been observed - both resident and migratory. Costa Rica, a country roughly the size of West Virginia, contain...

Image: MongeNajera | CC BY-SA 3.0

Braulio Carrillo National Park: The Predators and the Prey

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Wayne77, CC BY-SA 4.0. Jaguars and pumas share the upper reaches of the food chain in Braulio Carrillo, though neither is seen often. More visible are the primates: white-faced capuchins swing through the canopy, spider monkeys navigate the upper branches, and howler monkeys announce their territories ...

Image: Wayne77 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Braulio Carrillo National Park: Flash of Green and Gold

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mrkstvns, CC BY-SA 4.0. Birdwatchers come to Braulio Carrillo hoping for one sighting above all others: the resplendent quetzal. This iridescent bird, sacred to the Maya and Aztecs, breeds in the cloud forest canopy, its emerald plumage and impossibly long tail streamers visible to those with good timin...

Image: Mrkstvns | CC BY-SA 4.0

Braulio Carrillo National Park: Two Ways In

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mrkstvns, CC BY-SA 4.0. Most visitors enter at Quebrada Gonzalez, the main park entrance along Highway 32, about 25 kilometers from San Jose. Rangers provide maps and information, and three marked hiking trails loop along the Rio Quebrada Gonzalez and the smaller Rio Sucio, whose waters run copper-color...

Image: Mrkstvns | CC BY-SA 4.0