Qualla: Santa Rosa National Park

Santa Rosa National Park: Introduction

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Oldcrookedjaw, CC BY-SA 3.0. On certain new moon nights in late summer, the beach at Playa Nancite becomes something difficult to believe even when you are watching it happen. Thousands of olive ridley sea turtles emerge from the Pacific surf simultaneously, dragging themselves across the sand to dig nests and deposit eggs in a synchronized mass arrival called an arribada. The turtles have been doing this for millennia, long before the surrounding dry tropical forest was designated as Santa Rosa National Park in 1970 -- Costa Rica's first national park, and a place where military history, ecological preservation, and raw natural spectacle converge in 49,515 hectares of Guanacaste coastland.

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Image: Oldcrookedjaw | CC BY-SA 3.0

Santa Rosa National Park: Where Jaguars Still Roam

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Geoff Gallice from Gainesville, FL, USA, CC BY 2.0. Santa Rosa protects one of the largest remaining stands of tropical dry forest in Central America, an ecosystem that once covered much of the Pacific lowlands from Mexico to Panama but has been cleared for ranching and agriculture across most of its range. Within the park's bound...

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Image: Geoff Gallice from Gainesville, FL, USA | CC BY 2.0

Santa Rosa National Park: Witch's Rock and the Marine Frontier

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Franz Xaver, CC BY-SA 3.0. The park's Pacific coastline holds two beaches with very different reputations. Playa Nancite is the turtle nesting beach, restricted and carefully managed to protect the arribadas. Playa Naranjo, farther south, is famous for entirely different reasons: the surf break near Witch'...

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Image: Franz Xaver | CC BY-SA 3.0

Santa Rosa National Park: A Battlefield Preserved

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rodtico21, CC BY-SA 4.0. At the heart of the park stands the Casona de Santa Rosa, a colonial-era hacienda that was the site of Costa Rica's most celebrated military engagement. On March 20, 1856, a Costa Rican army surprised and routed a force of foreign filibusters under the command of William Walker, ...

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Image: Rodtico21 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Santa Rosa National Park: Dry Season, Wet Season

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bernard DUPONT from FRANCE, CC BY-SA 2.0. Guanacaste's climate divides the year into two distinct personalities. The dry season runs from December through April, when the sun bakes the forest floor and many trails are accessible only with a four-wheel-drive vehicle and a tolerance for dust. The wet season, from May throu...

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Image: Bernard DUPONT from FRANCE | CC BY-SA 2.0