Chirripó National Park is a national park of Costa Rica, encompassing parts of three provinces: San José,

Limón Limón (), commonly known as Puerto Limón, is a district, the capital city and main hub of Limón province, as well as of the Limón canton in Costa Rica. It is the seventh largest city in Costa Rica, with a population of over 55,000, and is ho ...

and Cartago. It was established in 1975. It is named for its most prominent feature,

Cerro Chirripó Cerro is Spanish for "hill" or "mountain". Toponyms ;Bolivia: * Cerro Rico, the "Rich Mountain" containing silver ore near Potosi, Bolivia ;Brazil: *Cerro Branco, a municipality of Rio Grande do Sul *Cerro Grande, Rio Grande do Sul, a municipa ...

, which at is the highest mountain in Costa Rica.

Geography

Chirripó is the 38th most prominent peak in the world. In terms of

Holdridge life zones The Holdridge life zones system is a global bioclimatic scheme for the classification of land areas. It was first published by Leslie Holdridge in 1947, and updated in 1967. It is a relatively simple system based on few empirical data, giving obj ...

, the park can be categorized into five

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...

s: lowland tropical wet forest, premontane tropical wet forest, lower montane wet forest, montane wet forest and subalpine wet forest (

páramo Páramo () can refer to a variety of alpine tundra ecosystems located in the Andes Mountain Range, South America. Some ecologists describe the páramo broadly as "all high, tropical, montane vegetation above the continuous timberline". A narrower ...

). Most of the park consists of both primary rain forests and primary cloud forests. Around it changes to wet desert. Summiting the peak begins with a hike along a uphill trail from the town of

San Gerardo de Rivas San Gerardo de Rivas is a small village (population less than 400) high up in the valley of the ' river in the Talamanca Mountains The Cordillera de Talamanca is a mountain range that lies in the southeast half of Costa Rica and the far west of ...

to the park ranger's refuge in the Los Crestones sector; that is followed by a walk to the peak.

Climate

The climate is dominated by two seasons: a

dry season The dry season is a yearly period of low rainfall, especially in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of the year. The te ...

lasting from December to April and a

wet season The wet season (sometimes called the Rainy season) is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. It is the time of year where the majority of a country's or region's annual precipitation occurs. Generally, the sea ...

from May to November, During the dry season the upper regions are susceptible to fires. The latest recorded events have occurred in 1953, 1958, 1976, 1977, 1981 and 1992. This last event, however, affected over of vegetation and forced the administration to close the park for four months. The park is one of the coldest places in Costa Rica. In fact, the coldest temperature () ever recorded in Costa Rica was recorded here.

Las Nubes

The ''Las Nubes Centre for Neotropical Conservation and Research'' is a facility located at the southwest corner of the park and managed by

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

through an agreement with Costa Rica's

Tropical Science Center The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

Ramsar site

Part of the

Ramsar site A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention,8 ha (O) *** Permanent 8 ha (P) *** Seasonal Intermittent < 8 ha(Ts) **

Tapantí National Park Tapantí - Cerro de la Muerte Massif National Park, ( es, Parque Nacional Tapantí - Macizo Cerro de la Muerte), is a National Park in the Central Conservation Area of Costa Rica located on the edge of the Talamanca Range, near Cartago. It prote ...

Los Quetzales National Park Los Quetzales National Park ( es, Parque Nacional Los Quetzales), located 97 kilometers from San Isidro de El General, Costa Rica, it was created in 2006 by decree 32981-MINAE. It is managed under the Central Conservation Area of the National Sys ...

Macho River Forest Reserve Macho River Forest Reserve ( es, Reserva Forestal Río Macho), is a protected area in Costa Rica, managed under the Central Conservation Area, it was created in 1964 by executive decree 3417. Ramsar site Part of the Ramsar site, designated in ...

Vueltas Hill Biological Reserve Vueltas Hill Biological Reserve ( es, Reserva Biológica Cerro Vueltas), is a protected area in Costa Rica, managed under the Central Conservation Area, it was created in 1994 by decree 23260-MIRENEM. Ramsar site Part of the Ramsar site, de ...

and

Los Santos Forest Reserve Los Santos Forest Reserve ( es, Reserva Forestal Los Santos), is a protected area in Costa Rica, managed under the Central Conservation Area and Pacific La Amistad Conservation Area, it was created in 1975 by decree 5389-A. This forest reserve su ...

References

External links

Chirripó National Park
at Costa Rica National Parks {{DEFAULTSORT:Chirripo National Park National parks of Costa Rica Protected areas established in 1975 Geography of Cartago Province Geography of Limón Province Geography of San José Province Tourist attractions in Cartago Province Tourist attractions in Limón Province Tourist attractions in San José Province Talamancan montane forests Isthmian–Pacific moist forests