Tenorio Volcano National Park ( es, Parque Nacional Volcán Tenorio) is a

National Park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

in the northern part of

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

, which forms part of the

Arenal Tempisque Conservation Area Arenal Tempisque Conservation Area ( es, Área de Conservación Arenal Tempisque (ACAT)), is an administrative area which is managed by SINAC for the purposes of conservation in the northwest part of Costa Rica, near the Arenal Volcano and coveri ...

. The jewel of the National Park is the

Tenorio Volcano Tenorio Volcano ( es, Volcán Tenorio) is an inactive andesitic stratovolcano in north-western Costa Rica. It is the main geographical feature of the eponymous Tenorio Volcano National Park. Toponymy The name comes from the Chorotega legen ...

, from which it receives its name. The volcano was made part of the National Park in 1995 and is located about 26 miles northeast from the town of Fortuna in the

Guanacaste Province Guanacaste () is a province of Costa Rica located in the northwestern region of the country, along the coast of the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Alajuela Province to the east, and Puntarenas Province to the southeast. I ...

. The

Rio Celeste Rio or Río is the Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Maltese word for "river". When spoken on its own, the word often means Rio de Janeiro, a major city in Brazil. Rio or Río may also refer to: Geography Brazil * Rio de Janeiro * Rio do Sul, a ...

appears blue due to the emission of

sulphur Sulfur (or sulphur in British English) is a chemical element with the symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with a chemical formula ...

from the volcano and precipitation of calcium carbonate. Thermal springs and small

geyser A geyser (, ) is a spring characterized by an intermittent discharge of water ejected turbulently and accompanied by steam. As a fairly rare phenomenon, the formation of geysers is due to particular hydrogeological conditions that exist only in ...

s dot the area as do rivers, waterfalls, lagoons and places providing panoramic views. The upper area of the park is dominated by primary

cloud forest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF), is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud c ...

, while the lower regions are carpeted with

rain forest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainforest ...

. The

tapir Tapirs ( ) are large, herbivorous mammals belonging to the family Tapiridae. They are similar in shape to a pig, with a short, prehensile nose trunk. Tapirs inhabit jungle and forest regions of South and Central America, with one species inhabit ...

and the rarely seen puma reside in the area. There is a ranger station at the base of the volcano that provides visitors with basic information. The volcano's summit can be reached via the Lago Las Dantas Trail, which winds up the volcano and passes through forested terrain before eventually reaching the peak. Tenorio Volcano National Park adjoins Tenorio Valley Nature Reserve, a former cattle ranch that was rewilded in 2004. The 20-acre wetland within the nature reserve is the only known location of the Tapir Valley tree frog (''Tlalocohyla celeste'').

Refer

External links

Tenorio Volcano National Park
at Costa Rica National Parks National parks of Costa Rica Protected areas established in 1976 Geography of Guanacaste Province Tourist attractions in Guanacaste Province 1976 establishments in Costa Rica {{CostaRica-protected-area-stub