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

Limón Limón (), also known as Puerto Limón, is the capital city of both the province and canton of the same name. One of Costa Rica's seven "middle cities" (i.e., main cities outside of San José's Greater Metropolitan Area), Limón has a populat ...

and Cartago. It was established in 1975. It is part of the Talamanca Range-La Amistad Reserves/La Amistad National Park

UNESCO World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

due to its unique environment and outstanding biological diversity. It is named for its most prominent feature,

Cerro Chirripó Cerro Chirripó is the highest mountain in Costa Rica, with an elevation of 3,821 meters (12,536 feet). It is part of the Cordillera de Talamanca, and the range's highest point. It is located in Chirripó National Park and is noted for its ecol ...

, 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 ob ...

, the park can be categorized into five

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) is a system formed by Organism, organisms in interaction with their Biophysical environment, environment. The Biotic material, biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and en ...

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

páramo Páramo () may 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 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 t ...

lasting from December to April and a

wet season The wet season (sometimes called the rainy season or monsoon season) is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. Generally, the season lasts at least one month. The term ''green season'' is also sometimes used a ...

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 documented 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 (), also known as YorkU or simply YU), is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, and it has approximately 53,500 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, ...

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

through an agreement with Costa Rica's Tropical Science Center.

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, (), is a national park in the Central Conservation Area of Costa Rica located on the edge of the Talamanca Range, near Cartago. It protects forests to the north of Chirripó National Park, and ...

, Los Quetzales National Park, Macho River Forest Reserve, Vueltas Hill Biological Reserve and Los Santos Forest Reserve.

References

External links

* 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