Arenal Volcano National Park Costa Rica

The arenal volcano

The Arenal Volcano is a huge and beautiful volcano inside the Volcano National Park. Unluckily the volcano does not errupt anymore. Not many years ago you could see lava running down the volcano.



But the beautiful nature around the National Park is almost as good as a active volcano.
The volcano has two different sides. On side of the volcano is covered with ash and stones which are getting slowly overgrown by nature. Most of the trees have been destroyed by lava and thousand of anymals have died. This is a very surrealistic area and you are not allowed to walk up to the crate, because it is very dangerous. The volcano is still very unstable.

The dark side of the arenal volcano

The volcano crate seems to crash and collapse from time to time and even people died during that. There are videos of people walking up a crashed plane on the arenal and finding hot lava stones on their way. Here you can actually see "flying" lava stones. So don't go past the allowed paths.

The area around Arenal volcano is dangerous.

The other side of the volcano did not suffer so bad from the erruptions and is covered with trees and nature. If you are lucky, you will be able to see to volcano without any clouds like on the first picture. The next picture shows the volcano covered in clouds. It is made just 10-15 minutes later. As you can see the weather can change quickly here.

15 Minutes later the volcano is covered in clouds

Trails & Senderos in Arenal National Park

Right at the ranger station you will get a map with the available trails/senderos you are allowed to walk in arenal national park. Have a look at this picture of the map. You can walk almost all trails one after another and you might be finished in 2-3 hours. 

Trails/Senderos in Arenal National Park

Good to know:

Arenal Volcano, in Spanish Volcán Arenal, is an active andesitic stratovolcano in north-western Costa Rica around 90 km northwest of San José, in the province of Alajuela, canton of San Carlos, and district of La Fortuna. The Arenal volcano measures at least 1,633 metres (5,358 ft). It is conically shaped with a crater spanning 140 metres (460 ft). Geologically, Arenal is considered a young volcano and the age is estimated to be less than 7,500 years. It is also known as "Pan de Azúcar", "Canaste", "Volcan Costa Rica", "Volcan Río Frío" or "Guatusos Peak".(read more on wikipedia)

15 minutes difference at the arenal volcano