Located at the Cordillera Volcánica Central, 37 km north from Alajuela province. It was created by means of the law No 4717. Its extension is of 5.600 hectares.
This is one of the most spectacular volcanoes of the country and of extraordinary scenic beauty. It has many types of habitats like very long forests with short trees, areas with very little flora and some with little smelly plants and also the cloudy forest. In this last type of forest is very common to find plants that grow attached to the trees, like orchids, ferns etc.
There is a long history of eruptions but one that is very remembered is the one in 1910, consisting in a huge ash cloud that reaches 8.000 Mts.
Poás Volcano National Park is one of the most visited places by national and international tourism.
Poás Volcano is made of volcanic rocks and reaches 2.708 Mts. of height. Since 1989 gas emissions have increase causing acid rains that damage the flora in some areas and near by plantations.
On the top you can find two craters. The Principal: with a diameter of 1.5 km and a depth of 300 Mts., a circular hot lagoon of 350 Mts. and a cone shape structure with active smoke spots. The second crater is the base of the Botos lagoon, of cold water and pluvial origin that runs all the way to the Caribbean through the Angel River, affluent of the Sarapiquí River. On the present days this volcano emits a lot gases and water vapor from the different fumarols located in the interior cone of the crater.
In the cloudy forest, that is very humid and dense, most of the trees reaches heights of 20 Mts. and is with different kind of plants. In the Caribbean sector forests are higher, more humid, rich in palms, and with plants growing attached to the trees. In other areas of the park, where gas emissions and old eruptions finish with all primary floras, grows species that adapted to this kind of soil.
There are 79 species of birds. Mammals are not very common in the high land but you can see some coyotes, rabbits, skunks and some felines.
Park Facilities and Hours
The visitors center is open from 8am to 4 pm. It has a cafeteria, souvenir shop, and auditorium. An autoguided trail system winds through the cloud forest to Botos Lake.
