Wild Backcountry, Wild Beaches Parque Nacional Santa Rosa
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Costa Rica’s Parque Nacional Santa Rosa is the country’s oldest, and one of its biggest national parks. It’s rugged wilderness that lets nature lovers experience several very different kinds of ecosystems in one area, and it’s undeveloped enough and difficult enough to get into that the more lightweight tourists stay away. Even though the park abuts right up to the Pan American Highway, its relative lack of infrastructure (including no paved roads) makes it a place that’s best to left to the green travel set looking to experience some Pura Vida.
Depending on your own way of experiencing Costa Rica’s natural beauty, you could experience Santa Rosa in a very different way than somebody else. You might not even believe you were in the same park, it can be so different.
The park occupies an entire peninsula jutting out into the Pacific Ocean, and it’s got endless miles of rugged seashore featuring craggy cliffs, the occasional soft, golden sand beach, and endless stretches of deserted shoreline where dry forest, tropical jungle, or spartan rocky plain meets crashing waves. Surfers love Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast, and there’s a few beaches in Santa Rosa National Park that are magnets for the “Surf’s Up!” crowd. Witches Rock and Playa Naranjo are especially noteworthy for their dependably big waves and deserted beaches, but if you don’t have a boat, you can only get there by 4WD during the summer months (roughly December through May) since the road tends to be little more than a flooded mud field during the rainy season. There’s no lodges or villas in the park, but there’s plenty of trees where you can string a hammock for the night, and one of the great things about Santa Rosa that camping is allowed in so many parts of the park.
The park itself doesn’t end at shore’s edge though — it also includes dozens of islands, some little more than rocky nesting spots for seagulls, pelicans, and frigate birds, but others quite large, with some facilities, and yes, camping on the islands is possible too. There’s no ferries or even nearby fishing villages where you could hire a panga, but if you’ve got your own boat, it would probably be a lot of fun to head to Isla Murcielago or Isla Coronado where you could drop anchor and sleep on the beach for a night or two. Scuba divers would enjoy the dive sites off Isla Murcielago.
For the land-bound traveler, you’ve got a lot of choices too. You could drive your 4WD truck into the backcountry and hike into a dry tropical forest, get out into the wetlands, lagoons, or the park’s infamous mangrove swamps (hope you brought the industrial-sized can of Off). Can’t emphasize that 4WD vehicle enough. There are *NO* paved roads in this park and it’s probably a good 10-15 miles from the highway itself to the historical sites or to the nearest ranger station. Along the way, you’ll encounter pot holes so big they have their own telephone area code. You’ll encounter animals in the road. There will be streams to be forded and downed branches to be dodged.
There will also be spectacular natural beauty, not to mention a few sites worthy of genuine historical merit (like La Casona, site of a battleground where, in 1856, a rag tag volunteer militia dealt interloping U.S. Army units a richly deserved butt whoopin’ — I won’t bore you with the whole story here…you can visit the site and learn all about it.
Despite the park’s rugged feel, it’s actually got some fairly well developed infrastructure. The campgrounds are pretty nice, with spacious sites that include picnic tables and grills, not to mention rest rooms and showers. There’s also museums at the Santa Rosa park station and at the Murcieleago station (not to be confused with Isla Murcielago — where there’s another park station).
At this time of year, the park is popular with the turtle spotters, since some of the beaches are well-known nesting spots for several types of turtles, including the endangered ridley sea turtle, which nests on Playa Nancite on the southern side of the peninsula. (Again, 4WD vehicles necessary to get back in there.) Although June through December is the rainy season (I think in Santa Rosa National Park it should be called “the muddy season”), it’s interesting to visit the park to see it during the time of year when that dry tropical forest might not look a whole lot different from the rain forests that abound in other Costa Rica National Parks. No matter how you slice or dice your visit to the park, it’s a spectacular chunk of wild backcountry that offers outstanding outdoors experiences and a genuine sense of adventure and true Costa Rican “pura vida”. Check it out!
Logistics
The park is located in the northwest corner of Costa Rica, roughly midway between Liberia and the Nicaragua border — an hour and change from either direction. If anywhere in Guanacaste is your priority, your best bet is to fly to Liberia, rent a 4WD vehicle, then watch for the signs once you pass the town of Potrerillos (last good place to stock up on gas, brewskis, and comida). Officially unbiased info is on the web at: www.costarica-nationalparks.com
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