Mt. Liamuiga

Tuesday morning I had to wake up at 6am. I HATE waking up early, but it was worth it- along with some other VIPs, I hiked up to the crater summit of Mt. Liamuiga, a volcano on St. Kitts.

Mt. Liamuiga is 3,792 ft high, and the crater is just over half a mile wide. It is the tallest peak in St. Kitts, and one of the highest in the Caribbean archipelago. It is a stratovolcano, and the last verified eruption was about 1,800 years ago. Two alleged eruptions took place in 1692 AND 1843. I am unsure how they are uncertain about whether or not it erupted, but Hey I'm no vulcanologist.

View of Mt. Liamuiga from the trailhead.

We started out at the trail head, at the end of some old sugar cane fields (a new resort is being built in the area), and entered the rain forest. It's my kind of rain forest too, no scary animals or bugs. In fact, I only saw one bug the whole time and I heard a few birds here and there. It was super lush and green, and VERY humid. Luckily the tree canopy kept us shaded, and it wasn't that hot.  The scenery was indescribable. It was beautiful, creepy, breathtaking, and weird all at once. The Banyan Trees were by far the coolest plant I have ever seen. At least I think that's what they were! Their trunks split apart near the bottom in all different directions. The climb up was easy-moderate for the most part. Although, there were some steep areas and we had to climb up some dry rocky river beds. My legs were killing me half way up... I'm such a wuss!

View into the summit crater.

At around 3,000 feet the rain forest turns into a cloud forest. It wasn't too cloudy while we were hiking though. Almost at the top, we had one last major obstacle- fairly large rocks (in my opinion) that needed to be scaled. Side note-if you have met me, you know I am not very outdoorsy. I am trying very hard for the sake of my very outdoorsy husband. So, I did manage to get to the top of the rocks... with some help from Matt (who pulled) and Trevor (who pushed). I also earned two scraped knees, a cut up shin, and a skinned elbow. It took two hours to get from the trailhead to the top.

The view down into the crater is magnificent. When the clouds near the rim, they are sucked down into the bowl. It's really amazing to see. The walls of the crater are completely green and near vertical, and at the bottom is a small lake. It is possible to hike down into the crater, but the guys said it's pretty challenging. We hung out on the rim for a while, eating lunch and enjoying the view. We didn't make it to the tippy top of the rim; the actual highest point was opposite us. We were behind a jagged peak, and were facing toward the island, so I couldn't see the ocean. I hear the view from the opposite side is even better. On a clear day you can see Saba, Statia, St. Maarten, St Barths, and Nevis. Next time volcano... next time!

The hike down was nearly as hard as going up. It had rained a bit when we started our hike, and the humid nature of the rain forest made the rocks and trees slippery. We took another two hours to get back to the cars. It was totally worth all the effort. I would really like  to hike it again, I just need to forget how hard it was first!

For my entire album click here.

Here are some more interesting links about Mt. Liamuiga:
Global Volcanism Program
Peakware.com