El Yunque National Forest

By Saint Greg

October 23, 2026

The drive from the San Juan airport to El Yunque National Forest is 35 minutes with tolls or 45 minutes without tolls.

Full price admission is $8. It’s $4 for veterans and free for children under the age of 16.

They have a desk here with a park ranger who will give you a map and answer and questions you have.

My first stop is Yokahu Tower.

They had a water bottle filling station near the bathrooms so I filled my Brita.

I made an unscheduled stop at La Coca Falls.

It’s really difficult to find parking here. This person got a ticket.

I made it to Yokahu Tower. Parking was challenging again. There were long lines of people trying to turn into the lot from both directions. I saw a car leave and nobody was pulling in so I went in the exit and grabbed the spot. Someone took issue with that. I don’t have time to play around. I have a flight to make.

This is Sierra Palm Picnic Area. I don’t have time to stop for lunch.

My next stop is Mount Britton Tower.

I drove around for awhile waiting for a legal spot to open up. Finally I just had to take my chances parking on the side of the road.

That’s the tower.

The first part of this hike has me walking on wet stones.

There is a covered area here with a bench in case you need to take a break or if you get caught in the rain.

This is better than how the trail started. But I encountered a lot of people coming down and there isn’t room for two way traffic here. At one point I thought I was just letting a couple people pass and it ended up being a group of about 30 people.

Finally a good size trail!

I made it to the tower.

I might as well go for the peak while I’m here.

It’s going to be another 20 minutes from here to the peak.

It’s a nice trail all the way from here.

We’ve reached the antennas.

There’s a water spout on the side of this building to fill your water bottles. I’m waiting until I’m on the way down to drink my water because there aren’t any bathrooms up here.