Everything You Need To Know About Hiking Volcan Baru, Panama

This blog will detail everything you need to know about Hiking Volcan Baru in Boquete, Panama. On the 1st of January this year, we decided to start 2024 off the right way – with a sunrise hike to the top of Volcan Baru! It’s a long and brutal hike, but when you see the sun start to come over the clouds, you immediately forget all about the hours you spent to get to the top.

Volcan Baru

Volcan Baru is found in Boquete, Panama. It’s the highest point in all of Panama and is also the only volcano! At the top you’ll find yourself at 3,474 metres. If you happen to be up there on a clear day, you can see both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans at the same time, but at sunrise you can find yourself sitting above the clouds and that is an experience you won’t forget!

How To Get To Volcan Baru

Volcan Baru is an experience that everyone visiting Boquete should do – and luckily you don’t have to hike it to see the sunrise. There are tours that have some epic 4 x 4 vehicles that will take you up to the top for sunrise, and drive you right back down. How they were able to drive up this route is beyond us, but it’s pretty cool and a great option

The other option is of course hiking. Although we perhaps regretted taking this route MANY times throughout our journey, the hard work and effort you put in makes it an adventure and the sunrise so worth it!

Hiking Volcan Baru

This is a DIFFICULT hike. Mentally, physically, all of it. Here are the stats, and you can find the route we took on all trails (linked here):

• Elevation gain: 2,065m
• Distance: 28km
• Time: 4-6 hours to summit, 3-5 hours return

There are actually two routes to get to the summit. For a sunrise hike where you are hiking in the dark, we would highly recommend the route we linked above. It’s super easy to follow, there is no technical aspect to it, it’s just a LONG hike. However, if you were hiking through the day and were into the more technical or adventure side of hiking, you can check out the other route here. The views on this route did look pretty cool from above but I can’t speak for the hike itself.

There is also a camping spot only about 30 minute – 1 hour from the summit to watch sunrise (on the route we chose, I believe there’s another campsite on the other route too but you’d have to confirm). It’s a camping platform tucked away on the side of the road. This is a great option if you don’t want to hike through the night but still want to catch the sunrise. I don’t know the system or how you reserve the campsite though, you could inquire with the ranger who mans the station before you head off on your hike.

Our Experience

We did this as a new years hike on the 1st of January 2024 to start off our new year the best way possible – it was SO worth it. We tried to go to sleep around 9pm to get a few hours of rest in, however it was definitely hard with all the fireworks that were happening (however, that was pretty cool to catch some of the fireworks sighting as Boquete really had tons of fireworks going off for New Years). We got up around 12am and set off to drive to the summit around 1230-1245am.

Our place was about a 20 minute drive from the starting point, and we found some parking right before the hike (it wasn’t busy at all for us). We geared up and set off on the route, unaware of what we had gotten ourselves into! Oh my god, what a boring hike. This hike actually ranks as one of the best hikes we have ever done – however SOLELY for the summit views (you can see our all-time favourite hikes here). The hike itself was actually quite brutal, there was quite a bit of uphill (nothing TOO steep but mostly uphill). We even plugged in some earphones with music at some point to really just zone in on the hike – and we never really use music whilst hiking! It started getting a little wet and slightly cold an hour or two before the summit, so we had our rain jackets handy. I will say that it was SPOOKY on the way up (I was a little scared, however maybe I am just a scaredy cat). But the trees moving in the wind, the pitch black, and not really knowing your surroundings felt a little eery. We also saw no-one else on the way up. However, on the way back down and being able to see the views made me realize I was definitely overreacting.

It took us about 4 hours to get to the just below the summit, and we had budgeted a little extra. We left between 1-130am and got just before the summit around 5-530am. We didn’t want to wait up at the summit because of how cold it was, so we found a spot tucked away from the wind and actually took a 20 minute much deserved nap! Just before 6am, the tour groups with people in them also going to see the summit started rolling in. Tip here – be careful! These vehicles come up pretty fast and there’s so many corners here so make sure you’re off to the side and visible.

After our little nap, we walked the rest of the way to get to the view points. And, WOW! The sun started to peak up above the clouds and it was like nothing we have ever seen before. When you get a clear view of the rolling clouds, they seem to go on forever. There’s a few view points at the top, but the best one is by the cross. Makes for an epic photo, but honestly the view is 360 degrees! You can see the other side of the hike with some insane mountain views. We spent about one hour up here just taking in the views and snapping some pictures. Getting between the different viewpoints is a little technical as you have to navigate yourself around other people and some rocky parts, so make sure you have some good footwear on.

After we had taken it all in, we started en route back down (after some empanadas we had taken to the top with us of course). The way back down was probably one of the worst parts, mentally. It’s hard on your knees, feels extremely long, and there’s not too many view points. The cool part was now we got to see everything along the hike that we didn’t see on the way up. There were some really unique forested areas with some impressive trees and a few different views. But, most of it was pretty boring (especially in comparison to the summit we had just seen). It took us about 3-3.5 hours on the way down and we were SO happy to see the car. On our way back through town we stopped at a bakery to fuel up and get our morning coffee before heading back to our hotel to relax! What. An. Adventure.

Tips

• Check the Sunrise Time: You don’t want to hike through the night and miss the sunrise! Make sure you check when sunrise is and plan to get up to the top a little bit before that. Account for some breaks and be realistic about your hiking abilities to plan enough time.
• Water / Food: You are hiking anywhere from 7-11 hours total on this journey, make sure you bring enough water and fuel to get you through!
• Proper Clothes! I think this is mentioned in every single blog or from every single person you ask about this hike. The summit is COLD. We wore shorts and t-shirts the whole way up and the whole way down, but once you start getting towards the summit there wind and mist can get pretty cold. For reference, we brought toques, rain jackets, fleeces, hiking pants, gloves, and puffy jackets for the top.
• Sunscreen: Even though you are hiking up in the dark, chances are you are coming back down in the sun and there are some uncovered parts of the hike that you’ll want that SPF protection from.
• Check The Weather: Make sure the check the weather before hiking – you want to have the best chance at clear views and no rain to make it as enjoyable as possible.
• Getting to the Hike: If you have a car, you can drive it and park it at the hike. However, many people also take taxi’s.