Our Experience Hiking Cerro La Silla in Anton Valley
Anton Valley (or El Valle De Anton, or El Valle) has SO many epic hikes in this little mountain town (or volcano town to be more accurate. We did a few day hikes here, and this one was SO worth it for us! There isn’t too much information available on this hike, so we are sharing our experience hiking Cerro La Silla in Anton Valley to help others to convince others why this hike should be on their list!
Cerro La Silla
This stunning hike has SO much to offer and is usually not busy – we only saw one other family during our time there. This is an easy hike, so good for all levels, and the ridge lines and viewpoints are something else! This is definitely a good spot for a sunrise / sunset hike as well – definitely worth your time!
How To Get There
I would say you either need (1) a 4×4 to get up close to this hike, (2) a tour company willing to drive you to this hike, or (3) a great attitude to hike up to the start point! We personally had a 4×4 vehicle and it got us up most of the way! But we weren’t willing to risk getting too close (you can see where the road takes a turn for the worst). If you have a vehicle you can drive up as far as possible until you can find a pull off spot to park your vehicle. There’s not too many, but it’s not a busy hike to our knowledge. If not, you can walk from town, but you’re definitely in for a good walk!
There is a bus stop right before the turn off (located here on google maps) which is only a 2km walk away from the hiking view points, but we aren’t super familiar with the bus routes / timings / etc, so you would have to do more research or get a taxicab here. You can also start from in town without a taxicab, it will just obviously be a longer walk.
Cerro La Silla: Hike Stats
This hike is not on all trails, so here is the google location. Here is also the wikiloc (which outlines the general hiking route from the main road/bus stop, linked here).
- Distance: 3-8 km (depending on your start point – for us it was about 3km, but from the start of the hike at the main road, it’s about 4-5km round trip, and approx 8km if you’re starting from further in town)
- Elevation Gain: 800-900m (approximately)
- Time: 1-4 hours (depending on start point)
Our Experience
We were able to drive up a decent amount of the way and park near a station off the road. This way, we were only about 30 minutes of hiking from the viewpoints. The great thing about this hike, is once you get to the main portion of the hike (which was only about 10 minutes in for us), the views are endless. You start to see out towards the ocean, get some amazing views on either side of the ridge lines, and some awesome photo opportunities.
We did the first two viewpoints and then decided to head back for dinner. It only took us about 30 minutes out to the furthest viewpoint and the views were so worth it. After about one hour we were back at the car. You can also continue hiking for quite a while if you wish – there are routes that go on past the main two view points.
This is a really simple hike, with some incline, but nothing too strenuous. We did it during the middle of the afternoon (which was quite hot!), but this is a stunning spot for sunrise / sunset. This hike isn’t talked about too much, but is definitely worth the time.
Know Before You Go!
- Bring sunscreen! Weather can change quickly here.
- Bring water – this goes for all hiking!
- No entry fee – when we did this hike there was no entry fee and it was not a busy hike at all.
- Parking – no official parking that we saw, but there are spots to pull over on the side of the road.
- The road – If you decide to try and drive up the hiking route road (and therefore venture off the main road), make sure you have a good 4 x 4 vehicle. The route is in really rough shape. If you don’t feel like taking the risk, just hike from the main road as shown in the wikiloc route above.
