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Tell us your dates and what you want to see. We build the day around you, with hotel pickup.
Design your trip → WhatsApp +506 8540 7408A forty-metre bridge over the forest, then waterfalls over iron-orange volcanic rock — with pools you can swim in, on the slopes of Miravalles.
The Hanging Bridges & Waterfalls walk crosses a forty-metre suspension bridge over the forest on the slopes of the Miravalles Volcano, Guanacaste, Costa Rica, then drops to waterfalls over iron-orange volcanic rock with pools you can swim in. The loop takes about an hour and a half and is always included in our Miravalles volcano day.
Halfway across the first suspension bridge, the forest just falls away beneath you — canopy on every side and, somewhere below, the sound of water you can't see yet. Follow the trail down and it appears: a waterfall pouring over rust-orange volcanic rock into pools clear enough to swim in. That orange isn't rust — it's iron from the Miravalles volcano staining the stone, something most visitors walk right past without noticing. You can do this walk almost any time of year; the stretch I'd avoid is October and November, when tropical storms swell the river. It's a moderate trail with stairs and slopes — not wheelchair accessible, and not one for anyone with vertigo or a fear of heights — but for couples, families and anyone steady on their feet, it's still the walk I send people on when they want bridges, forest and waterfalls in one unhurried morning.
The place is called Las Hornillas, a family-run property in the foothills of Miravalles, above Fortuna de Bagaces. Miravalles is the highest peak in the Guanacaste range, and almost nobody on the coast thinks to drive up it.
The bridges and waterfalls aren't sold on their own — they are always part of our private Miravalles volcano day, together with the crater, the mud baths and the thermal pools. You are not choosing between them.
Tell us where you are staying on the coast and how many of you there are — we confirm the exact quote for the Miravalles day on WhatsApp.
Las Hornillas, on the slopes of Miravalles, Guanacaste, Costa Rica. Drag to explore.
Two waterfalls, a forty-metre bridge and a view most descriptions leave out — in about an hour and a half.
The bridges and the falls start at the top of a track, and there are three ways to get up it. A tractor ride, which is bumpy and which children tend to remember longer than the waterfall. On horseback, which is the version people picture. Or we drive you straight to the trailhead in our own vehicle.
All three cost the same and all three are included. You do not have to decide when you book — you decide when you are standing there. We mention it early because it is the quiet worry for a lot of people: someone in the group who cannot ride, or who is not going to enjoy a tractor, and who assumes that means sitting the morning out. Nobody sits this one out.
The hanging bridge runs about forty metres across the gorge, and it is hung where the view of the falling water is best — which is the whole point of putting a bridge there.
There are two waterfalls, not one, with a walk through primary forest between them. Primary means it was never cleared: taller trees, deeper shade, more layers overhead than the regenerating forest most visitors see. The whole loop of bridges and falls takes about an hour and a half at a comfortable pace.
And you can swim in one of them — when the water allows it. After heavy rain the level comes up and the current with it, and on those days we look at it and say no. That call belongs to your guide on the morning, not to a brochure written months earlier.
Miravalles is quiet at the surface and extremely busy underneath. The only eruption on record here was a small steam explosion in 1946, but the heat never left — it sits in the rock a few hundred metres down, close enough to boil groundwater on its way back up.
That is why there is a geothermal field on this mountain: the national electricity institute drills into that steam and turns it into electricity. The same heat that makes the ground hiss here runs turbines a few kilometres away.
It is also why the rock at the falls is orange. Two different waters come up through this mountain — one carrying iron, one carrying sulphur. The iron stains everything it touches. Point at the orange and you are pointing at the volcano's plumbing.
From the ridge above the falls, on a clear morning, you can see the Gulf of Nicoya. The Pacific, from the flank of a volcano, with the whole plain of Guanacaste laid out in between.
It is not on the signs and it is not in most descriptions of this place. It is, for a lot of our guests, the photograph they end up keeping.
This is dry forest giving way to wetter forest as you climb, which is a productive edge — toucans and coatis move along it by the bridges, and your guide will be watching the canopy while everyone else watches their feet.
We do not promise wildlife. We can tell you what lives here and where to look, and that is a different and more honest thing.
Las Hornillas has two halves, and this page is one of them. The other is the crater — the walkable active crater, the bubbling mud pots at different colours and depths, the mud baths and the thermal pools. That is a different experience and it has its own page.
Both halves are part of the same day — you are not choosing between them. We separate them here because they are genuinely different walks, and because people arrive expecting one and are surprised by the other.
We pick up across the whole coast — from all of our usual pickup points — and lunch is included. It is a drive up into the hills and back, and it is the kind of day where leaving early pays for itself twice: cooler walking, and the Gulf is more likely to be clear before the haze builds.
In the foothills of Miravalles volcano, above Fortuna de Bagaces in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. It is a family-run property, and it is far enough off the main tourist circuit that most visitors to the coast have never heard of it.
Moderate and short. About an hour and a half for the bridges and both waterfalls, on forest trail with some uneven ground. You do not need to be a hiker, and you do not have to walk up the track — tractor, horseback and vehicle all get you to the start.
In one of them, when conditions allow. After storms the water rises and the current strengthens, and on those days we don't. Bring a swimsuit and a towel and be ready for either answer.
Same property, same day. The crater, the mud pots and the thermal pools are the other half of Las Hornillas, and they are included — this page describes the walking half. The other half has its own page.
Yes, and the tractor tends to be the highlight. The requirement is being able to manage a forest trail and a suspension bridge, not a particular age.
Walking shoes, swimsuit and towel, insect repellent, sunscreen, water and a rain layer. Long trousers if you plan to ride. Binoculars if you have them.
Getting up there is not the problem — we can drive you to the trailhead, so nobody has to ride a horse or a tractor to take part. The walk itself is forest trail with uneven ground and roots, and the suspension bridge moves under you, which is the part that matters if you have vertigo. We would rather talk it through with you before you book than have you find out halfway across. Tell us what you can and cannot manage and we will tell you honestly whether this is the right day for you.
Twenty-four hours before your tour begins, counted from the start time and not the day. Cancel before that and you get a full refund.
Tell us where you are staying on the coast and how many of you there are, and we will build the day around it. Our guides’ eBird lists are public — you can read them before you write.
Prefer a form? Write to us here → · Part of our Nature Experiences · Always included in the Miravalles volcano day
