Sierra Negra Volcano Tour
In Isabela, Galapagos
- Last Updated: December 9, 2024
The Sierra Negra Volcano Tour in Isabela island is the best volcano hike you can do in the Galapagos Islands.
You will walk on the rim of the massive Sierra Negra volcano’s caldera, whose last eruption happened just in 2018, and visit the Chico Volcano, a little offspring of Sierra Negra with a view to the Northwestern part of Isabela Island.
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Sierra Negra Volcano Tour: General Details
This tour has to be done with a Naturalist guide from the Galapagos National Park. You can book a tour with an agency and they hire the guide. You can’t simply hike your way up unfortunately.
- Highlights: Sierra Negra Volcano viewpoint, a desolated volcanic landscape, Chico Volcano, and the views to the Northwestern part of Isabela Island.
- Duration: 6 hours.
- Price: 40-60$ USD.
- Agency/Guide: Coral Blanco Tour Operator.
- Food: Includes a lunchbox.
Sierra Negra Volcano Tour: Technical Details
- Type: Out-and-Back Trail.
- Distance: 15kms.
- Duration: 3 hours of moving time, 5 hours counting the lunch and small brakes. In total it should be a 6 hours tour (counting 30 minutes drive each way).
- Difficulty: Moderate. The hardest things about this hike are its terrain and duration in difficult weather. The beginning of the path is mostly an earth route (muddy if it rains), and after the viewpoint, you’re walking on a gravel and lava rocks path.
- Incline: 272m of ascent and 372m of descent.
- Altitude: 904m (lowest point) at Chico Volcano and 1066m (highest point) at the main viewpoint to Sierra Negra’s caldera.
- Recommendations: Bring waterproof shoes or boots with a good grip, a waterproof jacket, a bottle of water, snacks, sunscreen, and a hat.
How To Do the Sierra Negra Volcano Tour?
It’s relatively easy to do this tour.
You just need to book it with a tour operator, and on the day you scheduled it the guide will pick you up in a van from your hotel or you will go to the agency where you booked it (ask when you do the reservation how it’s gonna be to be sure).
The van will then take you all the way inside Isabela’s highlands until you reach an open-air parking lot and then you start hiking your way up to the volcano.
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What to Bring to the Sierra Negra Volcano Tour?
Clothing & Accessories:
- Tshirt: Breathable Tshirt (Tech or Merino), or a Lycra
- Jacket: Waterproof Jacket
- Shorts: Shorts
- Shoes: Hiking Shoes
- Hat: Cap
- Sunglasses
- Earth Pak Waterproof Dry Bag
- Change of Clothes
Useful Extras:
- GoPro/Camera
- First-Aid Kit
- Mosquito Repellent
- Sunscreen +50 SPF
- Food / Snacks
- Thermos or Water-filtering Bottle
Check out my complete guide on What’s in My Backpack – From photography gear, and clothing for Hiking, Mountaineering, Scuba Diving, Rainforest, and City-Street Photography.
My Experience on the Sierra Negra Volcano Tour
This was my second day on Isabela Island and I did this tour together with a friend of mine I met on the mystical Floreana Island Tour.
To start the tour we went to the entrance of the agency where we booked the tour and a pickup van was waiting for us.
Inside the van, there were already two danish girls and we drove off in the direction of Isabela’s highlands. The ride took us around 30 minutes.
Hiking to Sierra Negra Volcano's Main Viewpoint
Once we arrived at the parking lot we were inside a cloud so it was really foggy and a bit fresh.
Our naturalist guide, a Spanish cool guy registered us at the entrance hut and we started hiking our way up. The entire group was around 15 people.
On our way up the cloud followed us along so we didn’t have much of a view almost until the main viewpoint.
We passed a small viewpoint right after 40 minutes of walking, there we made a small pause but had unfortunately no view, after some minutes we continued on to the main viewpoint.
After 30 minutes we finally arrived at the main caldera viewpoint. We went to see the sights and again it was completely covered in clouds.
Our guide told us that that happens sometimes so we went for a little snack under a nice shading structure. After 5 minutes we went back to see the view and it started clearing out and we could finally see the size of this massive crater, impressive really.
He showed us a youtube video from one of the park rangers from the 2018 eruption. Wow!
Exploring a Desolated Landscape
After a little break and all the photos were taken we continued our way onto Chico Volcano.
Normally on a hike, you have highlights but this entire hike, for me, is a huge highlight. As soon as you leave the viewpoint the landscape starts changing.
From green it turns gradually to brown, then to black and red, ending up with a rainbow of colors when you reach Chico volcano.
On our way our guide showed us some vents from the volcano and collapsed lava tunnels, he picked up some rocks from the floor and showed us the different minerals and compositions of them.
After the orange color completely disappears the landscape changes to red and black, and everything around you looks like an apocalypse. It’s an impressive and desolate place created by the destructive force of nature.
The black and yellow featured photo of this guide (the first one) is, according to our guide, one of the most famous documentary photos of the Galapagos volcanoes.
The Unbelievable Chico Volcano's Viewpoint
Finally, 2kms later we reached the Chico Volcano, and what a view. So many colors, and so many textures. An amazing sight!
Everything was red, orange, white, and yellow. It looked like we were on Mars literally.
It was very windy there, so we moved on a bit further up to get some cover. There we had our lunch with an amazing view of the Northeastern side of Isabela island.
We couldn’t see Fernandina Island or the Wolf Volcano cause there were clouds in the distance but we could see an immense lava field full of rifts and after it green vegetation and the sea.
Incredible feeling and a place to be. This is one of the main reasons you should visit the Galapagos archipelago. Sights like these you don’t see every day.
After our stroll around the summit of Chico Volcano, we started hiking our way back to the parking lot.
On the way, from the caldera viewpoint down, we were hit by massive rainfall and even with our waterproof rainjackets, we got completely soaked.
The only way to have remained dry under such rainfall would have been to have gone with rubber boots and a poncho, like in the Amazon.
And that’s about it after arriving at the parking lot the van was waiting for us and it took us back to Puerto Villamil, and the Sierra Negra Volcano Tour was over.
What about you, have you already done the Sierra Negra Volcano Tour? Leave me a comment down here if you have and what was your opinion.
Thanks for reading through and I hope you have fun on this tour!
I’ll drop a couple of my other favourite photos from this tour down below, enjoy!
Photo Gallery
Sierra Negra Volcano Tour:
Hiking to Sierra Negra Volcano's Main Viewpoint
Exploring a Desolated Landscape
The Unbelievable Chico Volcano's Viewpoint
