Selvatura Park
A cloud-forest park above Monteverde, Costa Rica, home to the country's longest treetop walkway system: eight suspension bridges spanning 55 to 157 metres along 3 kilometres of trail, certified by Costa Rica's college of engineers and architects.
Monteverde’s cloud forest is one of the richest ecosystems in Costa Rica, and the walkway at Selvatura Park is the most considered way to see it from above. Eight suspension bridges, the longest 157 metres, are strung along a 3-kilometre trail that lifts you to the upper canopy and back down through it.
The engineering is the quiet headline. Each bridge is 1.22 metres wide, holds 50 to 80 people at once, and is built with pendulums and tensioners underfoot to steady the span, work certified by the Federated College of Engineers and Architects of Costa Rica. It adds up to the longest, and by the park’s account the strongest, bridge system in the country.
The full circuit takes around an hour and a half at an unhurried pace, which is the pace the forest rewards. Mist moves through the canopy, and patient walkers are met by the cloud forest’s birdlife, the resplendent quetzal among them.
