Antigua Hiking – On a Caribbean Mountain/Trail Named After a US President!
Antigua & Barbuda is a multi-island Caribbean nation east of St. Kitts & Nevis, just north of Guadeloupe. Known for it’s numerous soft white beaches, sailing and snorkeling – The island also has a number of really nice hiking trails to explore! Antigua hiking was a pleasant surprise. If It’s not too daunting, I always like to hike the tallest peak of the Caribbean island I’m visiting and at just over 1,330 feet (450m) tall, Antigua’s Mount Obama is definitely in my ‘do-able’ range, so it was the must-do hike of our trip.
While we like to be active and explore the Caribbean, we prefer to relax and enjoy our vacation experiences without having to worry about all the detailed logistics, so we connected with a local hiking / tour operator who knows the island and our target trail really well. For our Mount Obama adventure, we chose Antigua’s Trek Tours to show us the way…
The friendly folks from Trek Tours picked us up at our east coast hotel around 8:30am, then took us on a pleasant scenic drive on our way to Antigua’s south west, an area known as the “Green Corridor”. It’s good to get off the resort and see what each Caribbean island is really all about. In Antigua, there’s little vehicle traffic (outside of St. John’s) – Our drive was only interrupted by the occasional goat herd wandering across the road. On our cross country joyride we observed that Antigua is noticeably dryer than other parts of the Caribbean. More importantly, the island also appears to be less impoverished than most of the other islands we’ve visited. In general, the locals seem to be very friendly and relatively happy.
While mostly flat coral and limestone, Antigua’s hilly south-west has some interesting volcanic features along with more/taller vegetation than the rest of the island. This area is home to Mount Obama National Park and the island’s tallest peak, Mount Obama. Formerly known as Boggy Peak, the area was renamed in 2009 in honour of the historic presidential election of Barack Obama in the USA.
Eventually we made our way down a dirt road to the Christian Valley Agricultural Station – an area known for it’s delicious fruits, like mangoes, pineapples and papayas. While we were curiously looking at the various fruit trees, we also noticed a number of furry little critters darting around everywhere. I’ve never seen so many mongooses in such a short time-frame – If you’ve never seen one before, they kind of look like elongated squirrels. Very reminiscent of being back home (in North America).
We were dropped off with our guide on the north side of the mountain. Next to the trail-head was a monument and plaque dedicating the area to President Obama. After a short warm-up on a dirt road lined with papaya trees and more of our hungry mongoose friends, the trail narrows then disappears into the forest. With our guide leading the way, our Antigua hiking journey was underway. We headed into the wilderness for a 4 mile (6.6km) jaunt up and over the mountain.
The forest is heavily wooded, although it felt kind of different to me than hiking through the tropical rain-forests of say, Dominica, St. Kitts or Saint Lucia. I suspect that there are more ‘sub’tropical ferns and trees in this Park than what I’m used to. Anyways…. The natural trail twists and turns through the woods, all the while constantly taking us up to our objective. Our path also took us across a couple of dry river beds, which again, we don’t see very often in the Caribbean. Apparently, during an exceptional rainy season, water does flow here and there’s even a small waterfall.
Our unassuming guide was friendly and knowledgeable, constantly informing us of the local flora (and lack of poisonous fauna 🙂 ) that we were encountering along the way. He explained that they’re growing dwarf papaya trees back at the Agricultural Station, that can be picked without a tall ladder. One amazing tree he pointed out to us, really stood out to me – I believe its called a Ceiba tree – It has dangerous inch long spikes all along it’s trunk surface. I wouldn’t want to slip on the trail and face-plant into one of these fellas!
The narrow path was littered with hundreds of leaves from the surrounding trees, including really cool large foliage from the bamboo stands that grow in clumps along the trail. Even though it had rained a little the night before and the ground was fairly wet everywhere, the trail was not slippery at all.
I really enjoyed the gradual steepness of the trail, along with a couple of short steeper sections that tested our cardio a bit more. It was quite hot and humid and we were definitely working up a sweat – Quite normal for Caribbean hiking! I’ll also mention that there were no bugs pestering us at all – We were thankful for this. We really enjoy a good forest hike and that’s exactly what this was. We were on this comfortable trail for just over half an hour before it suddenly ended and we spilled out onto a concrete road. The road was pretty steep for the next 15 minutes or so, winding around the mountain all the way to the peak.
We reached a fenced-in property at the end of the road. At the top of the mountain there are buildings and antennas owned by the telecom giant, Cable & Wireless. Thankfully, our hiking guide had the key to the gate, so we were able to enter the facility and get a peek, from the peak. It would have been more than a little frustrating, to have come this far and not be able to receive our full reward – Dramatic 360° views of the island was about to be experienced!
It was real nice and breezy at the top – Perfectly comfortable! We wandered around to take-in the spectacular views. First there was the southern coastline of Antigua and the Caribbean Sea, which included two of the island’s most famous icons. At the bottom of a gentle sloping area of Mount Obama near the coast, we could see a large field growing the island’s famous ‘black pineapple’ (pictured above). Not too far from shore, from our vantage point anyways, we could also clearly see the island’s top snorkeling spot, Cades Reef (pictured below).
Our guide told us that on a clear day we would be able to see Montserrat off in the distance to the south-west. Unfortunately, it was humid and hazy the day we hiked, so we could just barely make out it’s outline, although I may just have been looking at a low lying cloud, I dunno. Just to the east and the west of Mount Obama’s slopes however, we had amazing views of the nearby rolling hills that hints at the island’s volcanic past.
Although the views to the north-west and north are obstructed by C&W’s radio towers and antennas, we could easily see the Caribbean coastline, including Darkwood Beach and Jolly Harbour. We could even see St. John’s way off in the distance, including a cruise ship that was in port that day.
It takes another 45 minutes to an hour for the descent. This time we went down the south side of the mountain, following the concrete road all the way to the agricultural land at the bottom. Going downhill on cement is never fun, and today was no exception – It’s a bit hard on the toes, feet and knees for sure. Fortunately the road wasn’t that long or steep most of the way, and it kind of switch-backed most of the way down.
I found that time went by fairly fast on the way down, partly because we had interesting views of the coastline as well as some nearby pineapples growing, but mostly because I was chatting with our guide the whole way down – Not only was he knowledgeable and friendly, but more importantly, I felt at ease talking with him. It was if we had known each other all our lives.
The cement road ends near the bottom of the mountain where it turns into a nice dirt road that continues to the main coastal road. It was a nice place for a leisurely warm-down and there was more to see along the roadside, as it was lined with coconut and other fruit trees. What a fun Antigua hiking experience! We were picked-up here for the drive home.
Our return route took us along scenic Fig Tree Drive, passing by Wallings Nature Reserve (another areas for good hiking) and through small towns with names like Swetes (thankfully pronounced sweets, not sweats). We really enjoyed spending our morning with Trek Tours! They are a small dedicated team, focusing on immersive Antiguan natural experiences. Trek Tours offers a large variety of hikes, ranging from easy through challenging. They also offer combo tours that include the island’s major attractions. Custom tours are also available.
ACT Staff
Want to see more? Check out our Hiking Antigua’s Mount Obama Trail video on YouTube!
For a more ‘technical’ Trail Report as well as much more information on hiking in Antigua & Barbuda, please reference the following links (to pages on our website):
- Antigua Hiking – Mount Obama (Boggy Peak) Trail
- Antigua & Barbuda Hiking – Trail Reviews and Hiking Guides
For more information about Trek Tours, including material to help plan your own Antiguan adventure, you can contact the good folks by visiting their website or facebook page (just click on a link below):
For an overview of the “land of sun and sea”, take a look at our Antigua & Barbuda Vacations page
If you’re looking for more active things to do while vacationing on the island, click on our Antigua Adventures blog for more great ideas!
For a more relaxed vacation itinerary, you can find great Tourist Attractions on the island, by checking out our Things to Do in Antigua and Barbuda blog
