Dominica: Caribbean's 'Nature Island'

by Jill Lawless
Visitors to Dominica will find exceptionally friendly people, all-but deserted black-sand beaches and a mountainous interior of dense rainforest, clean rushing rivers and jungle waterfalls. As I picked my way over hot rocks and bubbling mud in the pouring rain, I realized Dominica was not for the faint-hearted. I was hiking to the [...]

by Jill Lawless
Visitors to Dominica will find exceptionally friendly people, all-but deserted black-sand beaches and a mountainous interior of dense rainforest, clean rushing rivers and jungle waterfalls. As I picked my way over hot rocks and bubbling mud in the pouring rain, I realized Dominica was not for the faint-hearted. I was hiking to the Boiling Lake, a bizarre cauldron of steaming-hot water, 200 feet across, and one of the strangest sights on this rugged and beautiful Caribbean island.

The hike is a six-hour round trip that runs through dense rainforest and over mountain ridges before emerging in the Valley of Desolation—an eerie, treeless swath of volcanic devastation striped black and orange with mineral deposits and swirling with mist and steam.

Like so much in Dominica, the journey takes effort—but it’s worth it.

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Caribbean