All activities / Trekking / Hiking / Main Ridge Forest Reserve
Trekking / Hiking in Main Ridge Forest Reserve
The forested spine of Tobago and the oldest legally protected rainforest in the western hemisphere, set aside by the British colonial government in 1776. Its ridgeline trails, the Gilpin Trace chief among them, run through dripping montane forest loud with birdsong, home to six species of hummingbird, the rufous-vented chachalaca and the white-tailed sabrewing found almost nowhere else.
Why here
The Main Ridge Forest Reserve is the oldest protected forest in the western hemisphere, gazetted by the British in 1776 after planters argued that clearing the hills was drying up the rains, an early act of conservation that has left Tobago with a mature tropical rainforest running the length of its northern ridge. Walking it is the island's best land experience. The famous route is the Gilpin Trace, a muddy path that drops off the ridge road into deep forest of buttressed trees, tree ferns, bromeliads and hanging vines, threaded with streams and small waterfalls. The reward is the wildlife: this is one of the Caribbean's finest birding forests, with jacamars, motmots, trogons and six kinds of hummingbird, including the near-threatened white-tailed sabrewing that survives only here and in a corner of Venezuela. You go with a local guide both because the reserve requires it and because the good guides read the forest by ear, calling in birds that you would otherwise walk straight past. A half-day walk is enough to feel how different this green, misty interior is from Tobago's beaches.
Best months
The trails are open year round but the forest is wet by nature, so paths are muddy and slippery in every season and worst in the June-to-December rains; the drier months from about January to May give the surest footing. Mornings are best for birds and for beating the afternoon heat and cloud build-up. It is humid rather than high, so there is no altitude to worry about, but bring proper shoes with grip, insect cover and rain protection whatever the month.
Getting there & around
The reserve straddles the Roxborough-to-Bloody Bay road that crosses Tobago's northern ridge, roughly an hour from Crown Point and the airport, and the Gilpin Trace trailhead sits right on that road. A guide is required inside the reserve and most visitors arrange a half-day walk that includes pickup, so a rental car is useful but not essential. Trails are short but slippery; wear grippy footwear and expect mud year round.
Skill levels: beginner, intermediate
Schools & guides (2)
NG & Company Nature Tours
GuideNG & Company Nature Tours is run by Newton George, Tobago's best-known nature and birding guide, with more than two decades leading walks in the Main Ridge Forest Reserve. His trips cover the Gilpin Trace and the reserve's other rainforest trails, plus boat runs to the Little Tobago seabird colony and seasonal turtle watching. He finds the forest's birds by call rather than playback, among them the white-tailed sabrewing hummingbird that survives almost nowhere else.
Peter Cox Nature Tours
GuidePeter Cox is a Tobago-based naturalist guide who runs small-group birding and wildlife day tours across the island, from the Main Ridge rainforest and the Gilpin Trace to the Bon Accord wetlands and the seabird island of Little Tobago. A full-day rainforest birding tour runs from early morning into the early afternoon with transport and refreshments included. He is also a committed leatherback turtle conservationist and guides by ear rather than using recorded calls that disturb the birds.