Izalco Volcano

Bare volcanic cone in western El Salvador, once known to sailors as the Lighthouse of the Pacific.

Izalco is visible from the rim of Cerro Verde National Park and makes a formidable visual impression — a stark, ash-grey cone rising above the surrounding forest, looking actively hostile even in repose. The hike to the summit of Izalco is steeper and more demanding than the Santa Ana Volcano trail, with loose volcanic rock making the ascent tiring.

Both volcanoes can be combined in a long day from Cerro Verde, though most visitors choose one or the other. Izalco's barren surface and historical significance as a navigation landmark make it the more dramatic of the two. Cerro Verde National Park, about 20 km south of Santa Ana.

sight
A story
Izalco earned the name "Lighthouse of the Pacific" because it erupted so frequently from 1770 to 1958 that sailors used it as a navigational landmark. Almost perfectly symmetrical and almost entirely bare of vegetation, it looks less like a Central American volcano and more like a computer-generated idea of one. A hotel was built on the adjacent Cerro Verde specifically to give guests views of the eruptions — and the volcano stopped erupting the year the hotel opened.