Mount Scenery:

Mount Scenery’s summit on the small 5 square mile island of Saba is the highest point in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. You may be thinking, that could be just above bog height! Mount Scenery stands like a tall Dutchman at 2877 feet. It is a volcano jutting straight up from the bottom of the Caribbean. Although it hasn’t blown its top since 1640, Montserrat’s volcano just to the south erupted in 1995. Fortunately, we do not anger the Saban gods.

We walk to the Trail Shop, and select walking sticks from the handy container to later be returned. Across the street is the trail head to Mount Scenery, leading to 1064 steps along the trail to assist with the steep climb from 1100 feet to 2900 feet.  These are not your normal steps. Different widths, heights and depths are what you get.

Mount Scenery Trail:

The 90 minute hike up is not for the unhealthy, with an 1800 foot rise on a trail just over a couple miles to the top. Fortunately no rain is forecast to make things more slippery, though some parts are near the top in the rain and cloud forest. Giant leaves from elephant ear philodendrons line the trail as we gain altitude. If there is rain, they will make a good shelter to carefully duck under knowing damaging the flora is prohibited.

Intermittent views through the thick foliage are spectacular, with the bright green flora against the blue Caribbean ocean and the red roofs of the Windward Side buildings seemingly straight below.   An occasional complaining goat or brightly colored chicken pops out onto the trail, neither are native to Saba.

Dutch Bragging Rights:

Our party spreads apart as we climb and rest at different rates, gasping for air along steep upper trail. Taking pictures is a great excuse to stop for air. My wife Debra is on a quest to make it to the top and forges ahead, disappearing into the rain forest that swallows the trail ahead. Though we live in the USA, she is determined to make it to the top and can lord it over her Dutch relatives who live in the Netherlands. A couple of us stop to chat with a small Dutch group from the Netherlands who are on the way down and have bragging rights as well.

I forge on , some of our party ahead and some behind. Is the next bend the top? Nope! The trail is steeper, and slippery. Pipe hand rails line the steps. Clouds hug the terrain as I enter the cloud forest near the top. We started a bit late, will there still be a view?

Sitting on Top of the Netherlands:

I hear a couple familiar voices, fill my lungs and forge ahead up a steep switchback engulfed in ferns. A phrase pops into my head which I swear I will never use because I can’t stand it, but still  “the struggle is real!”.  Nope, I block it from thought. The trail flattens out, wet grass lining it in the clouds. Eventually we all meet where the trail splits. Debra has made it to the very peak where she had pulled herself up rocks with a rope. The rest of us opt out, and we all follow the other trail to the other vista point.

The name “cloud forest” now makes sense, as we cannot see more than 100 feet. No ocean, no neighboring islands.  Just the inside of a cloud, and a chicken that pops out of the underbrush looking for a handout. Yet we conquered Mount Scenery!

Friendly Sabans:

After a snack, we head back, taking “Bud’s Mountain Trail” half way down, longer with less incline to save our knees from the stairs on the Mount Scenery trail, passing through the five forest and vegetation zones. Near the bottom, a lovely Saba man of Irish heritage pops out of his cabin to greet us as though he is expecting us (common on Saba). Appearing hungry for company he sits us down for a rest, and regales to us stories about his life on the island and his family.

We may not have had a visual view of Saba from the peak, but we received an audio view as a gift from this wonderful Saban man. Things don’t move quickly on the island, just as the citizens like it.

Exhausted but satiated, we hiked back to the Hummingbird Villa and pried off our shoes arms length from a glass of wine. Follow this link from Saba Tourism for a more detailed explanation of the Mount Scenery vegetation.