El Yunque National Forest
rainforest in near Río Grande, Puerto Rico
El Yunque National Forest (Spanish: Bosque Nacional El Yunque), formerly known as the Caribbean National Forest (or Bosque Nacional del Caribe), is a forest located in northeastern Puerto Rico. While there are both temperate and tropical rainforests in other states and territories, it is the only tropical rainforest in the United States National Forest System and the United States Forest Service. El Yunque National Forest is located on the slopes of the Sierra de Luquillo mountains, encompassing more than 28,000 acres (43.753 mi2 or 113.32 km2) of land, making it the largest block of public land in Puerto Rico.
The forest is named after named Pico El Yunque, the second-highest mountain in the Sierra de Luquillo. Other peaks within the national forest are Pico del Este, Pico del Oeste, El Cacique and the highest peak, El Toro, which is the highest point in the national forest and eastern Puerto Rico rising 1,065 meters (3,494 ft) above sea level.
Ample rainfall (over 6.1 meters (20 ft)) a year in some areas, or an average of 3,000 millimeters (120 in) of water up to 6,100 millimeters (240 in) of water a year) creates a jungle-like setting—lush foliage, crags, waterfalls, and rivers are a frequent sight. The forest has many trails from which the jungle-like territory's flora and fauna can be appreciated. El Yunque forest is also renowned for its unique Taíno petroglyphs. It is said that indigenous people believed that El Yunque was the throne of their chief god Yúcahu, so that it is the Caribbean equivalent to Mount Olympus in Greek mythology.
Naming and etymology
El Yunque is the name of the mountain peak, Pico El Yunque, the name of the forest, and, colloquially on some occasions, the name for the entire Sierra de Luquillo range.
The public source identifies “El Yunque National Forest” as rainforest in near Río Grande, Puerto Rico. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Yunque, National and Forest.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2375961. VIAF identifies the subject as 948156762891441300002. The Library of Congress control number is no2019122719. Authority coordinates are 18.317, -65.783. 3 of 6 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “El Yunque National Forest” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.