The road to Tierras Morenas and the painted rocks of Río Piedras
A drive with views of Lake Arenal and the Tenorio and Miravalles volcanoes, past wind farms, to Río Piedras, where residents painted murals on the roadside rocks.
What you can do for free
- Take in the lakeSee Lake Arenal and the Tenorio and Miravalles volcanoes from the road.
- Traditions and eventsLook at the murals painted on Río Piedras' rocks.
The Tilarán municipality says that a few kilometres along the road to Tierras Morenas you get "impressive views" of Lake Arenal and the Tenorio and Miravalles volcanoes. Several wind projects line the way: Latin America's first wind farm opened in Tilarán in 1996, and the Tejona plant is the only state-owned one (Delfino, 2023). Several towers stand close to the road, so you can admire them from it.
In Río Piedras, a community in Tierras Morenas district, residents turned the village into "an open-air museum": they painted murals on the rocks along the road and at the school, and hung ropes as crossings for sloths and monkeys. A stream runs through, with an old wooden bridge that makes a good photo spot.
How to get there
By car. OpenStreetMap estimates about 57 km to Río Piedras from La Fortuna. From Tilarán, head north towards Tierras Morenas (Tilarán municipality).
Permitted access
A public road. Look from the road, without entering farms or wind-farm land. The school murals can be seen from outside.
Precautions
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Only stop where you can pull off the road safely; the sources mention no lookouts with parking on this road.
What we don't know yet
- Specific spots where it is safe to stop.
- Road condition (paved or gravel) and state of the murals.
Sources
Every fact on this page comes from these sources. The date is when we checked them.
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Municipalidad de Tilarán – Distrito Tierras Morenas
Official
Views of the lake and the volcanoes along the road, and Río Piedras' open-air museum.
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Municipalidad de Tilarán – Distrito Tilarán
Official
Wind towers close to the road to admire.
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Visit Costa Rica (ICT) – Atractivos de las Llanuras del Norte
Official
Tierras Morenas wind projects and ICE's Tejona plant.
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Delfino.cr – Primer parque eólico de América Latina reinicia operaciones en Tilarán
National media
Latin America's first wind farm (1996); Tejona, the only state-owned plant.
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OpenStreetMap — Río Piedras, Tierras Morenas (nodo 332766195)
Map
Location of Río Piedras.
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Enrutador FOSSGIS/OSRM sobre datos de OpenStreetMap (routing.openstreetmap.de)
Map
Estimated driving distance from La Fortuna's central park.
Nearby
Tilarán central park and cathedral
Tilarán · 74.5 km · 94 min
Tilarán's central park, built from 1966, opposite the cathedral of San Antonio de Padua. It is the starting point for the walk up to the Parque del Viento lookout.
Nuevo Arenal
Nuevo Arenal · 45.6 km · 58 min
The town built for the families of old Arenal when the reservoir covered their original village. It sits on the lake's northern shore, roughly an hour's drive from La Fortuna.