Emerald Pool Nature Trail

We visited the Emerald Pool in the same afternoon that we visited the relatively nearby Jacko Falls and Spanny Falls.

The Emerald Pool Nature Trail is ranked #7 in U.S. News & World Report's "9 Best Things To Do in Dominica."

The Emerald Pool Nature Trail is well maintained and is a relatively easy hike.

The Emerald Pool is gorgeous from the first overlook.

This photograph from the overview shows the deck area near Emerald Pool. We could not believe that we did not see another person the entire time we were on the Emerald Pool Nature Trail or in the pool itself.

Although the Emerald Pool Nature Trail is in great condition, there are stairs to be aware of.

The Emerald Pool is gorgeous!

The water in the Emerald Pool is relatively cold, but we enjoyed walking around in it anyway.

The views from the other overlook are also fantastic.

The Emerald Pool lives up to its hype! However, this is another hike that also offers one impressive forest view after another.

We did not have to pay anything to enter the Emerald Pool Nature Trail because it is included on the week pass that we purchased at Traflagar Falls earlier that same day. This pass covers entry at sites in all three of Dominica's national parks: Morne Trois Pitons National Park World Heritage Sites, Cabrits National Park (Cabrits National Park and Fort Shirley, Morne Diablotin National Park) and at Indian River and Trafalgar Falls.

Significantly more details regarding Emerald Pool Nature Trail are available in the PDF brochure.

Jacko Falls

We visited Jacko Falls (located in Morne Trois Pitons National Park) on the same afternoon that we visited the Emerald Pool and Spanny Falls because of their proximity to one another.

Like Spanny Falls, Jacko Falls is located on Dr. Nicholas Liverpool Highway.

After paying $15 EC ($7.50 EC each) for two of us we descended the stairs to the base of Jacko Falls.

The trail to Jacko Falls is very short and it mostly vertical via these stairs.

We saw a crab scurry across the path and hide in the rocks when it saw us coming.

For anyone who can navigate stairs easily, Jacko Falls is a very short hike to a beautiful waterfall and pool.

The water in the pool formed by Jacko Falls is very clear.

The falls are not the only beautiful natural scenery.

This is the top of trailhead before it descends to the base of the waterfall.

For those who don't want to descend the stairs to the base of Jacko Falls, the view from above is still beautiful.

The only other person we saw during our visit to Jacko Falls was the woman who accepted our $15 EC.

Spanny Falls

We were able to visit Spanny Falls in the same afternoon that we visited Emerald Pool and Jacko Falls because they are all reasonably close to one another.

The trailhead for Spanny Falls is on Doctor Nicholas Liverpool Highway near a store. GPS will get someone to the general area and the store and a couple seemingly related buildings are about the only things there.

We paid the man working near the store $10 EC each to access the trail. After we had paid him, he showed us where we could drive our rented Honda Crossover to get to a small parking lot at the pedestrian trailhead.

After driving the one-lane road (and fortunately not encountering any traffic coming the other direction) for a short distance, we reach the dirt parking lot with the pedestrian trailhead.

The relatively short hiking trail is well-mantained.

This is a relatively easy hike (especially if you drive up to the pedestrian trailhead), but it does have some stairs.

We got a little wet and needed to walk in a little bit of running water even before reaching Spanny Falls because there is a vertical wall near the falls over which and through which enough water was dripping to form visible floor on the ground and down the stairs leading to the falls.

The hike to the falls is visually interesting and provides "pay offs" all along the easy hike even before reaching the falls.

Spanny Falls remain the main objective of the simple hike.

The Spanny Falls hike is relatively easy in-and-back hike with the pretty long waterfall at the end and interesting tropical vegetation all along the way.

Other than the man who accepted our $20 EC, we did not see another person as we drove to the trailhead and as we walked to Spanny Falls and back.