Morne Diablotins — Attraction in Saint Joseph Parish

We did this hike in January 2023 and it's without doubt very challenging. The trail is very steep and muddy, ankle deep in places. There's lots of climbing up and over rocks and tree roots and branches, a lot of which are slippery. It is very significantly more challenging than Boiling Lake, which was the other hike we did during our stay.

Our main concern before we set off was navigation as we had seen a few reviews saying it was easy to get lost and lose the trail. Nevertheless we decided to try it without a guide. However, we needn't have worried as we found the trail unambiguous and straightforward to follow - there weren't any points where it wasn't clear where to go next.

We set off at 9:30am from the trailhead and the entire hike took us around five and a half hours (about two and a half hours each way with half an hour for lunch at the top). We have a good level of fitness and hike regularly, so could easily imagine it taking eight hours. I would advise against attempting this hike unless you are confident in your fitness level. Sturdy hiking boots are essential.

We were the only people on the trail that day and it was amazing to feel that you have the whole place to yourself. There was no phone signal in a lot of places, so if you are going to attempt it, it is probably worth telling someone where you are going and when to expect you back.

You move up through different layers of the rainforest and there is a huge variety of flora to see. From about half way up we were in the clouds so there were no views (we got a few glimpses on the way back down), but it was still a...

Imagine a straight-up 820 metre climb over 5.8km (15% gradient), with the first 2/3 just a warm-up on a mountain trail and then the next 1/3 over a calf-deep mud assault course involving over/under bars and some bouldering pitches. Imagine further that some sicko has put in a false summit so that just as you think you’ve completed the climb, you realise you have another 45 mins to do, through the toughest section of the assault course. Then do it all again in reverse. This will help you accurately envisage this hike. If you’re lucky enough to do this on a day of tropical downpours, then you will find the track muddier and more slippery on your way home than out. And you’ll enjoy zero views to even boost your morale. But you’ll have ascended the highest peak on the island and feel good once you dry off and warm up....

If you like tough hikes, would highly recommend!We hiked the submit yesterday, which was a tough but amazing climb! Took us 3.5 up and 4 down (got a bit lost!) Trail starts off easy, with steps but descends into boggy swampy mud tree scrambling- jungle gym. It's not a typical hiking trail, more a mix of jungle gym/rock scrabbling so is fairly tough. We did it without a guide, which was okay up but tricky in top/middle section coming down as not easy as trail doesn't always go where you would expect. We did got lost off the trail once, but luckily were able to retrace our steps. We had the GPS trace which helped and if doing it without a guide, I'd definitely recommend this, although don't rely on it as signal was poor...