A small subtropical state forest in the foothills of Puerto Rico's Cordillera Central, anchored by the man-made Lake Cerrillos.
Cerrillos State Forest
Cerrillos State Forest is a small public state forest in the municipality of Ponce, on the south-central part of Puerto Rico. It lies in the foothills of the Cordillera Central, where the terrain rolls through valleys and forested slopes between roughly 400 and 1,000 feet in elevation. The forest is managed by the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources as part of the commonwealth's network of state forests, and it combines natural subtropical woodland with the recreational landscape built around Lake Cerrillos and its dam.
Ecologically, Cerrillos falls within Puerto Rico's subtropical moist zone and is classified within the Puerto Rican moist forests ecoregion. Its vegetation is anchored by tabonuco forest, a wet subtropical forest type closely tied to the island's mountain foothills. This makes the forest a useful local example of the habitats that recover and shift after hurricane disturbance, and that frame the dams, rivers, and picnic areas that give the park its recreational character.
Visitors come to Cerrillos primarily for low-key outdoor recreation in a forested setting close to Ponce. Trails, observation points, picnic areas with gazebos, the Cerrillos River, and Lake Cerrillos provide the main points of interest, while activities range from hiking and birdwatching to kayaking, fishing, and photography.
