Monte Pulag

Mount Pulag National Park was created in 1987 in the Central Cordillera of Luzon, between the provinces of Benguet, Ifugao and Nueva Vizcaya, and protects some 115 km². Its summit, at 2,922 metres, is the highest in Luzon and the third highest in the Philippines.

Its best-known image is that of the summit at dawn above a sea of clouds filling the valleys, a frequent phenomenon caused by the night-time temperature inversion. The top is covered by a dwarf bamboo grassland, a formation singular in the Philippines that develops above the tree line, and below it follow the mossy cloud forest of oaks and the Benguet pine forest, the characteristic conifer of the Cordillera.

The park is home to wildlife endemic to the mountains of Luzon, including several species of cloud rat, large arboreal rodents found only in the archipelago. For the Ibaloi, Kalanguya and Kankanaey peoples the mountain is sacred: they regard it as the dwelling of ancestral spirits, and climbing it is subject to rituals and to traditional rules. The popularity of trekking has generated considerable pressure, with episodes of damage to the summit grassland from camping and fires that have forced access to be closed on several occasions.