Mount Pulag
Interesting facts
- Pulag is the second most topographically prominent mountain in the Philippines and ranks 26th among the highest island peaks on Earth.
- Local tradition holds that the whole mountain is home to spirits called tinmongao.
- President Corazon Aquino proclaimed the national park on 20 February 1987, covering about 11,550 hectares.
- August is the wettest month on the mountain, with an average of about 1,135 millimetres of rain.
- Snow has never been recorded on the summit, but hailstorms sometimes whiten the grassland so that it looks snow-covered.
- Some 528 plant species have been documented on the mountain, and the summit grassland is formed by a dwarf bamboo, Yushania niitakayamensis.
- The Philippine yew grows here, a tree whose bark local Ibaloi and Kalanguya communities brew into tea and which contains a compound linked to cancer treatment.
- Pulag is the only place known to host four different species of cloud rat, along with about 33 bird species.
- Among its rarest animals is the dwarf cloud rat, a tree-dwelling rodent of about 185 grams found only in the Cordillera.
- From the 1950s to the early 1970s, the more accessible stands of Benguet pine on its slopes were logged.
Why it is worth it
At dawn on the summit of Mount Pulag, the grassy crest often stands above a flat white plain of cloud that fills the valleys of northern Luzon from horizon to horizon. This "sea of clouds", and the dense band of the Milky Way visible in the dark hours before sunrise, have made the mountain one of the best-known natural sights of the Philippines. At 2,928 metres, Pulag is the highest peak on Luzon and the third highest in the country, and it rises at the point where the provinces of Benguet, Ifugao and Nueva Vizcaya meet. Geologically it is a dormant volcano of the Luzon Volcanic Arc, part of the Cordillera Central.
The mountain is cold by tropical standards. The summit climate sits on the border between subtropical highland and subpolar oceanic types, frost is common, and in the coolest months temperatures at the top can drop below freezing, making it the coldest place in the country, although snow has never been recorded. Rainfall is heavy, averaging around 4,500 mm a year. The slopes carry a sequence of habitats: Benguet pine forest, mossy forest thick with ferns and lichens, and finally the summit grasslands of dwarf bamboo. Hundreds of plant species have been documented here, along with the Philippine deer and several cloud rats, including the dwarf cloud rat of the Cordillera.
For the Ibaloi, Kalanguya, Kankanaey, Karao and Ifugao communities living around it, Pulag is far more than a viewpoint. The whole mountain is regarded as the home of spirits and as a resting place of souls, and the Ibaloi traditionally placed mummified dead in caves on its flanks; the Kabayan mummy burial caves are listed as a National Cultural Treasure. Pulag became a national park in 1987 and was declared a protected landscape in 2022, and it appears on the Philippines' tentative list for World Heritage. Four main trails reach the summit: the Ambangeg, Akiki and Tawangan routes from Benguet and the Ambaguio route from Nueva Vizcaya.
Getting there
The nearest town is Bayombong in Nueva Vizcaya, about 31 km away in a straight line. Cauayan Airport (CYZ) is the nearest airport, about 100 km away. The mountain is shared by the municipalities of Kabayan and Bokod in Benguet, Kayapa in Nueva Vizcaya and Tinoc in Ifugao, all reached by mountain roads.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Mount Pulag is Luzon's highest peak at 2,928 metres (9,606 ft) above sea level, third-highest mountain in the Philippines, and the 26th-highest peak of an island on Earth.
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