Balinsasayao Twin Lakes
National Natural Park
in Sibulan, Negros Oriental Province, Philippines; NW of Dumaguete City
Our Visit in February 2010
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the single road in. You can see the boat-dock, the five grass-roofed pavilions for
picknicing, and -- up on top of the entrance-pass -- the lone simple restaurant.
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a verdant cloud-forest teeming with wildlife, deeply up in the Southern Negros Mountains
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Our Gang ready-to-roll, in our 'EasyRide' truck. It's a rough and steep 12-km one-hour
semi-paved road, and some said that our little engine and tires couldn't make it -- but we did.
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Ranger Station -- just after this, you have to park and walk over the ridge to the main lake
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Resettlement Village across from the Station, on the very steep side of Mt. Balinsasayao
There is no commercial place to stay overnight here, only a simple lakeside campground.
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Picnic area by a pond next to the Station
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a topographical model at the Ranger Station shows the location of this park
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<-- our house
<--- Ranger Station
<--- road goes up
this ridge
dock area, where you can rent picnic tables and boat-rides
there is a trail all the way around the big lake, but after heavy rains parts of it are
underwater! -- as it was on this day. April-June are good months for that hike.
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the boat took us to the stairway of native-style pavilion on the narrow ridge separating the two lakes
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smaller Lake Danao, from the pavilion
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bigger lake, from the pavilion
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Lake Danao, from the pavilion -- you can climb down to it and swim, but there's
no civilization anywhere around it, no fishing permitted -- it's kept totally wild!
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freshwater lakes rest 1000 feet above sea level. They are separated by a narrow mountain ridge, in a hollow
between four mountains: Mount Mahungot to the south, Mt. Kalbasan to the north, Mt. Balinsasayao to the east
(the steep round one above-right) and Mt. Guidabon to the west. Lake Balinsasayao is the bigger and touristed
one to the northwest of the ridge, and smaller Lake Danao lies to the southeast.
