Mount Tapulao (also known as High Peak) is the highest mountain in the Zambales Mountain Range and in the

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

Zambales Zambales, officially the Province of Zambales (; ; ; ; ), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Central Luzon Regions of the Philippines, region. Its capital is Iba, Zambales, Iba, which is located in t ...

in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. The peak, which rises to an elevation of above sea level, is located in the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

Palauig, Zambales Palauig, officially the Municipality of Palauig (; ; ), is a municipality in the province of Zambales, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 39,784 people. The municipality of Palauig is the nearest mainland to the Ph ...

. Its name is derived from the abundance of

Sumatran Pine ''Pinus merkusii'', the Merkus pine or Sumatran pine, is a pine native to the Malesia region of southeast Asia, and the only one that occurs naturally south of the equator. Description ''Pinus merkusii'' is a medium-sized to large tree, reachin ...

trees in the area, known in

Zambal The Sambal people are a Filipino ethnolinguistic group living primarily in the province of Zambales and the Pangasinense municipalities of Bolinao, Anda, and Infanta. The term may also refer to the general inhabitants of Zambales. They were al ...

as ''tapolaw.''(2007-09-01)
"Mt. Tapulao (2,037+)"
Pinoy Mountaineer. Retrieved on 2012-02-11."Zambales Mountains"
. NewCAPP. Retrieved on 2012-02-15. The mountain was once a site of a large-scale

chromite Chromite is a crystalline mineral composed primarily of iron(II) oxide and chromium(III) oxide compounds. It can be represented by the chemical formula of Iron, FeChromium, Cr2Oxygen, O4. It is an oxide mineral belonging to the spinel group. The ...

mining operations. The destruction of the beautiful natural scenery is visible in the mine pits on the summit as well as other related structures along the trail. The summit offers a 360-degree vista from where you can see the other Zambales mountains on the eastern side,

Lingayen Gulf Lingayen Gulf is a large gulf on northwestern Luzon in the Philippines, stretching . It is framed by the provinces of Pangasinan and La Union and sits between the Zambales Mountains and the Cordillera Central (Luzon), Cordillera Central. The Agno ...

to the north, and on the western side, the Zambales lowlands and the

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by South China, in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan island, Taiwan and northwestern Philippines (mainly Luz ...

stretching to as far south as Pundaquit in

San Antonio, Zambales San Antonio ( ; Spanish for "Anthony of Padua, Saint Anthony"), officially the Municipality of San Antonio (; ; sambal language, Sambal: ''Babali nin San Antonio''), is a municipality of the Philippines, municipality in the Philippine Province, ...

Hiking activity

The trail to the top of Mount Tapulao is on rolling and gradual terrain that takes hikers through a number of distinct ecosystems: from lowland grass and

scrubland Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominance (ecology), dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbaceous plant, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally o ...

dominated by ''talahib'' (

cogon grass ''Imperata cylindrica'' (commonly known as cogongrass or kunai grass ) is a species of perennial rhizomatous grass native to tropical and subtropical Asia, Micronesia, Melanesia, Australia, Africa, and Southern Europe. It has also been introduce ...

) to its flanks of secondary to primary

dipterocarp forest Dipterocarpaceae is a family of flowering plants with 22 genera and about 695 known species of mainly lowland tropical forest trees. Their distribution is pantropical, from northern South America to Africa, the Seychelles, India, Indochina, Indo ...

, mossy

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures lapse rate, fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is ...

and pine forest above that extends to the adjacent mountains. During wet weather, ''limatik'' or forest

leech Leeches are segmented parasitism, parasitic or Predation, predatory worms that comprise the Class (biology), subclass Hirudinea within the phylum Annelida. They are closely related to the Oligochaeta, oligochaetes, which include the earthwor ...

es abound especially near the streams along the way. Parts of the trail become

rivulet A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a strea ...

s that trekkers easily attract these critters without noticing being bitten, sticking on the human skin.

From Palauig

Mount Tapulao can be reached by trekking the mining road on a ridge on the side of the mountain with the forest line starting at about . The jump-off point is from the Dampay resettlement area in Brgy. Salaza in Palauig, which is around from the Zambales Regional Highway on rough road. From the trailhead at Brgy. Dampay to the summit is around . Residents of Dampay are evacuees from the foot of

Mount Pinatubo Mount Pinatubo is an active stratovolcano in the Zambales Mountains in Luzon in the Philippines. Located on the tripoint of Zambales, Tarlac and Pampanga provinces, most people were unaware of its eruptive history before the pre-eruption volc ...

and are the "self-appointed guardians" of Mt. Tapulao under the coordination of the Municipal Tourism Authority of

."List of Ecotourism Sites in Central Luzon, Philippines"
Philippine Department of Tourism Website. Retrieved on 2012-02-11. The ascent can be done in 7–8 hours while the descent can be covered in half the time. Guests and tourists aiming to climb the mountain are required to register at the

barangay The barangay (; abbreviated as Brgy. or Bgy.), historically referred to as ''barrio'', is the smallest Administrative divisions of the Philippines, administrative division in the Philippines. Named after the Precolonial barangay, precolonial po ...

hall to receive further safety, security and cooperation according to the rule and guidance of the tourism authority. Farther down the settlement is a trail leading to the jump off-point for the Bagsit River whitewater river rafting.

Traverse trek

A multi-day trek is also possible starting from the eastern side of the Mount Tapulao in Brgy. Labney in the town of Mayantoc in

Tarlac Tarlac, officially the Province of Tarlac (; ; ; ; ), is a landlocked Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Central Luzon Regions of the Philippines, region. It had a population of 1,503,456 people according to ...

province, ending in Palauig, or vice versa. The trail from the northwest is longer and a much more challenging route than the one from Zambales, but the reward is a more diverse environment and fauna."Mt. Tapulao/ Tarlac-Zambales Traverse (2,037 +)"
Pinoy Mountaineer. Retrieved on 2012-02-11.

Ecosystem

Department of Environment and Natural Resources The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR; ) is the Executive Departments of the Philippines, executive department of the Philippine government responsible for the conservation, management, development, and proper use of the cou ...

(DENR) region 3 has signed a memorandum of agreement for the protection and development of Mt. Tapulao. *

Sangguniang Bayan The Sangguniang Bayan () is the local legislative branch of the municipal governments in the Philippines. It is responsible for passing ordinances and resolutions for the administration of a municipality. Its powers are defined by the Local Go ...

(SB) of Iba, Zambales came out with an ordinance declaring the town's part of Mt. Tapulao as an eco-tourism destination and a protected are

Gallery

File:Moss forest Mt Tapulao (2).jpg,

Cloud forest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest, is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, Montane forest, montane, Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist forest characteri ...

(mossy forest) near the summit File:Moss forest Mt Tapulao.jpg,

Mossy forest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest, is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud cover, ...

near the summit File:Tropical lowland forest Mount Tapulao.jpg,

Tropical forest Tropical forests are forested ecoregions with tropical climates – that is, land areas approximately bounded by the Tropic of Cancer, tropics of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, Capricorn, but possibly affected by other factors such as prevailing ...

at lower elevations File:Sunrise near Mount Tapulao.jpg, Sunrise from

ridge A ridge is a long, narrow, elevated geomorphologic landform, structural feature, or a combination of both separated from the surrounding terrain by steep sides. The sides of a ridge slope away from a narrow top, the crest or ridgecrest, wi ...

File:Mount Tapulao pine forest in fog.jpg, Pine forest in fog File:The sea and lower flanks of Mount Tapulao.jpg, View of the

and lower flanks of the mountain

References

External links

New Rodent Species Discovered on Philippine Mountain

{{Central Luzon attractions Tapulao Landforms of Zambales Tourist attractions in Zambales Zambales Mountains