Soberania National Park is located within Colon Province and Panama Province. It is about 40 minutes from Colon, and 20 minutes from Panama City. Established as a national park in 1980, the park covers 55,000 acres (220 km2) The Charges River flows across the national park at the town of Gamboa.
There is a park headquarters with rooms for meetings and
audiovisual presentations, a store, orchid site, and natural trails. In Aguas
Claras there is a checkpoint and a forest ranger facility. There are three
natural trails: the Charco, the Camino de Plataciones and Camino de Cruces. In
the protected area there is a camping area. There 105 species of mammals, 525
species of birds, 79 reptiles, 55 amphibious and 36 species of fresh water fish,
so the park is an important wildlife refuge.
The jewels of the park are Trail el Charco in Gamboa and the
bird observation sites along Pipeline Road ( Camino del Oleoducto). The Camino de Cruces also
crosses the park. This was the road that the Spanish used to transport gold
overland from the Pacific to their ships in the Caribbean. Part of the paved
section has been restored.
The annual mean temperature is 28º C the Caribbean slopes of the
park. Rugged undulating hills and steep slops prevail, with a maximum height at
Cerro Calabaza (85 meters above sea level).
The Park is made up of humid forest with its impressive trees
like, cotton tree (ceiba), cuipo (Cavanillesia platanifolia), mahogany and
guayacan (Tabebuia guayacan). The forest contains lots of lianas, epifitas and
orchids and the royal palm tress, fruit trees nance (Brysonima crassifolia), and
wild plums.
Birds are particularly noteworthy here. On its
best known trail, the Pipeline Road, the Audubon Society has for 19 years held
consecutive world records in the annual census it organizes. 525 species of
birds were recorded on just one day in 1996. Among the outstanding ones are the
endangered crested eagle, the spectacular rofous-ventaul, ground- cuckoo, and
colorful tragons like violaceous tragon, motmots, toucans, trogons, flycatchers, antbirds, woodpeckers, tanagers, and hawks. Among the rare bird species in the park are yellow-eared toucanets, crimson-bellied woodpeckers, sirystes, and rarely seen harpy eagles
Among the mammals you will fid jaguar, the
white-tailed deer, ñeques, raccoons and herds of wild pigs. Various species of
monkeys occupy the forest canopy, including the small mono titi , the evasive
jujana , white-faced capuchin monkeys, mantled howler monkeys, Geoffroy's tamarins, two-toed sloths, three-toed sloths, anteaters, coatis, and agoutis. Green iguanas are also found in the park
Reptiles such as the babilus, the warty snake,
amphibians such as the common toad or the salamander and fresh water
fishes like the sabalo, pipon or the barbudo are to be found
here
