Yesterday’s long walk was a good warm up for this morning’s hike to Forbidden Island. Hiking in Saipan’s high heat and humidity can be pretty draining but it’s well worth it. The views are so spectacular!

Forbidden Island from the viewpoint

The sign at the trailhead, a short distance from the viewpoint, called this a strenuous hike and said that it would take 45 minutes in each direction. It was a fairly steep climb down through the bushes, across a ridge and down a dry watercourse but the only reason it actually took us 45 minutes is because we stopped so often to enjoy the views and take pictures. I’m super glad that I bought a brand new pair of Merrell walking/hiking shoes just before we left Canada and brought them with me. They’re really comfortable and I feel as sure footed as a mountain goat wearing them.

Woohoo! We made it!

When we got to the bottom, the tide was out and we enjoyed exploring the tidal pools. They were full of all sorts of sea life including lots of tiny vibrant blue fish.

Richard found some stepping stones and crossed over to the island. I told him that if the tide came in and he was stranded, I’d come back for him tomorrow! I took my shoes, socks and pants off and went wading in one of the larger pools but I didn’t let him take any pictures of that!

Can you see him?

We even saw a hoodoo.

Eventually, it was time to climb back up to the top. Though we had to stop from time to time to catch our breath and the sweat was dripping off us by the time we got there, it only took us about 25 minutes! Boy, were we happy to climb into an air conditioned car when we got there!