Panama has some of the most easily accessed forests anywhere in the tropics. The Canopy Tower is located on top of Semaphore Hill, in a well preserved semideciduous tall forest in the heart of Soberanía National Park. It is at an altitude of 900 feet above sea level, and from its roof you can see the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal and the skyline of Panama City, just 30 minutes away. Its privileged position makes ideal as a base from which to start exploring the forests of central Panama, as well as the Canal and other historical attractions. At the base of the road up Semaphore Hill is Plantation Road, a good, easy graded dirt road where you can walk through more than three miles of mature forest. A ten minute drive takes you to the gate of the famous Pipeline Road which runs for 11 miles through wetter forests in the heart of Soberanía National Park.

The Canopy Tower has five levels that offer different views of the forest around it. The flat roof is a great place to watch the canopy, as well as the Panama Canal and, in the distance, the skyline of the city. The top floor, covered by a 30 feet high geotangent dome (a variation of Bucky Fuller's famous geodesic dome), is used as the main dining area, and is completely surrounded by panoramic windows. The floors below house 12 two-person bedrooms with large windows and a full bathroom with hot-water showers each. Below the rooms, a mezzanine with more windows adds viewing opportunities of the lower levels of the forest canopy. Finally, the ground floor will house exhibits about the environment and the surrounding forest and the animals that live in it.

Canopy Tower Facts

The radar originally installed in the tower consumed as much electricity as 60 families.

From The Canopy Tower you can see the widening of the Culebra Cut. When completed in the year 2003, the amount of soil that will have been removed in this important improvement to the Panama Canal will be four times the amount of soil dug to build the tunnel connecting England with France.

The temperature in the Tower is usually 2-3 F lower than in Panama City and in the early morning hours it gets as low as 65 F.

The name Semaphore Hill comes from the early days of the Panama Canal when gigantic traffic signs, or semaphores, placed exactly where the Tower is now erected, were used to aid navigation across the Culebra Cut.

The Canopy Tower was featured in the TV documentary, "Panama: Paradise Found?" produced by the National Audubon Society and TBS and hosted by Mariel Hemingway.