Devil’s Crown Snorkeling Guide, Galapagos [Rated + Reviewed]

Rating: 🤿 🤿 🤿 🤿 🤿

Five snorkel masks, and it is not close.

Devil’s Crown is my favorite snorkeling site in Galapagos. The sheer density of marine life in and around this sunken volcanic crater was unlike anything else we experienced on the trip.

One honest caveat: when I asked Daniel, our naturalist from our Endemic ship, about our hammerhead sighting afterward, he said hammerheads are not actually a common sighting here. We got lucky.

Even without them, the fish life alone would have made this a top-tier snorkel site.

With them, it became the best snorkeling experience of the trip.

Galapagos Snorkeling Rating System

If you are new here to my blog, all of my snorkel ratings come from our own time in the water at that exact site, weighed against years of snorkeling around the world.

Wildlife changes daily, so treat this as an experienced baseline, not a promise.

Cruise

Here is the catch: Devil’s Crown is cruise access only.

You can take a day tour to Floreana Island from Santa Cruz, but no day tour will get you to Devil’s Crown.

The site sits just off Floreana’s coast, and access is reserved for cruises. This was one of the biggest reasons we booked a cruise in the first place.

If Devil’s Crown is on your list, a cruise is how you get it done.

One fun detail: look closely at the Endemic logo on the side of the ship.

The E is shaped like a hammerhead. After this snorkel, that felt earned.

Devil’s Crown is the exposed rim of a sunken volcanic crater, a jagged circle of rock rising out of the open ocean. You can snorkel the outer edge, the inner edge, or both, depending on the conditions and currents that day.

We had good conditions and a strong group where everyone knew how to snorkel, so we did both.

The outer edge is where the deep water drama happens. This is where we saw the hammerheads and the Galapagos sharks, out in the blue below us.

The inner edge is packed with reef life, but it involves swimming against the current. Nothing extreme, just good to know. By the time we climbed back aboard the Endemic, we had genuinely earned lunch.

Daniel led the entire route with a panga driver positioned at the front of the group and another at the back, so nobody drifted too far.

Or if someone got tired, they could rest in the panga while everyone continued. Love that system!

Straight off the panga. Gear up, swing your legs over the side, and hop in right at the site.

We entered around 10:20 am and were back on board by 11:15 am. I could have stayed all day!

Hammerhead Sharks

The whole reason we were here. This site had been circled on my list for months.

Within thirty seconds of jumping in, the silhouettes appeared in the deep water below. Up to four hammerheads at once, clearly visible, moving through the blue with complete indifference to us.

At Kicker Rock on San Cristobal, we saw hammerheads too, but they were very deep and the sighting was brief. Devil’s Crown was closer, clearer, and unmistakable.

Daniel told us afterward that hammerhead sightings here are not common. So go in with hope, not expectation.

And if you snorkel Devil’s Crown and see them, tell me in the comments below. I would truly love to know.

Galapagos Sharks

Beyond the hammerheads, large, thick-bodied Galapagos sharks cruised through the deeper water.

Seeing two shark species within the same session is the kind of thing that ruins ordinary snorkeling for you.

Whitetip Reef Sharks

We saw sleeping whitetips rested along the reef edges.

We had also seen them at Concha de Perla and Los Tuneles on Isabela Island too, but three shark species in one snorkel is a Devil’s Crown kind of stat.

Everything Else We Saw

• Eagle rays
• Large schools of Salemas
• Three sea lions
• King Angelfish
• Pacific Creolefish
• Parrotfish
• Yellowtail Surgeonfish
• Bluestriped Chubs
• Sergeant Fish
• Triggerfish, a familiar face from our Maldives trips
• Mexican Hogfish
• Guineafowl Puffer
• Yellow Boxfish, bright yellow, boxy, almost cartoon-like. Hard not to smile at one.
• Blue Sea Star and Panamic Cushion Star
• One turtle toward the end
• Giant Hawkfish, tucked motionless in the coral with almost hieroglyphic cobalt blue markings. I thought it was a moray eel with unusual spots. Daniel set the record straight.
• Coral Hawkfish, which Daniel captured. I never spotted it myself. It perches motionless on coral and is easy to miss if you do not know what to look for.

That Giant Hawkfish is a perfect example of why a great naturalist matters. I would have swum right past it.

Daniel, much like Alejandro on our Kicker Rock tour, pointed out the things we would have missed while still giving everyone room to explore.

• Devil’s Crown is cruise only. Plan accordingly and book your cruise early.
• Conditions determine whether you snorkel the outer edge, inner edge, or both. Be flexible.
• The inner edge involves swimming slightly against the current. Fine for comfortable snorkelers, worth knowing in advance.
• Watch below you when you are dropped off on the outer edge of Devil’s Crown. That is where the hammerheads and Galapagos sharks appeared.
• Hammerheads are not a guaranteed sighting here. We got lucky. Manage expectations.
• We brought our GoPro, but Daniel also captured amazing photos and video footage (which he shared at the end).

Some snorkel sites are great because of one animal. Devil’s Crown is great because of all of them at once.

Three shark species in a single session. Massive schools of Salemas, Pacific Creolefish, and Blue-striped Chubs. A Yellow Boxfish here, a Giant Hawkfish there, sea lions passing through, and a sunken volcanic crater as the backdrop for all of it.

If you are building a Galapagos itinerary and snorkeling matters to you, route yourself through Devil’s Crown. It is the site I would go back for first, and the single biggest reason I would book another cruise.

I could have stayed all day. Leaving was the hardest part of the entire snorkel!

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Questions about our snorkeling experience at Devil’s Crown?

Let me know in the comments below!