Patagonia National Parks

Lanín National Park

Province:  Neuquén
Closer city: Junín de Los Andes / San Martín de los Andes
Season: All year

Overview

Famous for the impressive Lanín volcano that gives it its name, Lanín National Park, with its blue lakes, crystalline rivers and ancient forests, is a great destination to enjoy the magic of Patagonia.

Highlights

• Ascent to Lanín Volcano (3,776 meters above sea level).
• Aluminé River, one of the best in the world for rafting and kayaking.
• Trekking circuits of 2 or 3 nights.
• In winter, the Cerro Chapelco ski resort is one of the leading snow destinations.
• Travel the Ruta de los 7 Lagos that connects San Martín de los Andes with Villa La Angostura.

 

Los Arrayanes National Park

Province: Neuquén
Closer city: Villa La Angostura
Season: All year

Overview

Los Arrayanes National Park extends across the Quetrihué peninsula over Lake Nahuel Huapi. It invites you to discover a unique landscape: the famous Arrayanes forest.

Highlights

• Explore it on foot or by bicycle.
• Lake excursions from Villa La Angostura or Bariloche.

 

Nahuel Huapi National Park

Province: Neuquén / Río Negro
Closer city: Villa La Angostura / San Carlos de Bariloche
Season: All year

Overview

Nahuel Huapi National Park is the oldest national park in the country and the second largest. Its more than 700 thousand hectares are distributed between Río Negro and Neuquén. On the border with Chile, it invites you to discover lakes, rivers, waterfalls and trails through the Andean-Patagonic Forest, the steppe and the high mountains.

Highlights

• Navigation excursions in Lake Nahuel Huapi.
• Explore the extensive network of trails and refuges: Frey, Agostino Rocca, López, Italia, Jakob and Otto Meiling, with options of different duration and complexity.
• In winter, visit Cerro Catedral and Otto ski resort in Bariloche and Cerro Bayo in Villa La Angostura.
• Fishing lovers can enjoy varied options in Lake Nahuel Huapi, Correntoso, and the Correntoso River.

Lago Puelo National Park

Province: Chubut
Closer city: Lago Puelo
Season: All year

Overview

Lago Puelo National Park is one of the few places in Argentina where you can see the Valdivian jungle, characteristic of Chile. Its incredible landscapes of mountains and forests are irresistible for lovers of hiking, kayaking and bird watching.

Highlights

• Guided excursions in touring kayaks.
• Explore the shores of the lake on foot or horseback.

 

Los Alerces National Park

Province: Chubut
Closer city: Esquel / Trevelin
Season: All year

Overview

It is a place of imposing beauty: turquoise lakes and rivers, glaciers and waterfalls. The Alerzal Milenario makes up a sector of Valdivian jungle with Alerces that are more than 2,500 years old that in 2017 was declared a World Natural Heritage by UNESCO.

Highlights

• It is an ideal place to rest for several days in a cabin, domes or inn and carry out trekking, kayaking, lake walks, horseback riding, and fly-fishing activities.
• The small and beautiful Verde Lake, where there are trails and viewpoints, invites you to camp or stay in domes.
• Contemplate the surprising Arrayanes River with incredibly crystalline waters. Cross the hanging walkway and walk the path to Lake Menéndez.
• Make a catamaran excursion to Alerzal Milenario to reach the 2,600-year-old Alerce Abuelo.
• Visit the Futaleufú Hydroelectric Dam.
• Enjoy trekking trails: Cerro Cocinero, Cerro Dedal, Cerro Alto el Petizo and hiking to Lake Krüger.

Patagonia National Park

Province: Santa Cruz
Closer city: Los Antigüos / Perito Moreno
Season: From October to April

Overview

With unique landscapes and abundant fauna such as guanacos, choiques and condors, Patagonia National Park has two entrances where you can camp, hike or take a several-day circuit to the plateau of Lake Buenos Aires.

Highlights

• Visit the main house of La Ascensión, a historic Patagonian ranch whose facilities have been recycled for public use, including an old school converted into a visitor cultural center in the traditional shearing shed.
• Go trekking or horseback riding on the trails of varying length and difficulty that the park offers.
• Carry out wild camping in the El Sauco area, and from there, travel the trails in the area.

 

Bosques Petrificados de Jaramillo National Park

Province: Santa Cruz
Closer city: Puerto Deseado / Puerto San Julián
Season: All year

Overview

Touring this national park is like taking a trip to prehistory. Its trails, in the heart of the Patagonian desert, cross one of Argentina’s most transcendental fossil plant sites, including remains of enormous araucarias from 150 million years ago.

Highlights

• Complete the Paleontological Trail circuit, 2 km long and low intensity. It leads to the fossilized trunks of several enormous araucarias and a viewpoint with great views of Cerro Madre e Hija.
• You can watch fauna such as choiques, loicas and tucúqueres (Magallanic owls) and some mammals such as guanacos, piches and grey foxes.

 

Perito Moreno National Park

Province: Santa Cruz
Closer city: Gobernador Gregores
Season: From November to April

Overview

Perito Moreno National Park is one of Argentina’s most virgin national parks. It has eight turquoise, emerald and grey lakes linked by mighty rivers. It is an ideal place to camp and walk along rarely-visited trails.

Highlights

• Enjoy a network of 50 km of trails that range from 2-hour walks to long circuits with shelters to explore lakes, lagoons and hills.
• There are three circuits (Azara, Península Belgrano, Valle del Río Lácteo and Laguna de los Témpanos) that run through different sectors of the park and have shelters, domes and camping plots.
• There are ten shelters (bivouac type), 8 of them with room to pitch tents.
• Visit its viewpoints and points to observe birds and rock art.
• Contemplate the three sectors of the park: the steppe, the transition zone, and the beech forest on the coasts of lakes Nansen and Azara.
• Spot wildlife: guanacos, choiques, piquines or orange chinchillons and, with luck, huemules.

 

Los Glaciares National Park

Province :Santa Cruz
Closer city: El Calafate / El Chaltén
Season: All year

Overview

Perito Moreno Glacier, one of the world’s natural wonders, offers incredible scenery. The star of Los Glaciares National Park (World Heritage of Humanity) protects a good part of the Patagonian Ice Field and the southern forests. Within the park, in the northern area, are the Cerro Torre and Cerro Fitz Roy massifs, which attract climbers and hikers worldwide.

Highlights

• Make an excursion to Perito Moreno Glacier, which stands out for its continuous forward and backward movement.
• Take catamaran lake excursions (Safari Náutico; Navigation of the North Arm to the Upsala Glacier; Onelli Bay from where you can see the Agassiz, Onelli, Bolados and Spegazzini glaciers).
• Take kayak excursions in front of the glacier.
• Ice trek on the glacier.
• Visit to Patagonian Ranches (Estancia Cristina, Estancia Chali Aike).
• In the North Section, you can take countless hiking excursions from one to several days, contemplating Cerro Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre and their surrounding needles.
• Kayaking on Las Vueltas River.
• Visit Lago del Desierto, where you can take lake excursions.
• Make a stop at Parador La Leona, which is on the route between El Calafate and El Chaltén.

 

Monte León National Park

Province: Santa Cruz
Closer city: Puerto Santa Cruz / Comandante Luis Piedrabuena
Season: All year

Overview

It is a national park of particular beauty due to its high cliffs overlooking the sea, islands, small bays, beaches, rocks and sandbanks exposed at low tide. With the Magellanic penguin as its emblem, the marine fauna is a great attraction.

Highlights

• Visit one of the main Magellanic penguin colonies in the country, which has more than 40 thousand breeding pairs. The Pingüinera trail (1 hour and a half round trip) offers excellent panoramic views of the colony (the penguins arrive from October).
• Sighting of seagulls, cormorants, giant petrels, plovers, Antarctic pigeons, dolphins, southern dolphins, and sea lions is a perfect place to see pumas, choiques and guanacos.
• Visit the viewpoint of an icon of the park: the Cabeza de León, a geoform that looks like a lion or a sphinx reclining on the sea.
• Enjoy the 400-meter pedestrian Lobería trail, which invites you to observe a resting place for small sea lions and excellent sea views.

 

Tierra del Fuego National Park

Province: Tierra del Fuego
Closer city: Ushuaia
Season: All year

Overview

Tierra del Fuego National Park is the southernmost natural area of Argentina and the only place where the Patagonian forests and the Andes mountain range meet the sea, creating a unique landscape of mountains, bays, fjords and a large binational lake: “Errazuriz” on the Chilean side; “Acigami” from the Argentine side.

Highlights

• Enjoy the 40 kilometres of trails of different levels of difficulty and length: eight short and easy trails suitable for all ages and five more extended and demanding ones for trekking lovers.
• Take kayak excursions through Acigami Lake and the Lapataia River.
• Visit Lapataia Bay, the end of the famous National Route 3, which crosses half of Argentina and crosses Patagonia from end to end.
• Take the excursion on the “Tren del fin del mundo”, which travels through an inaccessible park sector that coincides with an old route that started from the Ushuaia prison.

Alerce Andino National Park

Region: Los Lagos
Closer city: Puerto Montt / Puerto Varas
Season: All year

Overview

Alerce Andino National Park stands out for its tall larch trees that are more than 3,000 years old and has 50 lagoons surrounded by native forests.

Highlights

• Visit the ancient Larches of the Sargasso sector (approximately 2,500 years) or Las Chaicas (almost 3 thousand years).
• Contemplate the Chaicas River Falls.
• Cross the suspension bridge of the Laguna Sargazo trail.
• See the lagoons accessible through trails such as Sargazo, Chaiquenes, Triángulo and Fría.

 

Hornopirén National Park

Region: Los Lagos
Closer city: Puerto Montt
Season: From October to March

Overview

It is part of the World Biosphere Reserve of the Temperate Rainforests of the Southern Andes. The Hornopirén volcano crowns the landscape, and snowdrifts, lakes, lagoons, and rivers sculpt its mountains and valleys.

Highlights

• Hike to Lake Pinto Concha.
• Visit the Rio Blanco Falls.
• Enter the evergreen forest of Alerce, Tepa, Ulmo and Luma.
• Contemplate the Hornopirén volcanoes (1,572 meters above sea level) and Yates (2,111 meters above sea level).

 

Pumalín Douglas Tompkins National Park

Region: Los Lagos
Closer city: Puerto Montt (Chile) / Esquel (Argentina)
Season: All year

Overview

Pumalín preserves Alerces, which are almost 3,000 years old, and offers more than a dozen trails through the forest.

Highlights

• Sail through the Reñihue & Comau fjords.
• Spot marine fauna from Caleta Gonzalo.
• Climb the Chaitén volcano (eruption 2008).
• Visit the Michimahuida Volcano Snowdrift.
• Walk under the Alerces forests (Sendero Los Alerces).

 

Corcovado National Park

Region: Los Lagos
Closer city: Chaitén (Chile) / Esquel (Argentina)
Season: All year

Overview

Corcovado National Park is a pristine ecosystem that is difficult to access, composed of evergreen forest, fjords, bays, rivers, deep valleys and dozens of hidden lakes.

Highlights

• Contemplate the Corcovado Volcano (2,300 meters above sea level).
• Sail in Tic Toc Bay and visit the river of the same name.
• Fishing in the Corcovado River.
• Visit the Nevado Volcano (2,042 meters above sea level), also known as Yantenes or Yanteles.
• Visit Clover Lake.
• Admire the Yelcho Snowdrift.

Melimoyu National Park

Region: Aysen
Closer city: Puyuhuapi / Puerto Cisnes
Season: Not enabled. Maritime access only

Overview

Melimoyu National Park is a dream place with great natural attractions. Blue whales are the stars of the Melimoyu coast. Dozens of rivers originate from the snowdrifts and drain into the canals and fjords.

Highlights

• Sight the Melimoyu volcano (2,400 meters above sea level).
• Explore the channels and fjords in search of Blue Whales and other species, such as Orcas, Humpback Whales, and Chilean and Southern Dolphins (February and March).
• Go into the forest searching for endangered species such as the Pudú and Darwin’s Frog.
• Visit the town of Melimoyu (full of stories of Chile’s last wave of colonization).

 

Queulat National Park

Region: Aysen
Closer city: Puyuhuapi / Coyhaique
Season: All year

Overview

The beauty of Queulat National Park lies in its Patagonian Andean forests, waterfalls, fjords, steep walls, mighty rivers and its famous hanging snowdrift, which can be seen from the Carretera Austral.

Highlights

• The Hanging Snowdrift is the most symbolic point.
• Cross the footbridge of the Ventisquero River.
• Visit the Los Témpanos and Los Pumas lagoons. During the summer, navigating in the Los Témpanos lagoon is possible.
• Access the Padre García Falls, a waterfall of more than 30 meters.
• Enjoy Lake Risopatrón, near Puyuhuapi.
• Travel the 33 curves of the Queulat slope until you reach the pass.

 

Isla Magdalena National Park

Region: Aysen
Closer city: Puerto Cisne / Puyuhuapi
Season: Not enabled. Maritime access only

Overview

Its steep landscapes and deep ravines are a perfect refuge for species such as Penguins, Cormorants, Sea Lions and Huillines. The Mentolat volcano rises 1,660 meters in its midle among the exuberant flora.

Highlights

• Organize navigations with local communities to observe a great diversity of marine fauna.
• Surround the island in a sea kayak.
• Sight the Mentolat volcano (1,660 meters above sea level) and, for the most experienced, plan ascents to its summit.
• Visit Puerto Gaviota, a fishing cove located south of Magdalena Island.
• Visit the Santa Isabel and San Andrés islets to get closer to the sea lions.

 

Cerro Castillo National Park

Region: Aysen
Closer city: Coyhaique / Puerto Ingeniero Ibañez
Season: From November to April

Overview

The magnificent Cerro Castillo rises 2,318 meters above the communes of Coyhaique and Río Ibañez. Around it is a trekking circuit classified as one of the most beautiful in Chile.

Highlights

• Get to know the imposing Cerro Castillo massif, which can be photographed from viewpoints on the side of the Carretera Austral.
• Do the trekking circuit that starts in Las Horquetas and surrounds the entire massif until you access the Cerro Castillo Lagoon, then ends at the New Zealand camp.
• Get to know the Cerro Castillo Lagoon, which has an intense turquoise colour.
• Look for specimens of huemules that may be seen from the Carretera Austral.
• Photograph Chiguay Lagoon in autumn, when the Lengas Forest that surrounds it turns red.

 

Laguna San Rafael National Park

Region: Aysen
Closer city: Coyhaique / Puerto Aysen / Puerto Chacabuco
Season: All year round (upon reservation of visiting space)

Overview

The magnificent landscapes of San Rafael are a mosaic composed of fjords, channels, islands, estuaries and ice. Declared a Biosphere Reserve, it is the main gateway to the Northern Ice Field.

Highlights

• Walk through the Exploradores Glacier.
• Travel the X-728 route, 52 km west of Puerto Tranquilo and surrounded by forests, rivers, dozens of waterfalls, hanging glaciers and snow-capped peaks.
• Approach Mount San Valentín (3,910 meters above sea level) along route X-728, the highest in Patagonia.
• Sail through the San Rafael Lagoon to the glacier and witness some of its ice falls.
• Visit Lake Los Leones, from the valley of the same name.

 

Patagonia National Park

Region: Aysen
Closer city: Coyhaique (Chile) / Los Antigüos (Argentina)
Season: All year round (upon reservation of visiting space)

Overview

Immense valleys, shaped by the Chacabuco River, form a natural corridor travelled since ancient times by nomadic ethnic groups and a great diversity of fauna. Scene of large livestock ranches. Mountain ranges, Lenga and Ñire forests that turn red in autumn.

Highlights

• Drive along scenic route X-83 to Roballos Pass.
• Walk along the Lagunas Altas del Valle Chacabuco trail.
• Admire the immensity of Lake Cochrane from the Douglas Tompkins Viewpoint or some of the Tamango trails.
• Visit the confluence of the Baker River (the largest in Chile) with the Chacabuco River.
• Cross the large walkway over the Chacabuco River and the Avilés Valley walkway.
• Spot birds in the lagoons located in different parts of the Chacabuco Valley.
• Sail down the Cochrane River.
• Appreciate the beauty of Lake Jeinimeni (Km. 65, Route X-753).
• Visit Lake Cochrane del Jeinimeni along the carpenter trail.
• Visit the Piedra Clavada, a 40 m high volcanic rock formation, and the Lunar Valley in Jeinimeni (Km. 25, Route X-753).

Bernardo O’Higgins National Park

Region: Magallanes
Closer city: Puerto Natales / Villa O’Higgins
Season: From October to April

Overview

It is the largest park in Chile and one of the largest in the world. The 49 glaciers of the Southern Ice Field are its undisputed protagonists and make up the third largest expanse of continental ice on the planet, after Antarctica and Greenland. Its icon is the Pío XI glacier, the largest in the southern hemisphere and the only one that is not retreating in this area. It also stands out for being a refuge for species such as the Huemul and one- and two-haired sea lions.

Highlights

• Sail through the Última Esperanza fjord towards the Balmaceda and Serrano glaciers from Puerto Natales.
• Carry out the 10-day expedition through the southern ice fields from Villa O’Higgins to El Chaltén.
• Visit the Jorge Montt glacier from Tortel by Kayak or local boats.
• Admire the grandeur of the Pío XI glacier, with walls 75 m high.
• Visit Villa O’Higgins, from where navigations depart towards the imposing glacier.
• Make an overflight of the ice field from Villa O’Higgins.
• Carry out the maritime route that connects Puerto Montt with Puerto Natales, which crosses the entire park through the fjords and canals.
• Take the barge that connects Puerto Yungay with Puerto Natales, stopping in Puerto Edén.

 

Kawésqar National Park

Region: Magallanes
Closer city: Puerto Natales / Punta Arenas
Season: Not enabled

Overview

It covers many archipelagos of the Provinces of Magallanes and Última Esperanza. Its landscapes are a mosaic composed of mountain ranges, forests, glaciers, fjords, lakes, wetlands and valleys that make up virgin ecosystems of unparalleled beauty and habitat for diverse species.

Highlights

• Go to Riesco Island to spot birds and marine and terrestrial fauna and carry out different agrotourism activities the communities offer.
• Do sport fishing in the Rio Grande.
• Sail from Puerto Natales towards the Resi and Mountains fjords, which end where the Bernardo O’Higgins National Park begins.
• Visit the adjacent Francisco Coloane Marine Park, southeast of Carlos III Island, to spot Humpback Whales.

 

Torres del Paine National Park

Region: Magallanes
Closer city: Puerto Natales / Punta Arenas
Season: All year

Overview

Declared the Eighth Wonder of the World and a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO, the Paine massif is known as one of the most beautiful mountains on the planet. It is a magnet for trekking lovers. The “Circuito Macizo Paine” and the “W” are among the must-see hikes in Chile and the world.

Highlights

• Navigate by boat or kayak to the Grey Glacier through the icebergs.
• Visit Lake Sarmiento, on whose edge you can find strange and primitive calcium carbonate formations, similar to coral, related to the first expressions of life on the planet.
• Take one of the trekking trails. The most emblematic are the Valle del Francés, Base de las Torres and Glacier Gray, which can be done for the day or in the circuit known as the “W”, which covers 76 km in 5 days.
• For trekking lovers, the “O” circuit allows you to travel the 93 km that circles the massif in around eight days.

 

Pali Aike National Park

Region: Magallanes
Closer city: Punta Arenas
Season: From October to April

Overview

Low-lying volcanic cones, caves, craters, basalt walls and lava slags tell the story of recent eruptions and are paradise for geologists, volcanologists and anthropologists. Today, the Magellanic steppe is home to active wildlife, including the Guanaco, Puma, Fox, and Rhea.

Highlights

• Visit the Pali Aike cave, which has been declared a National Monument.
• Hike to the “Morada del Diablo” crater, the cones and basaltic lavas fields, and witness recent eruptions after the last ice age.
• Watch birds in Laguna Ana, where it is possible to find Flamingos, Black-necked Swans, Taguas and Jergones Ducks, among other species.
• The highest point of the Park is Mount Diablo, on the border with Argentina.

 

Alberto de Agostini National Park

Region: Magallanes
Closer city: Punta Arenas (Chile) / Puerto Williams (Chile) / Ushuaia (Argentina)
Season: From October to April. Maritime access only

Overview

It is the third-largest park in Chile. It is part of the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve, declared by UNESCO to be considered one of the 24 most pristine ecoregions on the planet. It protects species such as Elephant Seals and has lush vegetation, spectacular glaciers such as Marinelli and beautiful formations such as Mount Sarmiento.

Highlights

• Contemplate Mount Sarmiento (2,404 meters above sea level), a pyramidal mountain with a glacial summit, was climbed for the first time in 1956 and highlighted by Jules Verne in “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.”
• Sight Mount Darwin (2,488 meters above sea level), Shipton (2,568 meters above sea level) and Bove (2,279 meters above sea level).
• Sail through the Almirantazgo Sound and visit the Agostini Sound and its Serrano and Rugidor glaciers.
• Visit the Marinelli Fjord to see the colony of Elephant Seals, in addition to being impressed by the glacier of the same name, the largest in the park with 135 km2, 17 km long and a front 40 m high.
• Surround the Brecknock Peninsula, navigating the Brecknock, Ocasion, Cockburn and Magdalena channels to enter the Beagle Channel.
• Go to the Pico Francés sector, where the Roncali and Italia glaciers detach.
• Visit the Pía, Piloto, Nena, Garibaldi, Günter Plushow, Águila and Brookes snowdrifts.

 

Yendegaia National Park

Region: Magallanes
Closer city: Punta Arenas (Chile) / Puerto Williams (Chile) / Ushuaia (Argentina)
Season: Not enabled

Overview

Immense pampas, fjords, canals and unexplored mountains make up this unique territory declared as a Biosphere Reserve and travelled ancestrally by the Selknam by land and the Yaganes by the coast. The Darwin mountain range and Lake Fagnano frame these pristine landscapes at the edge of the world of unparalleled beauty.

Highlights

• Visit the King Penguin Park to photograph the penguin colony in Bahía Inútil.
• Walk the trails of the Karukinka private park adjacent to Yendegaia.

 

Cabo de Hornos National Park

Region: Magallanes
Closer city: Punta Arenas (Chile) / Puerto Williams (Chile) / Ushuaia (Argentina)
Season: From October to April. Maritime access only

Overview

It is the only place in the world where the waters of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans meet. The park surprises with its great diversity of seabirds, including the Giant Petrel, and its valuable Sub-Antarctic forest, which grows stunted to adapt to the hurricane-force winds. It is located in the Wollaston Archipelago, in the Hermite Islands group, and is part of the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve declared by UNESCO.

Highlights

• See the immensity of the Drake Sea, which leads to Antarctica in two days of sailing from the park.
• Visit the sculpture of the Wandering Albatross, built-in 1992 in memory of the men who lost their lives trying to reach Cape Horn (more than 700 shipwrecks are counted).
• Visit the Hornos Lighthouse, the Mayor’s Office and its small chapel.
• Contemplate Cerro Pirámide is the highest point in the park at 406 meters above sea level.