Carretera Austral – Part 3 – Patagonia National Park

From Puerto Gaudal it should have been a short drive to the Chacabuco Sector of Patagonia National Park. We had been warned there were roadworks and sections of the road were closed for large parts of the middle of the day so we were off early to try and avoid getting stuck in those. However I decided we had enough time for the 1km round trip walk to the confluence of Rio Baker and Rio Neff – famous for the colour differences as the grey glacial Neff merges with the blue Baker.

We didn’t hit any complete road closures but there was still some pretty slow sections where only one side of the road was operating so we were a bit later than anticipated getting to the Visitors’ Centre of Patagonia National Park.

Much of Patagonia National Park was created via donation of land purchased by a US Foundation led by Kristine Tompkins (nee McDivitt). Kristine was also the CEO of the company Patagonia (of apparel fame) for 20 years. It’s quite an interesting history of rewilding cattle ranches to what it is today. Kristine’s husband Doug (an original North Face apparel founder) was involved in a similar process for the creation of Pumalin National Park.

We spent 2 nights/3 days camping & hiking in the Chacabuco sector and then visited the Tamango sector from Cochrane. Our original plan had been to hire a tent & mats at the start of the road trip but that didn’t end up happening, and there’s very little option for doing so once you leave Puerto Montt. So to avoid a 40 min drive to/from Cochrane each day to visit Chacabuco, we ended up buying a cheap tent and air mats from the Chilean equivalent of Bunnings in Coyhaique. The tent proudly declared its use scenario – one season only! If the forecast hadn’t been good we never would have considered this but the weather was still on our side.

Arriving at the Park we had hoped to camp at the Casa de Piedra Campground, but (surprise, surprise!) it wasn’t yet open for the season so that meant our only option was the West Winds Campground. With that decision made for us we did the relatively flat La Vega Trail (7km?) before lunch. This took us past the graveyard, including Doug Tompkins grave.

On theme, of course, the loop trail we’d intended to do before arrival was no longer in operation, and so instead we did the 10km out-and-back Cañadón Chacabuco Trail in the afternoon. We saw quite a few Guanacos on this walk. The walk went out to a suspension bridge over a short canyon section of the Rio Chacabuco. The bridge was a pretty impressive piece of infrastructure but it was unclear what its purpose was. It didn’t appear to take you anywhere useful!

It was a pretty warm day and both the walks had little shade, so we were toasted by the time we finished. All I wanted at this point was to get to camp and relax. Unfortunately the road to the campsite wasn’t compatible with our car. There was one small rise that our 2WD vehicle wouldn’t get up. I then made the mistake of mentioning to the campground host I’d parked on the side of the road below the rise. He then insisted that we could only park in designated car parks, and so I had to park 1.5km from the camping area. This meant we got in a few more walking kilometres than we’d bargained for. In retrospect we shouldn’t have bothered walking the La Vega trail since the route to our car meant we walked a section of it several times over the next two days…

Our next hike was the 23km Lagunas Altas Trail. I had hoped to get started quite early to avoid the heat, but with the need to walk an extra 3km to the car to get gear and back to the trail head at camp, it wasn’t an overly early start (8:30am). Fortunately it clouded over as there wasn’t much tree cover! The first 6km of the walk is pretty constant up – climbing 850m. From there it undulates around and alongside rocky tarns and mountain tarns on the plateau.

By the time we got back to camp we’d clocked up 25km and were pretty tired! The campground had cleared out from the day before and there were only 2 cars in the car park (not ours of course). We enjoyed the hot showers (solar heated) and the picnic tables. A guided walking tour from the (very expensive) lodge, the only accommodation besides the campsite in the park, had a late afternoon tea in the picnic shelter next to us. The guide gave us their leftover teabags and energy bars – I was very happy about this because I’d left my teabags in the car and there was no way I was walking an extra 3km to go and get them!

We might have stayed a third night at the West Winds Campground if it hadn’t been for our inability to drive there. I was adamant I wasn’t doing that 3km round trip for another day. So we packed up and headed further into the park to the Casa de Piedra Campground (where we’d hoped to stay) – the trailhead for the 16km Las Avilés Trail. As we were getting ready to leave the car a large bus pulled up and about 15 trail runners hopped out – they were looking very cold in their skimpy trail running outfits (it was an overcast morning). They were on a trail running holiday – running every day for a week through the area.

We did the trail in the direction it had been described to us at the Visitors’ Centre – which was the opposite direction to the trail distance markers. Just as we’d got 7km in (so the 9km marker) we got to a side creek crossing that was flowing pretty strongly. We headed upstream a fair way to try and find a dry feet crossing but no luck. Back at the original crossing point I was the guinea pig to see how the crossing would go – it was quite ‘pushy’ and would have been very difficult without walking poles. From there it was about 700m to the main river crossing where we hoped the bridge still existed!!

The trailrunners were crossing the bridge (along with much filming/photography) as we arrived. It was a one person at a time bridge, and far less substantial than the bridge we’d visited two days earlier. The section of canyon below it was quite impressive, though hard to get a good view of.

We got a bit of light rain and the wind picked up. Unfortunately the wind meant a couple of nice lunch spots were out of the question and we ended up at sheltering behind the ruins of an old hut. It was a surprisingly undulating last 6km, and from an interest point of view we were happy with the direction we’d chosen to walk the trail.

Back at the car mid-afternoon we headed out of the Chacabuco Sector and further south on Ruta 7 to the small town of Cochrane. Despite various claims on Google of restaurant opening hours, pizza ended up being the only dinner option.

The following day we decided we’d earned a lazy morning! We were under the impression that the Los Carpinteros Trail was a relatively easy track, so headed out to do it in the afternoon. Sadly, given how tired we were from the three previous days, it ended up being a lot harder than we were expecting. The first two-thirds of the trail felt like there was no flat – constant undulations – some of which were 100m+. That meant it was a much more interesting walk but I could have done with a “boring” track! It ended up being 3.5 hours for 9.5km, including a 20 minute break at the far end, and a few side trails on the way back.

Cochrane was our turn-around point on the Carretera Austral, and now it was time for us to start heading back north towards Puerto Varas. We never could have imagined the amazing run of good weather we ended up with on our way south!

Wanting to miss the road works closures we headed off early the next morning, hoping to make it to Puerto Rio Tranquilo and the Marble Caves before the bad weather set in.