Patagonia & Antarctica 2011

Torres del Paine National Park, Chile

click on the picture above for a larger view

TDP Map

Torres del Paine National Park is a very large park, with roads of gravel throughout. We stayed at the Lago Tyndall Hosteria (labeled Hosteria Tyndall on the map above--center near the bottom). On Wednesday, Steve drove to Las Torres (upper right of center on the map) and hiked to Campamento Torres. On Thursday, we both went into the park and headed toward Hosteria Lago Grey (left of center). Here we did a short hike toward Lago Pingo to the first camp. We then took a boat trip across Lago Grey to get a close-up view of Glaciar Grey. Friday we had to head back to Puerto Natales, but we took advantage of the early part of the day and drove across the park, stopping for a short hike to Salto Grande (from Refugio Pudeto near the center of the map). We then drove east from there and enjoyed the wildlife and views.

Lago Tyndall Hosteria and the view from our room

Wednesday: Las Torres hike

Narrow bridge on the way to Las Torres, bridge on the trail, view back at the park south of the mountains

Valley that the trail followed (refugio is above center), canyon, Refugio Chileno

These refugios are scattered throughout the backcountry that provide a place to eat and sleep for backpackers.

Beech trees, sand slope up to below the towers, sign

Since the clouds were low and time was a bit late, decided not to hike up the final slope to the lake below the Torres.

Black-faced Ibis (several were hanging around near the trailhead), and views of the Torres from the drive back

Torres and Guanaco

views of the local mountains from the drive back

Thursday: Lago Pingo hike and Glaciar Grey cruise

Rio Pingo, view from Campamento Pingo, local bee at work

resting at Campamento Pingo, view from the road after the hike

Glaciar Grey boat, snow/ice covered mountains, glacier up close

views from the glacier cruise

glacier, Andean Condor nesting near where we disembarked from the boat

Friday: Salto Grande hike and drive out

Salto Grande, posing near the waterfall

Rhea and Guanaco (including young'ens)

Below are a couple of video clips of the wildlife...

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