Cerro Castillo

Cerro Castillo

Welcome back! We hope everyone is doing well! We are here to report back from our four-day backpacking trek to Cerro Castillo.

Just north of Rio Tranquillo is one of the hidden backpacking gems of Chile. Cerro Castillo has the views to rival the most iconic hikes in Patagonia including Torres del Paine and Fitzroy, but without the crowds. This 4 to 5-day backpacking trek is widely known among the locals and attracts the more experienced international backpackers. We heard from everyone, all the way from Torres del Paine, just wait for Cerro Castillo. We had high hopes for this trip, and it did not disappoint.

Coming from the south, we actually arrived at the ending point of the hike, Villa Cerro Castillo. The hike is not a loop and instead connects two small towns together. The traditional route starts in Las Horquetas, 28 miles north of Villa Castillo, passes through the Cerro Castillo national park and finished in Villa Cerro Castillo. Our first hurdle of this trip involved finding a place to keep our truck for the 4 days and finding a way to the trailhead. We quickly realized that crime was basically non-existent in this quaint mountain town, but we found an established campground that looks after people’s cars while they hike. We were also told by this campground that a bus could take us to the trailhead at 8:00 am the next morning. This was perfect! We thought we had everything under control.

The next morning, laden with our backpacking packs, we walked to the bus stop in the center of town. We arrived at 7:00 am just to make sure we would not miss the bus. As we waited, many other backpackers joined us on the main road, but they were not waiting for the bus, they were hitchhiking to a variety of places. 8:00 rolled around with no sign of a bus. Soon enough it was 8:30 and still no bus. We then decided to try our hand at hitchhiking. We had seen hundreds of hitchhikers so far and had read that it is a safe and reasonable way to get around in southern Chile. For about an hour we try to look as charming as we can with our thumbs pointing to the sky but to no avail. We are losing hope as another hitchhiking couple approaches us and asks where we are going and how long we have been waiting. They say they will go just up the road from us, so that we have the first chance at the oncoming cars. It wasn’t 10 minutes later that this couple managed to snag a ride. It was incredible! They must have had much more experience than we did. I could see them talking with the driver and then miraculously, he waved to me and shouted for us to join them! This couple kindly shared their ride with us and all four of us piled into cab and bed of the pickup truck.

The drivers of the truck were an older couple who were just on their way to the airport to pick up their son who was visiting them for a week. They were so kind to pick us up and wanted to know all about our trip and what we thought of Chile. We chatted with them for the entire ride practicing our Spanish. Only 25 minutes later, we had arrived at the trailhead and said goodbye to our courteous chauffeurs. We were ready to hike!

The first day of the hike was a constant but gentle uphill climb. We wound our way through pastures of cows along a stream that lead into the national park. We had to cross a decent sized river 3 times, which involved talking our boots off and wading across, but we were never worried of the current. The campground for the night was situated along the silvery Rio Turbio and just below the first mountain pass.

The next morning, we woke early to tackle the steep climb to the pass. We wanted to finish the pass before noon and before any possible storm could pass though. The hike up was tremendously steep with our full packs but we made it to the snow-covered saddle for a well-deserved snack break. The way down was not much easier. The steep loose gravel descent required our full attention, but we took breaks to admire the beautiful valley below us. We camped in this valley between the two passes of the trip. With one pass down, the following day we would attempt the pass over the titular Cerro Castillo, Castle Peak.

We knew this pass would be our hardest day and the weather forecast called for a possible storm, so we started early in the morning. Although this pass was just as steep and even longer than the first one, the scenery made it worth it. During the whole ascent, we were awed by the view of Cerro Castillo and the emerald lake below it. We reached the summit with time to spare for a totally gratifying lunch overlooking many valleys and mountain peaks. At the end of our lunch break, the wind picked up and turned to a howl. It was clear we had overstayed our welcome atop the barren saddle. We quickly descended into the last valley of the trail and made our way to our last campsite. We setup camp just in time too because not long after, the storm arrived. The rain started around 6:00 pm and lasted till the early hours of the next morning. Our tent held strong with only a couple of drops falling on us, but we battled an ever-growing puddle near our tent. We were forced to wake up every few hours to bail out this encroaching puddle, but we prevailed! The morning broke and we had saved all our equipment from being flooded!

Our last day included one last climb to an optional, but beautiful glacial lake before the long hike back to Villa Cerro Castillo. The last lake was worth fighting the rain for. Once again, we were treated with a cloudy blue lake surrounded by huge granite spires. We could only stay at the lake momentarily because we had a long way back down. The hike down descended the valley with amazing views the whole way. It was a great way to the trek because we didn’t have to focus on the trail and instead could enjoy being in such a wild place. The last stretch of the hike consisted of a 7 km walk along a dirt road back into town, which sounds like a pain after finishing a long hike, but it was actually very pleasant as it gave us a tour of the stunning ranches in the area.

We absolutely loved this hike and would recommend it to anyone looking for a backpacking trek a little more off the typical touristy Patagonia trail. It was a hard 4 days though with a total distance of around 45 miles in 4 days. We arrived back at our little home and took a well-deserved shower before continuing on our journey north.