Patagonia National Park and Rio Tranquillo

Hello everyone!

We are still alive! Yes, I know these blogs have almost stopped all together, but don’t worry, we are still doing well, and it has been the lack of Wi-Fi and abundance of cool things to do and see that have hampered the blog frequency. I have a lot to cover since our last blog, but I will separate them out to make it easier to read.

I believe on our last blog we had just finished hiking in El Chalten and were heading north in Argentina. Our next destination was Patagonia National Park in Chile. We crossed back in Chile through the town of Chile Chico and proceeded along one of the prettiest drives we have ever seen! We had just entered the lake district of Chile and were mesmerized by the abundance, size and colors of the lakes! Our scenic drive took us along a winding dirt road hugging the cliffs around Lago Buenos Aires. While we had to pay attention to the road, it was hard not to take in the beautiful scenery around us. Therefore, in order to fully take it all in, we made multiple stops along the way to enjoy the picturesque lake.

The scenic drive lasted for most of the day and eventually took us to Patagonia National Park. This park is special because it is the newest national park in Patagonia. The late Douglas Tompkins, the founder of the North Face outdoor brand, and his wife, Kris Tompkins, had previously owned all of this land along with a couple other surrounding areas with the goal of conserving the natural area. In 2019 the Tompkins Conservation officially gifted all this land to the Chilean government, and it was designated a national park. Kris continues to be the CEO of the Tompkins Conservation and continues their dream of preserving this amazing area.

Our short time in this park was unforgettable and it quickly became our favorite place of the trip to date. Since this park is so new and off the beaten track, very few visitors make it to the park, but the infrastructure of the park is amazing! The welcome center was astoundingly beautiful and contained a state-of-the-art museum of the area that easily could have been at home in Washington DC. It was very clear that much love and money has been invested in this park, but we can see why. The natural area took our breath away with the vast swaths of grasslands bordered by towering snowcapped peaks and interspersed with vibrant blue lagoons.

We had only budgeted two hiking days in the park because, due to its new-ness, it only has 7 designated trails. The two trails we chose were Lago Chico and the Lagoona Atlas trail. The first hike to Lago Chico gave us a glimpse of what Patagonia really looks like in its true natural setting. For the first time, we didn’t see a single other person during our whole hike! The views from this hike really must speak for themselves. We will always remember the view from the Douglas Tompkins viewpoint and the end of this hike.

The next day we got a very early start for the 16-mile Lagoona Atlas trail. This trail started with a brutal 5-mile climb to the top of a plateau. Once we reached the top, the trail meandered around 6 beautiful lakes and gave incredible view of the grasslands below and the snowcapped mountains surrounding us. We found ourselves smiling and laughing throughout the whole trail on just how stunning the area was. Even before we had finished the hike, we knew this was the hike of the trip so far and would be hard to beat. Our two days in Patagonia National Park were not enough but we had to continue north to our next destination of Rio Tranquillo.

Rio Tranquillo is known in Chile for two major attractions, the Marble Caves and the Exploradores glacier and these were the exact reasons why this small lake town made our list of must visit places. Since Buenos Aires, the Marble Caves had been pulling me toward them with all their geological beauty and uniqueness. The bedrock under Rio Tranquillo is completely made of pure marble and the azure lake has been carving the marble cliffs like a roman sculpture for thousands of years. The result is a multicolored masterpiece of caves, caverns and the marble chapel.

Our first day in Rio Tranquillo, we took a boat tour to these Instagram friendly caves. The tour took us in and around all the parts of the caves and I am pretty sure both of our jaws were on the floor the whole time. The colors of the marble shown so brightly against the blue water. The beauty also continued upwards as the white marble cliffs towered above us. Once again, I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

The following day we had booked a glacier trek on the Exploradores Glacier. We were also so excited for this hike because it involved hiking on the glacier using crampons! We had never hiked on solid ice before, so this would be a new experience for us. We were amazed as we hiked along the glacial moraines and learned about the physics and temporal nature of the glacier, all in Spanish of course. Once on the ice, we hiked along the endless dunes of ice and into dazzling ice caves. Our guide did a great job of teaching us about all the glacial features. Our favorites were the huge crevasses filled with water that look like Listerine! The color was such a pure blue, but completely clear which allowed us to look hundreds of feet down and see the intricate structure of the ice. Hiking on the glacier was very tiring but we absolutely loved every minute of it.