The wind blew really strong that night, and then from steady light rain, it started to pour buckets. It was still pouring when we got up the next morning, which meant that most likely no boats were going out to the marble caves today, which Ricardo confirmed at breakfast. So we decided to forgo the caves. Instead we stayed at the campsite a bit longer in the morning, chilling by the fireplace and enjoying the company of the other travelers. It was nice to take a moment to just pause and hang out, after being on a constant move for the last 5 days. We drove down the road a bit further past Nutria, taking in the wet and foggy nature, then headed back towards Puerto Rio Tranquilo. After getting some more food, we hit the road to continue our journey.
The plan was to drive to Parque Patagonia to camp, then do a hike in the morning before crossing the border to Argentina. The road to Parque Patagonia was every bit as scenic as the previous days. We made many stops on the way to admire the stunning views of Lago Bertrand and its teal blue water, and the confluence of Rio Baker, and took a small detour to check out the cool pasarela crossing over Rio Cochrane at the bottom of La Peninsula.
The car we rented (a Nissan Tilda), was the most affordable option available but definitely not the most ideal choice for the type of road we were on, and it took quite a beating on the dusty, pot-holed, corrugated Patagonia road. But in the end it took us from point A to point B without failing and we came to really like our slightly awkward and inadequate little ride….
The landscape started to change as we left the Carretera to turn off onto X-83 road, taking us into Valle Chacabuco. Changes in the vegetation became more apparent as well, lush greens and colorful flowers disappeared off the hillsides, now instead speckled by tall wild grass and short round bushes in shades of yellows and browns. In this incredibly vast, more arid landscape, we no longer had to stop for cows on the road, but instead we made the acquaintance of guanacos. With herds grazing all around. they seemed rather indifferent to cars driving up to them.
There was only one campsite in Valle Chacabuco, on the road before the Paso Roballos border crossing (supposedly there is another one that was built more recently, but we didn’t know where it was located). We reached it at around 7pm. The price for the night (10,000 CLP per person) almost had us turn around and look for another option, but there was nothing within less than an hour of driving, and wild camping in the park is strictly forbidden, so we decided to stay. The campground came with bathrooms and showers, which were advertised as hot but were most definitely not. Still, the setting was pretty scenic, and the campsites once again very well laid out. We found a spot furthest to the entrance with a large 3-wall hut sheltering a large table and shelves. We had no wind or rain that night and woke up the next day to guanacos grazing around in the field.
The road from Camp Laguna Chinguay to Villa Cerro Castillo was incredibly scenic. We had left the cow pastures behind and were now crossing the much more mountainous terrain of the Cerro Castillo National Reserve. The town of Villa Cerro Castillo was on the other side of the park, at lower elevation, so coming down we got to fill our eyes with the view of the mountain range.
As we were driving down the hairpin bent road, I got to see, to the west in the distance, the spires of the “Castillo” summit which gives its name to the park (Castillo means Castle as the spires are somewhat reminiscent of a medieval castle).
The reserve offers spectacular hiking, especially if you are able to do the full trek, which is about 43km long. I was hoping to just do the day-hike to the Laguna (about 8 hours return), for a closer look at the spires. When we arrived at the visitor’s office in the small town however, they informed us that the weather was pretty bad up there, with snow and strong winds, and they advised against going up that day. As a side note, the guide book did not mention the day hike, I had only read about it on Rich and Ash’s blog. Everything else I read only mentioned the 4-day trek, but there is in fact a day hike.
Given the weather conditions and the prospect of climbing for 4 hours in the rain and snow, with likely no reward at the end, we decided to pass, and explore the area around instead. We didn’t have to go very far to find some really awesome viewpoints of the mountain range, which made up for not being able to go see it up-close.
After Cerro Castillo, the road was no longer paved. We hit some really rough sections along the way but eventually, the views of Lago Carrera distracted us from all the shaking – and the many stops we took to admire its stunning blue color gave us some breaks from the rough driving.
We arrived in Puerto Rio Tranquilo around 6pm. This little town definitely had a tourist hub feel to it. The main attraction there are the Marble Caves. Accessible only by boat (or kayak), these limestone caves display surreal shapes and colors, due to thousands of years of erosion from the lake’s glacier water. When the sun hits just right, the walls of the cave reflect a hundred different hues of blue from the lake water.
Booking a boat trip to see the caves isn’t very difficult. A dozens companies on the main street offer to take you. There’s actually no need to book ahead of time, they just try to get 6-8 people to fill the boat and then head out. It’s usually best to go in the early morning, before the wind starts to pick up and the waters become too rough.
We inquired about doing the tour in the morning from one of the tour operators, and they said to just come back at 8am, and pending good enough weather they would take us out.
So we went on to look for a camping spot. We checked out the in-town places, but found that they were already crowded with other travelers and didn’t have much charm to them. So once again we turned to iOverlander to tell us where to go. About 15 km to the east was Nutria, a campground with really good reviews, so we decided to head out there.
The place was indeed perfect. Lost in the middle of nowhere, the campground was built around a little restaurant that offered warm beverages as well as sandwiches and breakfast.
On the left of the land were 4 or 5 sites, lined up side by side, each protected from the wind by a wooden wall and small overhang – it didn’t seem like much after the comfortable 4-wall shelters we had enjoyed the last few days but it still turned out to be remarkably effective against the strong wind and rain that hit us during the night. There were 4 or 5 individual bathrooms with toilet and hot shower (each campsite was assigned its own bathroom), and on the other side was the traditional quincho, with a big fireplace to warm it up.
We first had coffee in the small restaurant, and got to meet Ricardo, the son of the couple who ran the campground. Ricardo had lived in Patagonia his whole life and had traveled through it extensively. He was a tour guide, taking people for glacier hikes and had also been to Torres del Paine a number of times. He gave us some really good advice for trekking in Torres, and also a little bit of a local’s perspective on how the Carretera had helped develop the area and create a connection between all the rural communities that otherwise lived secluded from the rest of the world.
We also met a couple from Belgium, with two kids (a 5 and a 3 year old). The man, who was in his early fifties, seemed to be a bit overwhelmed with his children, still it was inspiring to know they had been on the road with them for two months already. There was also another couple who was just coming back from trekking Torres del Paine, a Chilean man and a Swiss woman. After a few days of being mostly just the two of us, it was nice to spend the evening talking to other travellers and sharing their experience of the road.
On day 4 we had planned on doing a bit more driving than the previous days. Luckily, the road was in much better condition than the last two days, pretty much paved all the way.
We drove through Villa Amengual, then had lunch by the river at Manihuales. With its precarious-looking one-story houses made of wood and metal sheets, the town was charming in the same rugged and “stuck-in-time” way than all the other ones we had driven through.
Since we had time, we decided to make a detour through Puerto Aysen, rather than drive straight to Coyhaique. Located on the Rio Aysen near the estuary, Puerto Aysen is a port town of much bigger scale than the towns we had driven through so far. We took a stroll down its shops and restaurants-lined main street (there were even a couple of traffic lights!) and walked over to the Ibanez Bridge, famous for being the longest suspended bridge in Chile.
It seems that Chilean like to color their bridges orange, in cities as well as in the middle of the countryside, making them stand out where everything else otherwise man-made tends to nicely fit it with the surrounding nature – it was later pointed out to me that the orange paint could have something to do with rust-prevention?
We weren’t that impressed with Ibanez – it probably felt too modern and character-less to us, as we were getting used the charm of the more rustic small towns we had driven through. We enjoyed much more the sight of this smaller bridge, encountered on the side of the road after leaving Puerto Aysen.
We kept on driving for most of the day, which we didn’t mind as the green and lush pastoral landscape around us, even seen from the car, was just incredibly beautiful.
We got stuck behind a herd of cows, wrangled by three gauchos on horses and their dogs. Once again it felt like we were transported back into a different era, where time didn’t pass at the same speed. And it was incredibly refreshing to be in a place where still, in this world overwhelmed with technology, the most important way of communication was the one we were on: the road. If it wasn’t for this rough stretch of gravel, connecting towns together, most people who live in the area would be more or less completely detached from the rest of the country. Regardless of the political and military motivations behind it, the construction of the road made it possible for these communities to be connected to each other – and easier for outsiders to come visit. Whether it is ultimately a good thing or a bad thing is probably a matter of perspective, but in the meantime it was an incredible place to just be.
We arrived in Coyhaique later in the afternoon and after spending the last few days pretty much on our own on the road, it took us a moment to adjust to our surroundings in this city of 60,000 people.
We proceeded to replenish our food supply at the Unimart, the local supermarket chain. What we failed to realize until we hit the lines at the cashier, was that it was 5:30pm on a Friday. I guess no matter where you go, it seems to be the universal grocery-shopping rush hour. It was a bit of a “reverse culture-shock”, but we made it out in one piece, thanks to Brice having recently brushed up on his crowds-avoiding skills in France. After this short encounter with civilization, we couldn’t wait to get out and find ourselves isolated again in the middle of nowhere.
We stopped at the first campsite just before the entrance of the Cerro Castillo National Park. Camp Laguna Chinguay was completely empty, which delighted us. Once again, being somewhat shoulder season, there were no rangers at the park, so we camped for free (which is allowed as long as you clean up after yourselves). There was a small hut for each camp, so to continue our “indoor” streak, and also because the wind was picking up, we pitched the tent inside the hut. There was no fire pit this time, but signs indicated that fires could be built in appropriate areas. There was a large patch of dry dirt in front of the hut, where people had clearly made fire before, so we built ours in the same spot.
Another appeal of this campground was the possibility of a hot shower…which you had to heat yourself though, using a wood-burning stove. There was a stack of wood next to it so while I was setting up camp, Brice started up the fire in the stove. We took a walk on the shore of the Laguna before the sun went down, then retreated to the camp as the night was starting to fall.
As we were a bit higher up in elevation, temperature went down noticeably in the night, so we sat close to the fire and made noodle soup. The hot shower was pretty awesome and as we went to sleep I tried to focus my mind on how we had found the perfectly isolated spot for the night – and not so much about how we were alone in the woods, with strong wind blowing outside and the high potential for creepy scary dreams…I was pretty glad I never watched the Blair Witch project 😛
Our next planned stop on day 3 was a hike in the Queulat National Park, to go check out the Ventisquero Colgante, the “hanging glacier”.
But first we had to drive from La Junta to Puyuhuapi. That portion of road was pretty rough, and there was quite a bit of construction in progress especially on both sides of the town. We took a stroll through Puyuhuapi, to take in the atmosphere of this small port town.
Even on a gray rainy day, this little town felt warm and colorful, and an enjoyable break from driving. On the way out we picked up a couple of hitch-hikers who were also heading to the park, then carried on along the coastal road.
It was already 1:30pm when we arrived in Queulat National Park. We had a quick sandwich then headed up the look-out trail, a 3-hour return hike up to a high view point of the famous Hanging Glacier. The way up was not very steep, but it was raining quite a bit and we had to navigate mud and small streams. It felt very much like a rainy day on Vancouver’s North Shore – but with completely different vistas. We didn’t waste much time and got to the top in about an hour (turns out, we hike much faster when we are well fed).
Unfortunately, the clouds were low and the glacier was completely engulfed in them, so we couldn’t see much of anything. We made our way back down and 45 minutes later, we were back at the trail head.
There was another much shorter trail that lead to the shore of the lake which laid below the Glacier, so we walked there and arrived just as the clouds parted. The glacier was visible just long enough to snap a few photos, before the fog and clouds rolled in and it was gone again.
The park also featured a pretty cool suspension bridge, which we crossed to get to and from the trail head.
From the Queulat National Park, we drove to Puerto Cisnes, to spend the night. We looked up camping options in or around the town, and iOverlander pointed us to a beach area near the southern exit of the town.
Along the beach where several open quinchos, each with a large fire pit in the center, and enough room on either side to pitch our tent. A couple were already occupied by other campers, but a few remained free still. We didn’t have fire wood, so we drove back into town to find some. I walked into the first “mercado” we saw and asked if they knew where I could find wood (I didn’t know the correct word but later learned it was “leña”). Somehow they understood what I was looking for, and told me to go a couple of blocks away, to a house where a woman would sell us some. So we followed their directions and sure enough, ended up in front of a house that had bags and bags of firewood stacked up under a carport. We bought a bag for 5000CLP (about 7.5 USD) and drove back to the beach.
The tide was low and boats where washed up on the beach. I took a walk around for a cool view of the town in the fog across the bay.
Once we had the fire going and the tent set up out of the rain, it was pretty perfect. Later a group of locals came and set up in the next shelter over. They started blasting music and before I could even say anything, Brice was over there asking them to turn it down, which they did (no idea how he asked in Spanish, but whatever he said or gestured worked). Later a policeman came around and asked if we could write our passport numbers in his records. He also opened the building behind the beach so we could make use of the restrooms.
Later in the night, the wind started blowing really strongly, so we were glad our tent was under a shelter. It gave us a first glimpse at that infamous Patagonia wind I had read a lot about, the kind that will stop you in your tracks and sometimes even knock you over. For now, we had the comfort of the quincho, but who knows what the wind would be like later, once we were standing, shelter-less in Torres del Paine…
It was pretty chilly still on day 2 of our Patagonia trip, and not being able to make coffee was a bit of a bummer. But we were hopeful we could buy propane once we reached Chaiten, so for the time being we forgot about coffee and headed out for a hike up the Volcano. The short 4,4km (round trip) hike lead us about 700m up to the crater of the volcano in about 1,5 hours. The trail was pretty steep, with a fair amount of stairs carved into the ground.
I won’t lie, it kicked our butt. Mainly because when thinking back to when we had our last full substantial meal, we came up with “3 days ago, on our last day in Dominical. Costa Rica!!!”. Since then we had mostly had snacks on the road and sandwiches, and had skipped a couple of dinners due to arriving late in places. So, even though we’re generally in pretty fit conditions, this one felt like we were trying to run up the Grouse Grind on an empty stomach.
The hike was beautiful. The view was mainly open all the way through, providing really nice vistas of the valley bellow and surrounding mountains. Eventually, we reached an even steeper ridge, and although the trail started to fade, the direction remained pretty clear: straight up. At that point it became more or less a scramble up to the crater.
At the very top, we were able to walk alongside the ridge of the crater, with plunging views into the crater on the one side, and out into the valley on the other. The perfect reward after our (embarrassingly) difficult ascent – we still made is up before the three 20-something kids who started a bit before us, so not all pride was lost.
The other side of the crater continued to rise higher up and we could see skinny plumes of steam escaping from the surface of the cone.
Down below, the once molten lava had now solidified in an earthy, wavy surface.
The last time the volcano erupted was in 2008, after a dormant phase of about 9500 years. It was completely unexpected and although no life was lost, a thick layer of ashes spread for hundreds of kilometers around, and created significant damage especially in the nearby town of Chaiten. The results of the eruptions remain visible today, in the bare tree trunks and stumps covering the slope of the Volcano. I loved looking at all the different shapes those tree took along the trail, and entertained myself by giving them names.
The “Rino”:
the “Gate”, marking the end of the climb:
and the “Three Sisters”, perched at the very top and overlooking the area.
This one tree below was a pretty good testament to strength and determination, still stubbornly rooted at the base of the last uphill ridge despite the damages caused by the eruption, as if saying “I’m here, I’m still standing”.
We had snacks and took some photos then headed back down. It took us about 1h20min to climb, and roughly 45 minutes to come down.
Then we headed south to the town of Chaiten, about 35km away. The road was pretty good, mainly gravel while we were still in the park, but it turned into a newly paved section in the last 10km or so. In Chaiten, we walked into the first grocery store we could find, to buy more food as well as propane. Eager to break our streak of light-weight meals, and replenish our hiking fuel, we then looked for a place to eat, and settled on Flamengo, which served huge steak sandwiches.
The plan was to spend the night near La Junta, about 2 hours away. The road was really scenic, with constant rivers and streams flowing by the side of the road, and low mountains all around. We stopped here and there for photos but mainly drove through, taking in the scenery and scenes that felt of a different era. Cows on the road especially reminded me of my childhood, and the winding country roads we drove on to go to school, every so often getting stuck behind a herd of cows. This place felt like we were back in the 80’s, before the rise of technology and when things seemed just a bit simpler.
We arrived in La Junta and drove around the town a bit, and again it add the feel of our grandparents hometowns some 30 years ago, although harsher, more rugged than our European country towns – less stone houses, and more wood and metal.
The guide book mentioned a campground about 17km west of town, which was built around a hot spring. It was overcast and the rain had been chasing us all afternoon, so the idea of a hot soak sounded pretty perfect. We drove down a gravel road for a bit, then turned onto another even rougher dirt road. Eventually we came across a pick-up truck going the opposite way. Turns out it was the owner of the campground who was leaving for the day as he had, until then, seen no costumers. He backed up a couple hundred meters to the campground gate and let us in.
The site was built around a large open grassy area. To the right was a fairly large hut (described as a “Quincho” in spanish), with a few tables, and more importantly, a wood-burning stove. Since we were the only ones there, Claudio said that instead of pitching our tent outside in the rain, we could sleep inside. He even suggested we set up the tent by the stove, in order to trap the heat.
On the other side of the grassy field were a couple of buildings with toilets and cold showers, an a few more meters past them, an opening in the bushes led to the hot spring. The pool on the left was filled with really hot steamy water coming from the ground and naturally heated to about 80 degrees. The one on the right was cold stream water. A hose between the two brought cold water into the hot pool to cool it down to a more comfortable temperature of about 45 degrees. Lush trees and bushes all around made for a nice private setting. It was pretty perfect. It cost us 10,000 pesos per person (about 20CAD each), so a bit of a splurge compared to other campgrounds, but ultimately for a private hot spring with a private fireplace and hut, it was totally worth it. We set up our tent inside, got the fire going and then enjoyed a nice hot soak.
Later, Claudio’s dad arrived with a friend. We shared the hut for dinner and then they went back to his truck to spend the night. They were pretty amused when they saw our tent in the middle of the quincho. It poured all night so we were pretty happy with our setup.
The next morning after breakfast, we took another dip in the hot springs before heading out.
Click through the gallery below for more photos of the road
Every few years, Brice and I take a big trip to a place we’ve never been. The latest dated back to 2014, when we had gone to New Zealand and Australia for 5 weeks.
So in 2016, we decided it was time for another epic trip. The project I was working on was finishing in November, so we figured December would be the perfect month to go away. When thinking about destinations, Brice suggested Patagonia almost right away, and I thought it was a great idea.
Our month away actually started with a week in Costa Rica, for a Run Like a Girl retreat – but more on that later.
Arriving in a foreign country, where you barely speak the language, the first challenge is always to figure out how to get from the airport to our accommodation. We would normally look for bus or shuttle options, but when we landed in Santiago, Chile at midnight on December 12th, we decided to go for a taxi instead.
The “official” airport taxis where asking USD30 to take us to our AirBnB downtown address. Brice decided to try negociating with some of the “less official” cabbies that were hanging around the airport, offering their services. One guy agreed to take us to our destination for $20 so we followed him up the stairs to another floor of the airport, and outside – apparently the reason they agree to cheaper rates is that they are not paying the parking fee for the main exit of the airport, where the official cabs are…hence why he took us to a different floor. Anyways, nowadays with smart phones and navigation apps, it’s pretty easy to follow your route and make sure the driver isn’t taking you some weird roundabout way to charge you more. And 15 minutes later we were standing outside a 30-story building in a little side street of Santiago.
Our host Claudio had graciously waited for us to arrive, even though it was close to 1am. After showing us our room in his small but comfortable 2-bedroom apartment, he offered us a cup of tea before wishing us good night.
Santiago was only a short stop in our Chilean trip. The next day we had booked a bus ticket at 7pm, to travel overnight some 1000km south to Puerto Montt, where we would begin our Patagonia road trip. Claudio was very accommodating and we were able to leave our bags in the apartment until we had to leave for the bus station, which meant we didn’t have to lug our packs around all day in Santiago.
With a population of 5.1 million people, Santiago was the biggest city we had been in in quite a while. Indeed, it definitely felt like a “big city”, without feeling crowded as we were there on a Monday, during most people’s working hours. We had breakfast in a very “Parisian” feeling café on a busy pedestrian street, then wandered around the city for a while. The city had a very European feel, with buildings much older than what we’ve now gotten used to in Vancouver.
Before we got on the bus that day, we had to buy groceries as well as get some Chilean currencies. I wanted to make sure we would have food for the bus trip and the next few couple of days. We had booked a ferry crossing just south of Puerto Montt and based on traveling times, we didn’t have a huge amount of time between getting the rental car and arriving at the ferry terminal. So I didn’t want to have to worry about food at that point. Plus, we figured being the capital, Santiago would be the best place to get a variety of ingredients for camping meals. Same with Chilean currency, as I’d read that not a lot of places along the Carretera Austral had credit card machines. In both cases it just made sense to get those things sorted while we had the time for it in Santiago.
After accomplishing these two tasks, we headed back to the apartment for a late lunch and to chill a bit before our bus trip. This time, rather than get a taxi, I looked up transportation options and saw that we were only a few subway stops away from the bus station, so we took a subway ride.
We had booked our bus trip with TurBus (other companies offer the same trip, but they had the most convenient starting time option for us). With buses being the main mean of long distance transportation in Chile, they’ve really developed a convenient network and comfortable fleet. The buses offer three options (although not all available on the same vehicle). Salon, Semi Cama or Cama. The first one being a regular bus seat, and the last one a complete reclining bed option. We went for the middle one, Semi Cama, which was a seat reclining to about 150 degrees, so fairly comfortable to sleep in. Blankets and pillows were provided and there was an on-board bathroom as well.
The journey lasted about 14 hours, and with the aid of earplugs and a night mask, we slept relatively comfortably through most of it. The next morning, we arrived in Puerto Montt at 9am, ready to start the road trip portion of our Patagonia adventure.
We had arranged to rent a car from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales, where we would drop it off before starting our 6-day hiking track through Torres del Paine. Finding a car to rent one way for a 2500 km road trip turned out be a bit tricky, but we eventually managed to find one at a somewhat reasonable price. I’m planning on writing a post describing a bit more of the logistics behind planning this trip, and I’ll be sure to include details about the car rental aspect. But for now, to make a long story short(er), I’ll skip the episode about how a brand new Nissan Tilda came to be ours for 12 days.
The only way to drive south on the Carreterra Austral from Puerto Montt is to cross a succession of fjords. It involves 3 consecutive ferry rides, but only the longest one in Hornopriren (3.5 hours) can be booked online. During my pretty extensive research for this trip, I had read about those ferry crossing on the northern part of the Carretera, and how busy they can get, creating a bottle-neck even for locals needing to go back and forth. I had even read about people having to wait a day or two because of the number of vehicles trying to cross. So to cover our back, I had actually booked 2 crossings. Since we would be arriving in Puerto Montt on the morning on December 13th, I had booked the 3pm crossing that day, as well as the 10:30am on the following day. We were arriving all the way from Santiago after all, and the the ferry was about 2,5 hour drive from Puerto Montt. That way, if for whatever reason we didn’t make it on time on the 13th, we had a guaranteed spot (as much as things can be guaranteed in Chile) for the following day. It might seem a bit over-kill, but the short-ish time we had for this road trip meant I really didn’t want to waste time stuck between two ferries, and having to make up that time by driving longer days later.
We got the car a couple hours later than planned, so it was getting close to 12pm by the time we left Puerto Montt. The ferry reservation mentioned you had to be at the loading area 2 hours prior, which seemed a bit strange if you have a reservation. We definitely weren’t going to make it by 1pm, but we could still try to be there before 3pm so on we went. I should also mention that there was another short ferry crossing between this one on the one we’d booked. That one didn’t require reservation and was running every 45 minutes.
The road between Puerto Montt and Hornopiren was really scenic, most of it right on the ocean, with lots colorful fishing boats punctuating the beaches.
The first, very short, ferry crossing was between La Arena and Puelche. We arrived just after 12:30 and got on the 1pm ferry. After the 1/2 hour crossing, we continued driving towards Hornopiren. Somehow – thanks to Brice’s swift driving – we made it to the loading dock at 2:40pm, with 20 minutes to spare… There were 3 other cars waiting to get on… so not quite the line-up I was worried about. As we realized later, December is still somewhat shoulder season, which played in our favor in a lot of occasions throughout the trip, including this one.
I walked into the small office and handed them the reservation confirmation paper, in exchange for our boarding tickets. And a couple of minutes later, we were on board, ready for a 3.5 hour traverse of the fjord.
We were pretty pleased with ourselves, having made it there on time. And if this first half-day in southern Chile had taught us anything, it was to not approach things here with our very Western-country habits of what services are usually like in North America. Down there, things went at a different pace, and within a much looser structure…
The ferry wasn’t very big, but the inside was pretty cozy: a large room filled with booths to relax in, and a small bar offering coffees and snacks. The landscapes we enjoyed while sailing across the fjord reminded us very much of ferry crossing in British Columbia, calm waters surrounded by blue hills, faded in the atmosphere.
Before leaving Vancouver, I had really only planned the road trip as far as this particular ferry ride, but now that we were on it, I couldn’t help but take a closer look at the map. I had made a short list of places that were on the way, based on different blogs I’d read. We weren’t necessarily married to any of these suggestions, but they were a good place to start.
So, looking at both my list of “points of interest”, along with the very handy guidebook “Carreterra Austral, A Guide to one of the World’s most Scenic Road Trip”, I put some rough pins on the map of where we should try to be every night, in order to keep the driving to a manageable amount every day while still having some time to do some exploring.
After this long crossing, we had to drive about 15 minutes on a single track dirt road, lined by tall trees, to the third and final ferry. That one didn’t require booking either as it was technically considered part of the Hornopiren crossing. We had met a few hitch-hikers from Israel on the first boat and since they didn’t have any other way to get to the second part of the crossing, they hopped in the car with us. The final crossing was only about 45 minutes.
On the other side, we landed at the entrance of the Pumalín National Park. There were 6 campgrounds dispersed in the park, within the next 25 km (between the ferry terminal and the nearest town of Chaiten). We drove to the very last one, El Volcano, and that’s where we spent our first night on the Carretera.
Two kilometers down a narrow gravel road in the middle of the dense forest, a vast clearing offered a good amount of camping spots, nicely spread out from each other. From the main ranger building, there was a one-way road with a little driveway branching out to each campsite.
Each camping spot came with a small open hut sheltering a picnic table, a (cold) water tap as well as a patch of cushy grass to set up the tent. And thus we got our first experience of how well thought out campsites are in Chile.
The whole area was on pretty flat grounds with tree patches, which meant a pretty spectacular 360 view of mountains on one side, glaciers on the other, and of course, the volcano, with its steaming cone clearly visible in the distance. Pretty cool!
As we walked around we also noticed a long patch of really nicely maintained grass. Turns out it was a landing runway for small planes.
The campground office was actually closed (the official tourist season didn’t start until January), which meant that there were no rangers on site and we couldn’t buy anything from the small store, but we were still allowed to camp for free. (as an off duty ranger confirmed the next day)
We were pretty glad we’d had the foresight to buy a bit of food in Santiago, as we had no time to stop between Puerto Montt and the ferries, and there was no place to buy any food in the park, with all the stores being closed. The only thing we didn’t have was a bottle of propane for our tiny camping stove, but we managed to make a meal out of left over lunch ham, avocado and bread.
We slept under a clear sky and bright full moon, which made me think for a moment that the sun hadn’t set at all (it of course did, shortly after 10pm, a nice change from the 4:30pm sunsets we had experienced at Chakra Lodge in Costa Rica.)
The night was pretty cold, a good chance to put our home-made sleeping quilt to the test – and a successful one it was.
In September, Brice and I went on another road trip in the United States.
More specifically, we drove from Big Bear, Ca, to Las Vegas, NV crossing through a couple of national parks and making a one-day detour to the Grand Canyon.
The idea of this trip actually started with a trail race. Our friend Tyler had signed up for his first 100-mile race (160km), the Kodiac 100, which was taking place in Big Bear on September 16-17. Brice offered to come down to pace him during the race. For those who are not familiar with trail running, a pacer is a person who runs along the runner for portions of the race. They are not allowed to carry anything for them or help them in any way while running, other than bring company and mental support on long races. They can help at aid stations though, in making sure the runner gets food and drink or anything else they need available at the station. Usually pacers are allowed to come on 50-80km into the race, and runners can have several pacers taking turns throughout the course.
After a bit of planning, we agreed that Brice would pace a first time between km 50 and 90. Then another friend of Tyler, Philip, would take over from km 90 to 128. Then there was a short stretch of 8km between two aid stations, and I offered to run it with him. Then Brice would come back on at km 136 and would finish the race with Tyler.
The 100 mile course map. That year the race followed the route clockwise
The race started on September 16, but Brice decided he was going to drive down and take a week to explore the country while on his way down. Originally, we thought I could fly down for the race, then Brice and I would drive back up together and make stops on the way. Looking at how much time I could take off though, and how long it would take to drive back up, we realized it would be a better use of my off-work time to stay down in California/Nevada and explore the area, rather than spend most of our time driving and only stopping on the side of the road.
So after Brice had been on the road for one week, I flew down to LA after work on the 15th. Brice picked me up in our little jeep and we drove to Big Bear, two hours east of Los Angeles.
Tyler and his pacers
The race started at 12pm (midi) on Friday. We were able to see Tyler at a few aid stations along the way: He came through the first one (km20) at around 3pm. Then we saw him again at around 8:30pm, at the aid station Brice started running from. Kaitie (Tyler’s girlfriend), Philip and myself went back to the cabin to get a couple hours of sleep, then at 2am, we drove to the next aid station (called The Dump) where Philip took over pacing. Brice and I were able to get a few more hours of sleep while Tyler ran from the Dump to a station called Sugarloaf. Sugarloaf was the start of an “out-and-back” portion of the course, which means the runners go in one direction for a number of kilometers then turn around and run the same path in the other direction. In this particular instance, although the out-and-back was only 16km return, it started with a gnarly ascent of about 3000 feet (1000meters), followed of course by the descent of the same.
Checking out the route and figuring out how to go from one aid station to another.
Tyler came through Sugarloaf for the second time around 1pm, and that’s where I started running with him. It was really impressive to do to a portion with him. At this point he had been running for over 24 hours, and through a full night, so he hadn’t slept for over 30 hours! Those 8km were fairly easy (for me anyways, i was running on fresh legs :P), no significant elevation, and some nice downhills on smooth wide trails, mostly covered in a thin layer of sand, actually quite nice for running. The section ended in a residential area, and I passed the baton back to Brice, who paced Tyler for the last 25km until the finish line. Tyler finished at around 6:30pm, for a total of 30 hours and 32 minutes of running! Definitely one of the most impressive accomplishments I have been fortunate to witness!
At the finish line!
It was really fun to be there to support him, and be a part of his adventure! And, since the 17th was my birthday, we even had cake (thanks Kaitie!) Doing something I’d never done, in a place I’d never been, was definitely a good way to spend my birthday.
Happy birthday to me!
The adventure didn’t stop there of course. The next morning, Brice and I woke up before sunrise and hit the road for the first day of our exploration. First stop: Joshua Tree National Park.
The park is a very popular destination, and it is pretty easy to explore several areas in just one day. Although it is considered a desert, there is an amazing variety of plants and animals that live in the 800 000 acres of the park. Some of the most famous features are of course the Joshua Tree (which is in fact a Yucca, not a tree), and the formations of rocks which seem to have randomly sprouted from the earth in the middle of otherwise very flat desert valleys.
Breakfast in the shade after the 2-hour drive from Big Bear
We entered the park through the Cottonwood visitor Center, on the Southern side of the park. After taking a quick stroll on the Cottonwood Spring trail, we hopped back in the car and drove along Pinto Basin road, to the Cholla Cactus Garden. Cholla Cacti are notorious for being “jumping” cacti. If you come too close to them, and brush up against them, a whole chunk will separate from the plant and attach to your skin via hundreds of spines. Spines are really hard to remove due to the microscopic barbs that covers their surface.
We (carefully) walked around the Cactus garden – but I still managed to get a couple of spines right through my leather boot. Thankfully they didn’t get into my foot.
The temperature was close to 35 celsius, which made it a bit challenging to stay out in the sun too long. So jumping in and out of the car and driving to different locations was a pretty practical way to get through the park. In the winter when temperatures do drop a bit, there are a number of hiking trails throughout the park that are probably great to explore. But for now, we kept with the AC-ed option of driving.
As a side note, as for any road trip that is going to take us into remote areas, we made sure to have some essentials in the car: a 10-gallon container of water (we went through a LOT of water on that first day, a lot more than we thought we would need), 5 gallons of extra gas in the trunk, firewood, food for 4 days and a generator/car booster in case our car battery went dead.
After the cactus garden we drove a little while longer on the same road until we reached the first rock formations that the park is famous for. The rock piles are indeed pretty impressive. They started as eruptions of molten lava through the ground, which then solidified as it settled on the surface into what is called monzogranite. Water erosion and flash floods sculpted those monzogranite over millions of years, into the curved, smooth shapes that they are now.
There are several areas of similar formations in the park, most of them in the North-west portion. We explored a few of these areas, Jumbo Rocks and Hidden Valley mainly. Those are also very popular with rock-climbers.
After a few hours of climbing, jumping and running around the rocks, we headed to Keys Views, which was recommended as being a great spot to watch the sunset. It did not disappointed…
Once the sun had set, we made our way North. To access Indian Cove, the campground that we had picked for the night, we had to drive out of the park through the West Entrance station, then head east on road 62, and then enter the park again on Indian Cove Road.
The campground, which offers about 100 spots, was nearly empty that night. We only saw one other car as we drove in, and another one turned out to be set up further passed our camp, as we found out the next day. Since the spots are nestled along the rock formations, it was easy to find an area where no one else was in sight (which would probably be impossible however is the campground was full).
Being in a desert, I was expecting temperatures to drop at night and having to put on some extra layers to stay warm. But actually, the temperature only lowered to a very comfortable 25ish degrees Celsius. Being used to camping in the BC rain-forest, where it can get cold and humid even in summer, I was pretty pleased with this new camping experience. The moon was nearly full that night and pretty much lit up the campsite enough that we didn’t need head lamps to walk around. We decided to keep the top cover of the tent off and sleep in the moonlight…
The next morning, we packed up and got back on the road, headed north towards the Mojave National Preserve. which is US’s third largest national parkland outside of Alaska. Once again, since we only had one day to explore, we looked up some of the most interesting spots in the park and drove from one to the other. It was another very hot day, so hiking was not in the cards, but we still managed to see quite a bit. We started from the western-most south entrance, and drove up Kelbaker road, 23 miles until the Kelso Sand dunes, the second largest dune system in the United states.
Then we continued on North, past the Kelso visitor center, all the way to the Cinder cone lava bed. The official park map indicated a “lava tube” in that area, so we decided to go check it out. After seeing a tiny sign on the side of the main road, we turned off and drove down a dirt road til we couldn’t drive any further. We parked and went up a hill, not quite knowing how far we would need to go. Just at the top of the hill, we found a big hole in the ground, and another one just a few meters further, with a metal ladder. So down we went into the earth. The hole turned into a tunnel with a short section which we actually had to get on all-four to get through. On the other side was a small cave, with beams of light shining through the bigger hole we had seen at the top.
It was actually the perfect spot to hang out for a while, as the temperature underground was much more bearable than outside (I think it was close to noon when we were there).
So we stayed there a while, mainly playing around with the camera and throwing dirt up in the air to see how much we could make the beam of light pop in our photos.
For our next stop, I figured we would drive across the desert on Mojave Road, since on the map it seemed to be the shortest way to get to Mid Hills and Hole-in the-Wall Canyon. The road started off fairly smooth, with tracks going somewhat deep into the sand, but nothing that our little jeep couldn’t handle. We drove about 45 minutes on the narrow path, surrounded by Joshua trees. Eventually though, the road became more and more rough, with rocks and small boulders sticking out of the ground. Brice showed off his mad 4×4 maneuvering skills, but we ended up facing a rock that just wouldn’t let us pass. Our jeep didn’t have the clearance and no matter which way we approached it, the bottom would end up resting on the rock, preventing us from passing through without damaging the underside of the car. We checked the GPS to see how far down the road we were. We might have attempted one more time to pass if the GPS had indicated we were near the end. But it turns out, we were barely halfway across to the other side.
So we decided that instead of getting stuck on this rock – or another one further down, we would just turn around and drive back, taking the long way around onto the main paved roads.
Somehow we only took 20 minutes to drive back to the main road, and we drove down Kelbaker, back to the Kelso visitor center. We were pretty hungry by then, but with temperatures close to 40 degrees Celsius outside, we weren’t too keen on having an outdoor picnic. The two park employees at the visitor center let us have our lunch inside – there was actually a huge bar in the main lobby, and what seemed to be a kitchen under renovation in the back, so I’m guessing they might actually plan on having a restaurant of sorts there at some point.
After lunch we got back on the road, and up Kelso Cima Road this time, then turned right onto Mojave road (the same as the one we almost got stuck on earlier, but that portion, east of Kelso Cima, is wider and much more driveable than the western portion). From Mojave we turned right on Black Canyon road and drove south to Hole-in-the-Wall. We didn’t really know what was going to be there. We found ourselves at the entrance of the Banshee canyon. The canyon was formed millions of years ago when a volcanic eruptions covered the ground with lava and gas. The gas dissipated, leaving holes in the solidified lava formations. A short trail takes you down into the canyon, and out the other end. You can continue walking all the way around the outside of the canyon back to the starting point, or go back the way you came through the canyon, which is what we did. The trail is called Ring Trail, mainly due to the few metal rings that have been anchored into the rock to help descend a few meters into the lower portion of the canyon.
The area was pretty incredible to see, this sudden eruption of rock walls in an otherwise flat desert landscape. It was even more surreal that there was no one else there, we pretty much had the place to ourselves. After walking and jumping around on rocks (and trying to chase wild rabbits that were hopping around in the surrounding desert shrubs), we said goodbye to our unexpected playground and headed out. We had about 45 miles to drive (70km) to get to our campground for the night, but we got to enjoy a pretty amazing sunset as we were driving back on Black Canyon road. It was dark by the time we got back to the Mojave/Cima Road intersection, so we didn’t get to see much of the park on the last stretch of northbound road.
The campground we decided to stay at was clearly indicated on the Mojave Preserve map, in Nipton, just a few miles east of the north entrance of the park. When we arrived in Nipton though, all we could see in the dark was a closed coffee shop on one side of the train tracks, and a RV park on the other side. We drove around the RV park, thinking the campground must be there, until a young guy on a bicycle rode up to us, asking us what we wanted. He didn’t seem too welcoming at first, but got much friendlier when he realized we were just tourists looking for the campground. He told us the campground was on the other side of the road, near the coffee shop. So we drove back there. As we arrived, another man came up to us and took us around behind the coffee shop. The campground was there, in an area circled by trees. He then showed us the amenities: 2 fully-functioning toilets and showers (with hot water), along with a large sink and mirror, enclosed in a building of corrugated sheet walls. After the sponge bath we’d enjoyed at the tap outside the ranger station in Joshua Tree, a hot shower seemed like a luxury.
The small campground also had a large fire-pit on the one side, so we enjoyed a nice comforting fire before going to sleep. The next morning we were able to see the full extent of the place. Aside from the campground, there were also a few huts that didn’t seem too shabby. The only thing to mention is that the campground is located about 100 feet from the train tracks. A couple of trains came through during the night, which woke us (a train passing 100 feet away might as well sound like it’s going to drive you over), but even with that, it was a pretty comfortable stop for the night, and the access to hot shower definitely made this our fancier camping spot of the trip.
Before the trip, we had debated whether it would be worth it to drive to the Grand Canyon. There are several rims that you can access, but the one that is supposed to be the most scenic is the South rim, about 4 hour east of Las Vegas. We decided that yes, we should definitely do it, since we had come this far anyways.
So on the day after exploring the Mojave Preserve, we got up early and headed East for the world’s most famous canyon. The drive there was pretty underwhelming, mostly highway, and even more so that it rained all the way there. I’m grateful for Tim Ferriss’s podcast interviews that Brice had downloaded, for keeping us entertained all the way there – his interview with coach Christopher Sommer was particularly interesting.
So 4 hours later, we arrived at Grand Canyon National Park. It was still raining pretty heavily, but we put on our jackets and were ready to explore. We walked to the closest view point over the rim and …there it was:
Or was it? Hard to tell, with the thick layer of white clouds that covered the entire stretch of the canyon and obstructed any view of the valley below. Boo. Oh well, it was still pretty cool, we took lots of photo of cliff sides disappearing into the fog.
A few trails will take you from the top of the rim down to the bottom and the Colorado river, and even back on the other side (North rim) if you take a couple of days to hike through. Originally I was hoping to do a day hike as far down as time would allow it, but in those conditions, that plan got pretty compromised. We still walked down for an hour or so along Bright Angel Trail, and managed to get below the clouds and get some views, albeit foggy ones, of the valley.
When we came back up, the clouds had somewhat thinned out a bit, so we walked along the rim some more and got a few more, clearer shots of the Canyon. The original plan also intended for us to camp in the area, and drive back towards Vegas the next day. But we didn’t really feel like setting up a tent under the rain, and since our hike had been on the shorter side, we decided to head back West that same day.
We drove back for four hours and arrived near Lake Mead around 9pm. During his road trip alone down to California, Brice had used the app Ultimate Campground to find camping spots along the way. We looked up camping options near Lake Mead and there was indeed a campground on the shore of the lake. We turned off the highway into a dirt road and drove 3miles in the dark until we reached the lake shore. A couple of other vehicles were already there but the unofficial site was big enough that we could set up our tent away from the other campers.
We were pretty tired after driving 8 hours that day and walking in the rain for 3, so dinner was quick and off to bed we went.
The beauty of arriving at a campground in the middle of the night is that you don’t know what the place really looks like until the next morning. This one (as the previous two nights) didn’t disappoint. This particular shore of Lake Mead might not have been the most scenic, but waking up by a lake is rarely a bad thing. The shore also curved in such a way that if you walked to the left, you’d eventually go around a bend and disappear from the view of the main campground. I walked around after breakfast, and found the perfect spot for a quick dip – and the water was actually warm enough for me to get in. The one sad thing about the place was the amount of garbage left behind by people – mostly empty beer cans and bottles, along with plastic wrappers. I grabbed a garbage bag and picked up everything I could find along the shore on my walk between our camping site and my bathing spot.
Then it was then time to head to our last destination: Red Rock Canyon. But not before a quick stop at the Hoover Dam.
The Hoover Dam, formerly known as Boulder Dam, was built on the Colorado River in the 1930s as an effort to limit floods and provide hydroelectric power. Lake Mead, the largest reservoir (volume-wise) in the United States, was formed as a result of the dam.
My flight back to Vancouver was leaving from Las Vegas at 6pm, so that gave us enough time to spend the day outside. We didn’t really feel like exploring Las Vegas during the day – it seems like more of a night-time destination if you want to get the full experience. So instead we drove past Las Vegas to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, about 30 minutes west of the city. Once again we were greeted by a spectacular landscape:
There’s a small fee to enter the park, and from the entrance, a 13-mile road loops along the edges of the various canyons. We drove about 2/3 of the way and stopped at the Ice Box Canyon trail head. The trail takes you through the open desert for about a mile before entering a narrow canyon. The terrain was pretty rocky, with lots of small boulders to climb over, so it wasn’t very runnable, but the hike was really cool nonetheless. At the end of the trail, we were faced with the vertical wall of the canyon. There was supposedly a way to get to the top, but we couldn’t find it, and we weren’t really equipped to climb straight up, so we headed back the way we came.
We finished driving around the loop and since we still had a bit of time, decided to drive south on 159 (we had come from Vegas on the same road, but from the North). On the way we saw a sign for Bonnie Springs Ranch and decided to go check it out. They offer quite the variety of activities (horse back riding, climbing, zoo….), but turns out the place is pretty un-welcoming if you’re only there for a stroll and don’t intend on taking part in any of those. There were signs forbidding from doing pretty much anything. No picnicking on the picnic tables, no parking, and there was even a no hiking sign at the start of a trail that lead into the desert. We turned around and decided to go look for a different spot to enjoy our afternoon snack. Further down the road was the small town of Blue Diamond. Surprisingly, the town itself had a bunch of signs up forbidding visitors to use most of the small parks around. We did find one park that seemed open to the public (!) and finally had our “goûter”. Both this and Bonnie Ranch were a bit of an odd experience. In hindsight though, both of these were somewhat a sign of one of the major difference between Canada and the US: population. The sheer amount of people that potentially flood any sort of touristic area in the States especially at high seasons, would most likely be a lot more overwhelming than in Canada. Unfortunately, this also probably explains the amount of garbage found at Lake Mead.
And then it was time for me to fly back home. Brice dropped me off at the Las Vegas airport, and after connecting through San Francisco I was back in Vancouver, 6 days after leaving. Brice drove back up and this time didn’t stop much (apparently it rained most of the way back up), arriving in Vancity friday afternoon, after only a couple of two days of driving.
Flying down to LA and back from LV only cost me about 350 CAD, actually less than what it usually takes Brice to fly to Edmonton. This got me thinking that I really want to try and do more trips down to the States. Adding a couple of days vacation to a long week-end would be enough to go explore other areas – I’ve got Utah on my short list…We’ll have to make that a plan for 2017!
