My new favorite place, Parque Patagonia

Lone guanaco, Parque Patagonia, Chile.

There were a number of places which were definitely on my list of places that I must visit while in Chile and Patagonia, and Parque Patagonia was one of them. This is a new, private park, another project of Doug and Kris Tompkins, and Conservacion Patagonica. Conservacion Patagonica, a US-based nonprofit organization, was formed by the Tompkins in 2000. The first project was the creation of a new 165,000 acre coastal park in Argentina, Monte Leon National Park. Then in 2004, the 174,500 acre Estancia Valle Chacabuco was purchased, land which would become Parque Patagonia. The valley is adjacent to Reserva Nacional Lago Jeinemeni to the north, and the smaller R.N Tamango to the south. Together, the three parks would include over 640,000 acres of protected area in Chile. The restoration began soon after the land was purchased, many, many km of fences were removed, along with hundreds of sheep and cattle (25,000 sheep and 3,800 cattle), and many species-specific restoration projects were begun. The valley is ecologically important as the habitat represents the transition between the arid steppe of Argentine Patagonia and the temperate southern beech forest of Chilean Patagonia, and includes grasslands, riparian forests, wetlands, and uplands. The valley is now full of guanaco, and maybe 140 endangered huemul deer. And as prey returned to the valley, so did the lone predator, the puma. They also build a number of buildings, about 11 km from the Carretera Austral, including a lodge, a restaurant and bar, a visitors center, housing for park staff, and two campgrounds, all constructed when possible with local stone and recycled wood. I eventually stayed at both campgrounds, Los West Winds, which is only 2 km from park headquarters (i.e., visitors center, restaurant/bar), and the Stone House campground, 34 km down the road from headquarters, near the confluence of the Aviles and Chacabuco Rivers. They also are developing a network of trails, though at this point, there are only two trails from Los West Winds, including the 23-km Lagunas Atlas Loop Trail, a challenging hike, where the trail gains approximately 850 m over the first 7 km. The facilities are great, and the Los West Winds campground reminds me of the facilities at Parque Pumalin, except that I could not drive to the individual sites which have shelters, a picnic table, etc., I had to stay in my van in the parking lot. But I was not alone, there was always at least one other camper or overlander staying in parking lot with me. I would have liked to be able to drive to an individual campsite like at Pumalin, but they had designed things differently here. This was the case at both campsites, West Winds and Stone House. Also, while this park is still private, run by Conservacion Patagonia, or Tompkins Conservation, the plan is to transfer control to Chilean control by 2019 or 2020. This will be a Chilean park. The park is just amazing, beautiful, with guanacos everywhere. This place should be on everyone's list of places to visit in Patagonia, and yet, it does not show up on any maps which I observed. This is a huge, new park, with real potential. I loved my time there.

The images below are more about the facilities, and people who work in the park, along with Thomas the Swiss, who accompanied me to the park from Cochrane. He camped in his tent, and I stayed in my van. We had dinner together (twice) in the restaurant, great food, all-you-could-eat, though a bit expensive at $26,000 pesos. After a few days, Thomas took off on a trek, north out of the park and through R.N. Lago Jeinemeni, and eventually to Chile Chico.

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