Things to do
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El Barranco
A wood and stone lodge a few blocks from the plaza, set in a garden with a pool and a fly fishing operation attached to it. The season runs through the southern summer and the room count is small, so reserving months ahead is normal in Futaleufú.
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Futaleufú National Reserve
The CONAF reserve covers about 12,000 hectares of southern beech in the hills below the town, set aside largely for one of the last lowland huemul populations in the region. Trails are rough and lightly marked and the deer are shy, so the ranger post is the place to register and ask what is walkable.
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Lago Espolón
A long glacial lake roughly ten kilometres northwest of the town, and warm enough by late January to swim in, which is rare at this latitude. A gravel road reaches the eastern shore where the beach shelves gently, the far arm is reached by boat, and the wind gets up most afternoons.
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Lago Yelcho
The Carretera Austral runs the length of this deep green lake north of the Futaleufú turnoff and crosses its outlet on a suspension bridge. Trout fishing is the reason most travellers stop, and the Ventisquero Yelcho trail climbs from the lakeshore to a viewpoint under the hanging glacier above it.
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Río Espolón
The Espolón meets the Futaleufú just below the town after a gentler run of class two and three water, which makes it the river beginners are taken down and where most of the fly fishing happens. Half day floats leave from the bridge on the road west of town, and the fishing season runs from November into early May.
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Río Futaleufú
The river drops out of Argentina in a run of class four and five rapids, carrying an improbable milky turquoise against granite walls. Commercial rafting and kayaking work from roughly November to March, always with a guide and a safety kayaker, and the Bridge to Bridge section is the standard full day.
