Things to do
15-
Landmark
Grey Glacier
A tongue of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field ends in a lake of drifting bergs, about six kilometres wide at its front and blue where it has recently calved. Catamarans run from the Lago Grey shore to the ice wall through the afternoon, and sailings are cancelled outright when the wind gets up.
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Hotel Las Torres
An estancia hotel inside the park at the foot of the Ascencio valley, held by the family that has grazed this land since the 1960s. It stands at the trailhead for the Base Torres walk and keeps a stable, a small spa and a shuttle down to the eastern gate.
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Lago Pehoé
A lake the colour of glacial flour, held between the Paine massif and the Cordón Olguín, with the Cuernos standing directly behind it. The catamaran from Pudeto crosses to Paine Grande twice daily in season and is the usual western start of the W trek.
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Laguna Amarga
A shallow saline lagoon on the eastern steppe where flamingos feed through the summer and guanacos graze the slopes around it. The park's main eastern entrance stands on its shore, so it is where day visitors have tickets checked and where the shuttle up to the Las Torres sector waits.
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Mirador Base Torres
The three granite towers rise straight from a glacial lake at the head of the Ascencio valley, about 900 metres above the Las Torres sector and eight to ten hours there and back. The final kilometre is a boulder field that takes far longer than its length suggests, and the CONAF day ticket is bought online before arrival.
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Mirador Cuernos
A trail viewpoint on the north shore of Lago Nordenskjöld looking straight at the Cuernos, whose dark sedimentary caps sit on pale granite below. It is a stop on the middle leg of the W trek, exposed for its whole length, and walked from the Las Torres sector.
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Landmark
Monte Balmaceda
A peak of 2035 metres closes the head of Última Esperanza Sound and carries a glacier that reaches tidewater, seen on a full day by boat from Puerto Natales. The vessel lands below the Serrano glacier for a forest walk of about an hour, and sailings run from September to April.
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Monumento Natural Cueva del Milodón
A cave driven 200 metres into a conglomerate ridge, where in 1895 the settler Hermann Eberhard found the hide, dung and bones of a ground sloth preserved by cold and dry air. A boardwalk loop takes about an hour, a full-size replica of the animal stands at the mouth, and the monument opens all year.
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Muelle Histórico Braun & Blanchard
The pier of the Braun and Blanchard trading house still stands on the Pedro Montt shore, timber pilings left where wool and mutton once went out to Punta Arenas. The promenade beside it runs the length of the sound and is the steadiest place in town to watch black-necked swans.
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Museo Histórico Municipal
A former house on Bulnes holds rooms on the Aónikenk and Kawésqar, the German and Croatian settlers, the sheep estancias and the 1919 workers' uprising at the Bories plant. Labelling is largely in Spanish and the visit runs under an hour, which makes it a reliable wet afternoon.
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Puerto Bories
The cold storage plant five kilometres north of town processed the wool and mutton of the Sociedad Explotadora de Tierra del Fuego from the 1910s and is now a national monument. Part of the brick complex stands as ruins open to walk through and part has become a hotel, with boilers and rail lines left in place.
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Salto Grande
The Paine river drops in one broad fall between Lago Nordenskjöld and Lago Pehoé, loud enough to be heard from the car park at Pudeto. A flat gravel path of about fifteen minutes reaches the platform, and the ground is open the whole way with nothing to break the wind.
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The Singular Patagonia
The hotel occupies part of the Bories cold storage plant, with the old machinery left standing in the public rooms and a lift running down to the fjord. It sits five kilometres from Puerto Natales and runs its own excursions into the park and up the sound.
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Tierra Patagonia
A low timber building on the shore of Lago Sarmiento at the park's eastern edge, its curved larch skin weathered grey to match the steppe behind it. Rates are all inclusive with guided excursions each day, and the hotel closes over the southern winter.
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Park
Torres del Paine W Trek
The route strings the Ascencio valley, the French valley and Grey glacier into four or five days along the south face of the massif, sleeping in refugios and campsites between them. Every bed and tent site is reserved in advance through the park concessionaires, and CONAF turns back walkers who arrive without those reservations.