The Carretera Austral in the Chilean Patagonia, is a famous scenic route and unique in the world. With a total of 1,200 kilometers of natural beauty the Carretera Austral in Patagonia is located in the south of the world. The Carretera Austral falls in love with all who visit it by car or bicycle, with pristine landscapes and an air that only the lucky ones who know this route breathe.
The Carretera Austral is a place full of an enormous diversity of landscapes, it is ideal for practicing adventure sports. Go rafting down the Futaleufú River, one of the most renowned on the planet for this discipline. Get to know the corners of this place touched by the magic wand with one of the many existing trekking routes and discover the incredible Palena National Parks and all the charms of Patagonia Verde. It´s a place full of national parks, lakes, mountains, and incredible landscapes.
Combine this journey with a visit to the glaciers that adorn one of the last corners of the world. You will be surprised by Caleta Tortel, a town with cypress walkways, a unique landscape in the world.
And if what you are looking for is tranquility, a day of fishing in the Baker River becomes an ideal panorama to feel contact with nature and let yourself be caught by the wonders that the south of Chile offers you. A piece of paradise.
It´s just an overview of what to see and what to do in the famous Carretera Austral.
What is the Carretera Austral?
The Carretera Austral (that means Southern Highway in english),begins in Puerto Montt and ends in Villa O’Higgins. The route is combined with some ferries necessary to cross certain sectors. This road is famous for being very long, and some service stations are quite distant from each other. If you travel by car, try to ensure fuel at each service station that is operating and check their levels frequently.
Carretera Austral: What to see?
The Carretera Austral is a long route, that starts in Puerto Montt / Puerto Varas in the Lakes District and ends in the southern portion in Villa O´Higgins. So, the Carretera Austral can be divided into two main areas: The Carretera Austral North, and the Carretera Austral South
Carretera Austral North
We call Carretera Austral North to the portion of the Carretera Austral that starts in Puerto Montt, to be specific in a small village called La Junta and ends in Coyhaique in the Aysen Region. The Carretera Austral Norte is made up of little traveled roads surrounded by pristine nature such as lakes, hills, rivers, islands, hot springs and much more until it ends in Coyhaique, the regional capital. Within this route there are a series of tourist attractions that range from national parks, lakes, islands, hot springs, etc.
The gate to arrive to the area by air is the Lakes District, and of course the main airport is in Puerto Montt. So, once you arrive to the area, can spend some days in Puerto Varas to enjoy the wonderful activities avaiable from there. To start the Carretera Austral, you have to continue in south direction, passing throught La Junta and
Carretera Austral: Chaiten and Pumalin National Park
Chaiten is the next stop, located 240 from Puerto Montt and 420 km from Coyhaique in the south.
Chaiten is the largest city at the northern end of the Carretera Austral. A dusty place of five streets of ramshackle wooden houses nestled inside a wide bay, it is the gateway to one of the best national parks in Patagonia: PumalÃn Douglas Tompkins. One of two in the region that were established by the late Doug Tompkins, founder of the North Face adventure brand, PumalÃn National Park (free) is exactly what you envisioned when you thought of hiking in Patagonia.
Futaleufu is located 390 km from Puerto Montt and 420 from Coyhaique, so it´s the heart or the center of the Carretera Austral. Although not officially on the Carretera Austral, Futaleufú is a charming town worth a few days’ detour. Here you can spend hours hiking trails with sublime views of mountains and lakes, participating in world-class rafting or kayaking, or simply enjoying the laid-back atmosphere of the laid-back city.
Expert-level rafting on the Futaleufú River draws Chilean crowds here during the summer, particularly as it is considered one of the best places in the world for this water sport. You can also organize kayaking on the tributaries of the Futa River. The walking trails are also numerous. One of them is the route that goes up to Piedra La Aguila (Eagle Rock), where, through a series of fairly steep but ultimately worthwhile changes, the path reaches the needle-like rock already some sensational views of the valley.
Carretera Austral:Â Puyuhuapi
One of the highlights of the Carretera Austral from the north is Puyuhuapi. This fjord town, normally shrouded in equal parts fog and wood smoke from the burners that heat the homes of locals, feels very remote and Patagonian. It´s located 420 km from Puerto Montt and 230 from Coyhaique. The architecture and the German language – a legacy of the German settlers who colonized the area in the 1930s.
The Hanging Glacier in Queulat National Park is amazing. Although it’s a good distance from the glacier, the platform at the end of the 30-minute climb has great views. Observe the ice that comes off the glacier and the two waterfalls fed by the glacier that fall 600 meters on the rocks below, before reaching the lagoon. It is simply spectacular.
Carretera Austral: Coyhaique & Balmaceda
Coyhaique is the head city for this amazing area. Located 661 km from Puerto Montt, it´s the limit of the Southern Carretera Austral. And the best place to stock up on food along the Carretera Austral, Coyhaique is a charming but steamy town in Patagonia
Apart from the relative comfort of its facilities, there is not much else to do here. It is the main transportation hub, connecting destinations in the north and south and most will cross it after landing at the nearby Balmaceda Aerodrome or sailing to the port of Puerto Chacabuco, while it is an unavoidable stop if at least the half of the Carretera Austral.
Carretera Austral South: From Coyhaique to Villa O´Higgins
From Coyhaique, you can start going south to discover the Carretera Austral South.
Carretera Austral: Cerro Castillo National Park
Located 100 km south of Coyhaique, we find Cerro Castillo National Park. Situated between Puerto RÃo Tranquilo and Coyhaique, Villa Cerro Castillo is home to its namesake national park, Cerro Castillo. The main attraction is Cerro Castillo, which thanks to its three mountain peaks has been compared to Torres del Paine in Southern Patagonia. There are two main trails: The most popular is the steep, 14-kilometer, six-hour, eight-hour hike that climbs up the Cerro Castillo Mirador Trail to Cerro Castillo Lake (located below the summit). The trail is one kilometer northwest of town. The second is the four / five-day, 51-kilometer trekking circuit known as the Cerro Castillo Crossing or the Las Horquetas Crossing. The latter is a challenging hike through a series of exposed mountain passes with panoramic views of glacier-filled peaks.
Cerro Castillo National Park, a national reserve that has an area of 143,502 hectares. The landscape is cold Patagonian steep and the Andean continental climate provide snow in the winter.
The Hanging Glacier here forms lagoons of turquoise colored water giving life to unbelievable landscapes, surrounded by forests and bushes of lenga, ñirre and calafate trees. A perfect sanctuary for the timid Chilean deer known as huemul. When you visit, pay attention and you may be able to get a glimpse of some of these lovely creatures close to Portezuelo Ibañez, on the border of the Carretera Austral. From here one can take marvelous photographs of the majestic Cerro Castillo. Other animals that roam Cerro Castillo National Park are the silent red foxes, pumas, guanacos and the Patagonian skunk called Chingue to name a few. But the reserve is outstanding not only for its fauna, but also for its trekking trails which have been rated as one of the most impressive in the world.
Carretera Austral:Â Puerto Tranquilo and the Marble Cathedral
Puerto Tranquilo is located 216 km from Coyhaique. And it´s a place from where you can visit an amazing attraction in the Carretera Austral: The Marble Cathedral. There are few places like this in Patagonia with swirls of blue, gray and black marble against the icy blue of General Carrera Lake… An incredible show of nature. Also, the whole trip along the shore of the General Carreras Lake, to reach Puerto RÃo Tranquilo is absolutely great.
You can take a speedboat tour ( aprox 1:30 hours) from Puerto Tranquilo. Try to do the tour early in the morning to have the best lighting, although this is not as easy as you might think, as the departures depend on the weather conditions and the waves on the lake can be fierce.
The Marble Cathedral is amazing. Formed by over 6,000 years of erosion, these unique geological formations are relatively unknown as a top-of-the-bucket-list travel destination, and yet they never fail to leave those lucky wanderers who stumble upon them absolutely speechless.
The sheer power of the crashing waves over the millennia has hewn these islands out of the lake’s calcium carbonate peninsula. Cinderella-like, the mineral impurities in the marble have turned into beautiful calligraphy swirls of rosy pink and robin’s egg blue across the walls. Chile shares this vast lake with Argentina, where it is known as Lago Buenos Aires, and its colour oscillates from a shimmering emerald to a hazy azure. It is fed by mighty rivers carrying glacial water down from the Andes. Tiny particles of glacial silt remain suspended in the meltwater, and these in turn refract the blue part of the sunlight falling upon them, lending the lake that remarkable, aquamarine hue which gives the sky a run for its money.
Carretera Austral: Chile Chico and Patagonia National Park
Located on the southeastern shore of Lake General Carrera, Chile Chico bathes in an unusually sunny and dry microclimate. Strangely, this part of the Carretera Austral grows cherries and is home to five endemic species of cacti – the last of which are considered the southernmost in the country. It´s located
But in addition to the city’s favorable climate, Chile Chico is above all a transition point for travelers leaving the Carretera Austral towards Argentina or for those coming in the opposite direction. Beyond this, it is the gateway to the hardly visited Jeinimeni Sector of the Patagonia National Park, about which little has been written.
For most visitors, Chile Chico is reached by a ferry that crosses the General Carrera Lake.
The heart of the Patagonia National Park (Parque Nacional Patragonia) is the Chacabuco Valley, a biologically important east-west valley that forms a pass over the Andes Mountains and a transition zone between the Patagonian steppe grasslands of Argentinian Patagonia and the southern beech forests of Chilean Patagonia to the west. Parque Patagonia is located between the Lago Jeinimeni National Reserve to the north and the Lago Cochrane National Reserve to the south.
Parque Patagnoia was created by Conservacion Patagonica, a nonprofit incorporated in California and founded in 2000 by Kris Tompkins, to protect Patagonia’s wildlands and ecosystems. [1] Parque Patagonia has an infrastructure of trails, campgrounds, and a visitor center. On January 29, 2018, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet and Kris Tompkins, President and CEO of Tompkins Conservation, signed a decree creating 5 national parks, one of which is Patagonia National Park. Parque Patagonia will be gifted to the Chilean state and then combined with Lago Jeinimeni National Reserve, Lago Cochrane National Reserve, and other additional lands to create Patagonia National Park, with a combined area of ​​260,000 hectares
Another amazing place in the Carretera Austral is the Caleta Tortel. Located 455 km south of Coyhaique and more than 1100 km from Puerto Montt, it´s one of the highlights of the route. Clinging to the forested edges of a small hill and overlooking the blue waters of the Backer River, this settlement is unique in that it does not contain a single road.
Caleta Tortel is a coastal town located between the mouth of the Baker River, the largest river in Chile, and a small inlet of the Baker Canal. The surrounding geography is rugged, made up of a series of islands, fjords, canals, and estuaries.
Beyond its picturesque appearance, the city also has access to a handful of glaciers, Ventisquero Steffens and Jorge Montt. You can visit it on a boat tour with one of the locals, keep in mind that tours only leave when there are eight passengers, so it can be difficult to organize one outside of January and February.
Although the Carretera Austral directly connects Cochrane with Villa O’Higgins, halfway there is a branch of about 23 kilometers that leads to Caleta Tortel. This branch was built in 2004 and, until then, the only way to get there was by boat. Tortel is a small group of houses that extend along the shore of the fjord. Its main characteristic is that it has no streets and therefore no vehicles circulate through it. When you get to the entrance of the town, you have to leave any parked vehicle and forget about it until we decide to take the road back.
A sign that says “the end of the road” at the end of the Carretera Austral de la Patagonia near Villa O’Higgins. This place is located 563 km from Coyhaique and 1220 km from Puerto Montt, and it is the end of the Carretera Austral. Surrounded by amazing mountains on two sides and situated on a flat plain at the bottom of the valley, Villa O’Higgins still feels owned by the landscapes that man has invaded.
The biggest attraction here is the access to the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, which is located south of the city. The most accessible glacier in this mountain range is the O’Higgins Glacier, whose cobalt ice face can be seen crashing into the sparkling waters of the lake of the same name from a sailboat.
Its remoteness from the large urban centers keeps it oblivious to some comforts, but life compensates in tranquility and in the motivation of the family undertakings of its inhabitants in cattle ranching, forest exploitation and, by the way, in tourism. The area has been linked to free colonization and settlements to consolidate Chilean sovereignty in the area
Activities available from Coyhaique to visit the Carretera Austral South
Check some amazing activities available from Coyhaique to discover the incredible Carretera Austral South
 
 
