Parque Pumalin, Caleta Gonzalo, Carretera Austral, Patagonia, Chile
Introduction
Located: 92km (approx) South from Hornopiren
Caleta, which means “fishing dock”, Gonzalo is basically a landing ramp that leads from the water’s edge to the top of the shore where there are some cabins. This is also the entry point to get into the Pumalin Park.
This caleta is beside the Reñihue Fiord. Around this area are steep-sided forested mountain sides that come down to the water’s edge.
Brief details
- Open: Year-round
- Area: 994,332 acres
- Climate: Temperate Rainforest
- Rainfall: 235 inches annually
- Ecosystem: Rainy and mild
- Founded: February 28, 2018
Can't Miss
- Explore the Reñihué and Comau Fjords.
- Look for marine life from Caleta Gonzalo.
- Hike up the Chaitén Volcano, which erupted in 2008.
- Visit the glacier found on the Michinmahuida Volcano, via the Michinmahuida Trail or Ventisquero Trail.
- Walk through the forests of Alerces (Los Alerces Trail).
What’s Here?
The Pumalin Park is the park created, and donated by Douglas Tompkins, (deceased) through the “Fundacion Pumalin”, to the Chilean nation in 2017. Douglas Tompkins made his fortune from the sale of the North Face (a company that he had started), and the Esprit clothing retail business (that he also started), and he used it to buy swathes of land in Chile and other South American countries with the ultimate aim of preserving these territories from any destruction or development.
The Park covers 402,392 sq2 hectares. Here, there are millennial-aged trees such as the Alerce, some dating back thousands of years. That reality on its own is quite “mind blowing” when you consider that it is possible to touch a living tree that started its life before the birth of Jesus Christ.
The Park is all about the natural world, an area devoid of development, aside from the small access that visitors have in order to enjoy this encounter with nature. The Park contains various trekking trails that allow penetration into the forest and to areas where you can see the hanging glaciers such as the Amarillo, the volcano Michimahuida and the Tabique hill as well as the Yelcho glacier.
Parque Nacional Pumalin Douglas Tompkins
The deep forests of Pumalín reach all the way to the fjords, creating one of the most spectacular coastlines on the planet. Hundreds of waterfalls cascade down from glaciers, falling over steep granite walls, as the Michinmahuida and Chaitén Volcanoes crown the landscape. The park’s most notable feature is the threatened Alerce (Fitzroya) tree––25 percent of Chile’s remaining Alerces can be found in this National Park. These ancient trees’ 3,000 years of life help to tell a timeless story of this pristine ecosystem, tucked in the Palena Province.
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