Hiking in spectacular Torres del Paine with the kids

The main draw of the Torres Del Paine national park are the world famous mulitiday hikes, the so called W and O routes around the mountains, named after the rough shape the trails take. These trails are something we would love to do, and if it hadn’t have been for those pesky kids, we certainly would have done on this trip. However, luckily for us, the area has some fantastic shorter trails, and we found a few which had some impressive views while still within the Odessa boredom threshold, an important unit of measurement on this trip.

The drive north from Puerto Natales itself had several spectacular lookouts along the way, as the dramatic peaks of the Torres del Paine (translating as towers of blue) began to defy gravity and rise out of the Patagonian Steppe. Stopping at these viewpoints was a welcome diversion from the hour and a half of driving largely rutted gravel roads.

Mirador Condor

After checking in with the park ranger post and showing our tickets we had bought online in advance, we carried on to a layby and trailhead near Pehoe Camp for the walk up to Mirador Condor. This 3km round trip with 300m ascent was billed as ‘good for kids’ and so it proved. We climbed steadily through low thickets and then through the treeline to emerge out to massive views of the nearby peaks. Views of big mountains were to become a theme of this part of the trip.

The wind really whistled up and over the hillside to the extent Dessa insisted we hang on to her in case she blew away. Somehow even in this gale the condors hung expertly in the air and then swooped around, often below our viewpoint. Quite a sight, which reminded Rafe that we need to fix our radio controlled aeroplane when we return home “so that Dad can crash it again”. As he scurried and scrabbled back down the track against the wind he gave several demonstrations of my RC flying skills with his arms out wide, careering into the brush.

Mirador Cuernos

But they look like the same mountains
Hang on, they are the same mountains!

Rafe

After a meagre (in Rafe’s view, given his exertions) packed lunch of baguette stuffed with ham and cheese, we were off a few kilometres down the road to the car park and trailhead for Mirador Cuernos. Compared to Mirador Condor, Mirador Cuernos was clearly a bigger tourist draw. This is probably because it is a reasonably flat trail which takes in the Salto Grande waterfall early on, and the lapping edge of Lake Nordenskold on the way to the viewpoint. The lake is an impossibly beautiful milky green colour, created by the fine grained sediment which is suspended in the glacial melt water feeding the lake. The viewpoint itself gazes out on the twin peaks of Cuerno Principal and Cuerno Este and their impressive, sometime vertical, faces and distinct colouring, showing layers of dark Cretaceous sediments into which a pale granite laccolith was intruded 12 million years ago. As is Jim’s tradition whenever coming to an inviting looking mountain watercourse, he sampled a little of the lake water and splashed his face at the shore of Lake Nordenskold. No noticeable illness ensued on this occasion, unlike a couple of years ago from a stream in the Brecons, but we shall leave that story for another day.

Just as we were readying to head back from the viewpoint we thought we heard a rumble of thunder and thought little of it other than the worst that might happen could be a little wetting on the way down. Turning for a last look at the view we could see that it was in fact a decent sized calving of a hanging glacier across the lake, sending a mass of ice tumbling down the mountainside. Quite a dramatic sight to behold.

No llama drama

Well, actually guanacos, closely related to llamas and alpacas. We saw many of them roaming around the national park without a care in the world. Guanaco meat has been a common sight in stores and on menus in these parts, so maybe they should be a little more cautious. The fauna trail in the east of the park, near Laguna Amarga is a particularly good place to spot guanacos. We were told there was also the chance of seeing a puma, but this is likely only at dawn or dusk and when you don’t have a herd of noisy children signalling your every movement to the wildlife.

The flamingos of Laguna Amarga

Laguna Amarga is named after the bitter taste of the water in the lagoon caused by the high concentrations of salts from evaporation of the water, which leave a white crust around the banks. Lying to the east of the mountains, it provides an excellent viewpoint of the Torres del Paine, the three jagged granite peaks the park is named after. The lake was an unexpected delight for us when we noticed a flock of flamingos around the salty edges of the water. Dessa excitedly exclaimed “mingos” as she does on any flamingo sighting.

The Rio Paine waterfall

The Cascada del Paine, on the Rio Paine, was on the face of it a short detour for us, but it turned to be quite something. Massive torrents of meltwater propel down the river and over this rocky outcrop creating a mass of sound and motion. This is topped off by the view with the famous three Torres (Norte, Central and Sur) in the distance. All thoughts of topping up our water bottles here were quickly reassessed! While the waterfall was impressive, Odessa will likely remember this part of the trip more for the little mountain fox that we encountered walking nonchalantly down the middle of the track ahead of us.

How we did it

There are many ways of getting into the national park from Puerto Natales, by public bus or on a tour offered by every one of the many hostels, hotels and tourist offices in town. However, we found the buses were useful if you want dropping off at the start of a mulitiday hike, but limited for other attractions in the park. A one-day tour for the four of us worked out as a similar cost to hiring a car for 2 days, which helped us make the decision to get our own wheels, enabling us to go at our own pace would be the easiest option. Obviously, we’d swung into town with nothing booked in peak tourist season, but after a fair bit of WhatsApping, Jim tracked down a vehicle, and we were off! (after a lengthy introduction from the hire car chap about not letting the doors get blown off in the wind and to drive carefully due to the perilous potholes that have been known to pitch unsuspecting tourists off the roadside…). We saw several people that looked like they were cycle-camping around the region, but we certainly weren’t about to do that ourselves.