Chile's National Parks From the Atacama Desert to Cape Horn

Lauca National Park, established in 1970, is the northern gate of the path: about 1,379 square kilometers of high Andes near the Bolivian border, between roughly 3,200 and 6,342 meters, with volcanoes, the lakes Chungara and Cotacotani, vicunas and the colonial village of Parinacota. It is also listed as a Biosphere Reserve.

Llullaillaco National Park, established in 1995, covers about 2,687 square kilometers of high semi desert plains around the Llullaillaco volcano. Its Rio Frio area is crossed by part of the historic Inca road system, and access is limited to scientific expeditions and volcano ascents authorized by CONAF.

Pan de Azúcar National Park, established in 1985, straddles the Antofagasta and Atacama regions over about 438 square kilometers. Almost no rain falls here, and coastal fog called camanchaca supplies the moisture that sustains its relative diversity of species.

Llanos de Challe National Park, established in 1994, covers about 457 square kilometers of coastal desert near Huasco. Its fog dependent lomas ecosystem marks a southern limit in South America, and in wet years it is one of the best places to see the desierto florido, the desert bloom.

La Campana National Park, established in 1967, is small at about 80 square kilometers but protects one of the last stands of the Chilean wine palm. Charles Darwin climbed its peak, Cerro La Campana, in 1834 during the voyage of HMS Beagle.

Archipiélago de Juan Fernández National Park, a national park since 1935, lies about 665 kilometers off the mainland coast across Robinson Crusoe, Alejandro Selkirk and Santa Clara islands. 126 of its 209 native vascular plant species grow nowhere else, and it is the last refuge of the Juan Fernández firecrown hummingbird.

Conguillió National Park, established in 1950, covers about 608 square kilometers around the Llaima volcano. Its name in the Mapuche language means water with araucaria seeds, and lava fields, forest and small lakes share the landscape inside the Araucarias Biosphere Reserve.

Villarrica National Park, established in 1940, covers about 630 square kilometers along a line of three volcanoes: Villarrica, Quetrupillan and Lanin, which rises to 3,776 meters. Its Valdivian temperate rainforest shelters pumas, pudu deer and the rare monito del monte.

Vicente Pérez Rosales National Park, established in 1926, is one of the oldest national parks in Chile. Its roughly 2,530 square kilometers center on Todos los Santos Lake, with the Osorno volcano overhead and the Petrohue Waterfalls downstream, and it joins a contiguous protected area shared with Argentina.

Chiloé National Park, formally established in 1983, covers about 430 square kilometers of the island Pacific coast in two sectors, Chepu and Anay. Dunes, temperate rainforest and peat bogs sit beside the Gulf of Corcovado, one of the few known feeding grounds for pygmy blue whales in the Southern Hemisphere.

Laguna San Rafael National Park, established in 1959, covers about 17,420 square kilometers and takes in much of the Northern Patagonian Ice Field. A lagoon formed by glacial retreat gives it its name, and it has been a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 1979.

Bernardo O'Higgins National Park, established in 1969, is the largest protected area in Chile at about 3,525,901 hectares, and holds much of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field. It has no road access and is reached only by boat or helicopter, and its Pio XI Glacier is the largest in the Southern Hemisphere outside Antarctica.

Cabo de Hornos National Park, established in 1945, ends the path at the southernmost national park in the world, protecting the Wollaston and Hermite island groups. It is reached by a roughly twelve hour boat trip from Puerto Williams, and its highest point is Cerro Hyde at 670 meters.