Chile's Remaining National Parks, From the Altiplano to Tierra del Fuego

The northernmost stop. Volcán Isluga National Park, in the Tarapacá Region near Colchane, was established in 1967 and rises to the 5,550 meter Isluga volcano. Aymara ceremonial towns such as Isluga sit within its high altitude cactus and quenoa vegetation, so the park protects living cultural heritage as well as scenery.

Still in the Tarapacá Region, about 150 kilometers east of Iquique, Salar del Huasco protects a salt flat of ponds and seasonal wetlands at roughly 3,770 meters. It was designated a Ramsar wetland in 1996 for flamingo populations above 3,000 birds, and its national park status has changed since 2010 before being reinstated in March 2023.

East of Copiapó in the Atacama Region, this park was established in 1994 and is dominated by the Nevado Tres Cruces volcano. Its two zones hold part of the Salar de Maricunga and the Laguna del Negro Francisco, Ramsar wetlands that shelter Andean flamingos and vicuñas, and the park is open to visitors from October to April.

Established in 1941 in the Coquimbo Region about 100 kilometers south of La Serena, Bosque de Fray Jorge shelters the northernmost stands of Valdivian temperate rainforest. Coastal fog sustains the forest even though the area receives only about 113 millimeters of rain a year, and UNESCO named it a biosphere reserve in 1977.

Near Rengo in the O'Higgins Region, this small coastal range park was established in 1971 to protect the Chilean palm of the Cocalán basin. The palm is endemic to Chile, is among the southernmost palms in the world, and can live for over a thousand years.

Tolhuaca National Park near Curacautín in the Araucanía Region was created on October 16, 1935 from part of the Malleco National Reserve, itself the first wildlife protection area in Chile and South America. A second section was added in 1985, and the park holds the small lakes Laguna Malleco and Laguna Verde with views of the Tolhuaca volcano.

In the Cordillera Pelada of the Los Ríos Region, about 137 kilometers from Valdivia, this park began in 1987 as a national monument protecting ancient alerce trees. It became a national park in 2010 through a partnership of the state monument, the Valdivia National Reserve and land donated by the Nature Conservancy, and it now covers about 140 square kilometers of Valdivian rainforest.

Melimoyu National Park in the Aysén Region was established in 2018 from land donated by Tompkins Conservation and covers about 1,055 square kilometers of Patagonian fjords and channels. It was created to protect the Melimoyu volcano, endangered species, and whales and dolphins in the adjoining waters.

Off the Aysén coast, Guamblin Island has never had permanent inhabitants. The Chono people used it briefly in the 13th and 14th centuries, Spanish navigators sighted it in 1557 and 1558, and a 1973 oil spill from the tanker Napier struck it. Today it is a national park and Important Bird Area under CONAF.

Formerly the Alacalufes National Reserve and established on July 22, 1969, Kawésqar National Park covers an archipelago of islands, fjords and channels between the Pacific and the Strait of Magellan. It is the second largest national park in Chile and honors the Kawésqar people, nomadic hunter gatherers who have lived in the region for about seven thousand years.

The southernmost stop, on Tierra del Fuego, was established on December 24, 2013 through a partnership between the Chilean government and Tompkins Conservation. It sits within the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve and adjoins Argentina's Tierra del Fuego National Park, protecting one of the last stands of sub-Antarctic beech forest, a remnant of Gondwana.