Fray Jorge National Park

On the coastal range at Fray Jorge, at around 600 metres, grows a fragment of Valdivian temperate rainforest - olivillo, canelo, mosses and ferns - about a thousand kilometres north of the nearest continuous forest of that kind, surrounded by semi-desert scrub. It survives on camanchaca, the fog off the Humboldt current, which condenses on the ridge and delivers moisture the sky never does; the forest is a relict of a wetter climate that ended thousands of years ago. It was made a national park in 1941 and a UNESCO biosphere reserve in 1977. A short boardwalk runs through the forest at the top of the climb.

What you actually see

• Valdivian rainforest in a desert - a thousand kilometres from the rest.
• Living on fog, not rain - condensation on the ridge.
• A relict of a wetter past - stranded by climate change millennia ago.
• A biosphere reserve since 1977 - and a national park since 1941.

When to go

Year round; winter fog makes the forest most atmospheric. Half a day.

Honest expectations

If the fog does not come in, the forest is just a small wood and the effect is lost. The road up is gravel and can close in bad weather. The boardwalk is short - this is a half-day, not a hiking park.

Nearby

Ovalle and Valle del Encanto are inland; La Serena is north.