Queulat National Park

The Ventisquero Colgante at Queulat sits in a hanging valley above a cliff wall: the glacier ends at the lip and the meltwater comes off it in two long falls into the lagoon several hundred metres below, which is a formation that exists in few places and none this accessible. A short trail runs to a viewpoint across the lagoon in about an hour and a half. The park is dense Valdivian rainforest - nalca, ferns, moss on everything - because this coast takes several metres of rain a year. The glacier has retreated substantially and the falls are now shorter than in photographs from a few decades ago.

Highlights

• A glacier hanging above a cliff - ending at the lip of a hanging valley.
• Two falls into a lagoon - the meltwater dropping several hundred metres.
• Dense Valdivian rainforest - fed by several metres of rain a year.
• A shrinking glacier - the falls shorter than they were decades ago.

When to go

December to March. A full day.

Good to know

It rains here most days and the glacier is often in cloud. The trail is muddy and rooty. The Carretera Austral through the park is gravel with the Queulat switchbacks north of it. There is a campsite and a ranger post, and nothing else.

Nearby

Puyuhuapi is north; Coyhaique is south down the Carretera.

Key facts