Parque Nacional El Morado, Chile, Mar 24th

So I was sent to Chile for work, yes I know, hard work, but somebody has to do it right? Considering most of my family is from Chile and that it was a great opportunituy, I decided to bring Val along for the trip so she could tour Santiago while I was working and then we could take a couple of days off to go hiking somewhere among other things. Originally I had thought of traveling south but that plan soon failed as just getting somewhere interesting would have consumed a full day or more. So we started looking for close by destinations and opted for Cajon del Maipo which the valley where the Maipo river starts from in the Andes. Our plan ended up being to drive to San Alfonso, a little town in the mountains were we would stay a couple of nights, do some sightseeing the first day, hike El Morado the second and return the third. Some people tried to discourage us from that plan as they said there’s nothing to see up in El Cajon del Maipo. Certainly it’s a very arid area, but far from not having anything to see. The first day, after getting to our cabin, we went sightseeing for a while and then did a short “warming” hike behind the place we rented out. That gave us some nice views of the valley towards Santiago but not even a hint of the scenery we would get at El Morado. Saturday morning came and we woke up early, had a good breakfast, packed our basic gear and drove to the park. The drive was a bit tedious on a dirt road but, the higher we got, the better it got.



Finally we got to the end of the road and a parking lot. It was early so only locals were there cleaning up their little businesses and stands. As we got out of the car we were promptly greeted by two very happy dog puppies that were rescued and cared for by a woman that was selling some handmade jewelry in the area. We spent a bit of time talking to her while she told us the story of the dogs. Then, it was hiking time. We grabbed our gear and headed to the park. From the parking lot, we took a short trail that circles a campground, crosses a creek and goes up a hill until it reaches a ranger station/park entrance. We got our day permits and attentively heard the ranger instructions for the day. Then we started hiking. This first half hour or so was just gaining a bit of elevation and getting closer to the canyon. All the views were actually behind us where we could see multicolored hills with shades of blue, grey, green and red.



Then we left behind that scenery and came up to high elevation vegetation. It was a wide area with little yellow and white wildflowers and some butterflies flying around. After passing a bend we arrived to one of the highlights of this trail, Aguas Panimavidas. This area is where water seeps from the ground and comes back up carrying calcite and iron. As it comes up, it rusts the soil around it giving it a very bright orange/red coloring that makes the whole area look like a place from another planet. Some of the holes were big enough to look like small fountains in the ground. If you look long enough, you can even see bubbles coming from the hole



The water then runs down the hill carrying all these minerals creating a lot of little channels that vary in color from a very bright red to orange to yellow. It certainly makes the whole area look toxic but some green patches of grass tell you otherwise



The trail continues up until you reach Lake Morado. This tiny lake sits by itself in the middle of a meadow with no apparent inlet or outlet even though there’s a big creek nearby. My guess is it feels with snowmelt and lasts until the end of the season when it freezes again. We circled the lake on the west side and found a nice rock to sit and contemplate the scenery while we ate some well deserved food. Most people that hike this trail come here to spend the day and then head back down but our plan was to continue up to the glacier. A trail sign indicated that it would be about a mile and a half to get there so we continued on. Soon after, all the green and full of life scenery vanished and all we could see was rocks, dirt and a big glacier up ahead. It was like passing a very defined line where life is not allowed to pass.



After that line Val and I continued on jumping from rock to rock until we got to the cave entrance were we took another break enjoying the surrounding scenery that included jagged peaks on one side and the whole valley on the other. After a while, we started our return the same way we came all the way to the car almost in silence and awe. All I can say is that, for a very arid and nothing to see place, this was very impressive.

You can check the pictures here



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