The best way to understand Patagonia is on foot, and the best way to get to the trailheads is with a car of one's own. This week links El Calafate and El Chaltén with something active every day: the walkways of the Perito Moreno, a guided walk through a forest turned to stone, a boat among icebergs to the edge of the Viedma glacier, the trails below Fitz Roy and a crossing of Lago del Desierto. The driving is short and paved; the rest is walking.
Day 1 · El Calafate
Highlight · A first free afternoon on the shore of Lago Argentino.
The car is collected in town on arrival, with a GPS for the week, and the rest of the day is free on the shore of Lago Argentino.
Night · El Calafate
Day 2 · The Perito Moreno glacier
Highlight · The sound and the fall of calving ice from a front up to 70 m high.
Drive · 160 km · paved
Less than two hours to the glacier, the last of them with the ice in view across the lake. From the walkways the front, up to 70 m high, is seen from every angle, and the waiting is rewarded with the sound and the fall of the calving ice. A short boat ride on Lago Argentino or a walk on the glacier with crampons can be added.
Night · El Calafate
Day 3 · La Leona petrified forest and on to El Chaltén
Highlight · Stone trunks of a tropical forest 150 million years old, then Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre rising ahead.
Drive · 220 km · 3 h
North on the Ruta 40 along the Río La Leona to the old roadhouse of La Leona, where a guide waits for a visit to the petrified forest on the estancia next door: giant stone trunks and fossils at ground level, the trace of a tropical forest 150 million years old, in a field where one of the largest dinosaurs ever found was dug out. In the afternoon the road turns west towards the range, with Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre growing on the horizon.
Night · El Chaltén
Day 4 · On the Fitz Roy trails
Highlight · A full day on foot below the granite of Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre.
A full day to walk below the granite of Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre, from El Chaltén itself, on the trails of the national park. A private guide or a GPS with the routes loaded can make the day.
Night · El Chaltén
Day 5 · Viedma glacier by boat and on foot
Highlight · Rock polished by the Viedma glacier, and the trace of its retreat read on the spot.
From Bahía Túnel a boat runs south along the shore of Lago Viedma, with Fitz Roy and Huemul behind and icebergs alongside, to a rocky point where a guide versed in glaciology leads a walk off the beaten track to lookouts over the ice. The rock polished by the glacier and its retreat over the last decade are read on the spot.
Night · El Chaltén
Day 6 · Lago del Desierto and back to El Calafate
Highlight · Clear water under snow peaks, crossed by boat to the northern shore of Lago del Desierto.
Drive · 220 km · paved
38 km north of town through forest to Lago del Desierto, a lake of clear water in a green valley under snow peaks, crossed by boat to its northern shore and back. In the afternoon, south to El Calafate.
Night · El Calafate
Day 7 · El Calafate
Highlight · A last morning in El Calafate before the car goes back and the flight out.
The car is returned in town or at the hotel before the flight out.
