INTERPRETIVE TRAILS: MUCH MORE THAN JUST A TOUR

Actualizado January 20, 2025

Since the beginning of this year, the Ventisquero Yelcho Trail, located in the Corcovado National Park, Panela province, southern Chile, has a great new feature that we know you are going to love.

Map of the new interpretive trail at Ventisquero Yelcho

This beautiful trail has been added to the list our country’s interpretive trails, which is very good news!  You can now walk its 6 km round trip through ancient forests of the Chilean Patagonia, finding information stations of the environment you are visiting at the entrance and at the La Playa, Vista Hermosa and Ventisquero observation decks.

At each station you can learn about the wildlife, geomorphology of the Patagonian mountain ranges and the Ventisquero Yelcho glacier; all built in oak and iron, materials that blend in with the environment.

Get ready for your next three and a half hour outing in which wildlife observation and learning will be the protagonists of your hike.

Natural landscapes of the trail

Photo:[@alemzzi]

What is interpretive hiking?

Surely you must be thinking, what is this all about?  Well, it is so called because the main importance of this type of hiking is to show the most relevant aspects of the wildlife, landscape, geology, history or archeology so that the hiker has a much more complete experience, which goes beyond a mere sport activity.

Nahuel Huapi National Park, Chile

Photo:[@nauel-huapi]

In the case of the Ventisquero Yelcho trail, a trail has been prepared that highlights the natural heritage of the area.  It’s wonderful, isn’t it, to walk in the middle of nature with all your senses awaken, seriously informing yourself about what your eyes are seeing.

Although interpretive hiking has been practiced for a long time, it has gained special prominence in recent years due to the great interest of visitors to learn more about the trails.

Guided tours and free routes

There are two types of interpretive trekking, one guided and the other free, the choice depends on the type of trail you want to take and your level of knowledge.

Guided tours are more enriching because the person that accompanies you knows the place and will surely tell you stories and information that are not always found in the literature.  Additionally, the expert will give you much more specific information about the history of the place, botany, and fauna.

Interpretive trails

Photo:[@juan.duarte.ch]

Get to know the unexplored lands of the Corcovado National Park

The magnificent Corcovado volcano honors the name of this park created in January 2005, thanks to the donation made by the Tompkins Conservation Foundation that donated more than 84,000 hectares of land to the Chilean state, so that they could be used to preserve the area’s nature.

The improvement made to this trail is very important not only for its contribution to inform about the unique nature of this environment, but also to increase tourist visits and thus promote the work and resource generation of local communities.

Ventisquero Yelcho Trail at Corcovado National Park

The park features a temperate rainforest weather, unique in the world, which will allow you to enjoy the ecosystem and biodiversity typical of the Chilean Patagonia.  This is the habitat to different species such as the Andean condor, puma, culpeo fox, pudú, guiña, and Darwin’s frog.

To reach this beautiful landscape, the only land access is through the Ventisquero Yelcho trail at the town of Chaitén.

Don’t forget to take several pictures of the impressive glacier of the Ventisquero River, a hidden gem in the middle of this recently inaugurated trail where you can enjoy all the beauty of southern Chile’s landscapes, while learning about the natural environment you are visiting.

MÁS INFORMACIÓN