Alerce Andino National Park

Alerce Andino (Parque Nacional Alerce Andino in Spanish) spreads over a large peninsula east of Puerto Montt. Established in 1982, its 970,000 acres make up the northernmost point of Chile’s 1700km-long Route of the Parks, as well as looking down onto Reloncavi, the first of the great crinkled fjords that run down the country’s length.

The park’s defining feature are the trees that give it its name. The alerce (known as laheun to the local Mapuche), carpets the park’s mountain slopes, growing up 60m high and living for several thousand years. Alerce wood is both water- and insect-resistant, which made it a prized commodity for construction and ship-building. Heavy logging led to the trees becoming endangered until the alerce was declared a national monument in the 1970s. They can be seen in several parks around the Chilean Lake District, but Alerce Andino has the greatest concentration of alerce forest, which covers almost half its area.

The park comprises mostly of dense temperate rainforest, with a particularly high level of endemism: one in three species here is found nowhere else. It is an excellent place for birdwatching, particularly around its many tiny lakes and lagoons (including black-necked and coscoroba swans). Among the leaf litter of the forest there are plenty of edible fungi, once an important food source for the Huilliche who lived here.

Alerce Andino is excellent for short hikes, with several marked trails. It is accessible year-round, though visitors should note that even in this particularly wet part of Chile, the park receives exceptionally high rainfall (as much as 4000mm per year) so it’s essential to pack waterproofs and boots appropriate for muddy trails.

Most visitors to Alerce Andino enter through the park’s northern Sargazo sector. There are several well-marked routes that lead from the park stations, several of them along wooden boardwalks, which in many places protect the roots of the ancient trees from ground compaction caused by hikers. 

Four trails lead from out from the park office near the Sargazo entrance. Three of these – Los Ulmos, Laguna Sargazo and Alerce Milenario – can be threaded together to make a full day hike. The shortest stretch, Los Ulmos, is particularly recommended by birdwatching, with a good chance of spotting the striking Magellanic woodpecker with its black body and scarlet cap. The Laguna Sargazo trail takes you over a suspension bridge to a small lake fringed with ferns and offering tremendous views, while the Alerce Milenario trail keep its trump card until the end, leading you to one of oldest recorded alerce trees in the park. This majestic tree, standing 60m high with a trunk 4m across is thought to be more than 2500 years old.

A popular longer day hike is around 10km to Laguna Frías along the Río Sargazo Valley. This includes the Alerce Milenario trail, but the more remote parts of the route are sometimes closed for maintenance due to their relative remoteness and the effects of the weather and landscape.

If you are approaching Alerce Andino from the south via Lenca, there are several easy day hikes through the park's Chaica sector.

The Salto Río Chaica and Alerce Milenario trail is the most popular, a short half-day hike that takes you through lush forest to a viewing platform overlooking the Chaica waterfall, and another of the park’s most ancient alerce trees. If you’re only making a brief visit, the El Encanto and Los Canelos trails are two short walks designed to give you a taste of the park.

Most of Alerce Andino’s trails are open all year, but those visiting in summer are able to enjoy the seasonal Laguna Chaiquenes and Triángulo trail to a series of particularly charming high mountain lakes. A portion of the trail involves fording the La Plata River; in winter its high, fast waters make it impossible to cross.