Chile’s Patagonia region is a haven for exploration particularly with the amenities provided by a Four Wheel Camper

As one of the thousands of loyal and satisfied owners of a California-manufactured Four Wheel Camper, I was immediately intrigued when I learned in 2019 that an affiliated small company, Four Wheel Camper Patagonia, had recently shipped two smaller-sized Four Wheel Campers to Chile’s northern Patagonia region of Aysen for rental. I had visited the area in 2012 and relied on local accommodations and tent camping and from that experience, I recognized the flexibility (and comfort) a small, lightweight but well-equipped slide-in camper on a robust diesel 4WD pickup would bring. I knew I wanted to go back and given access to these Four Wheel Campers to explore with, I recruited a second couple to join in on the adventure.

Our plans began several months in advance and in mid-March 2020, we traveled via Santiago to the regional airport of Balmaceda in the Aysen Region to collect the campers in the area’s capital city of Coyhaique. Coyhaique became our home base as we began a planned 21-day set of loops. We chose mid-March through early April knowing it was Patagonia’s early- to mid-fall season with cool, even crisp weather, descending snowlines on the area’s spectacular Andes mountains. We also hoped for the chance to enjoy an impressive array of fall colors in deciduous trees and bushes. Southern Chilean summer, south of the equator from about July through February, is considered “high season” with more stable weather but lacks the excitement of fall.

When we began the journey, we were not fishermen; however, Aysen and the area around Coyhaique is one of South America’s most impressive and productive destinations for the serious fly fisherman. Our local Coyhaique contact, Andres Mickman of Koon Outfitters who managed the camper rental, spends most of his season as a skilled personal organizer and fishing guide.

Fly fishing in Chile is quite possibly one of the most diverse trout fishing destinations on earth. If you like to fish technical spring creeks, Chile has it. If you want to throw huge streamers out of a drift boat, Chile has it. Combine that with some of the most spectacular scenery on earth along with a Four Wheel Camper, and you have the perfect combo for a memorable adventure.

The loops we’d planned were both north and south of Coyhaique, primarily to visit the growing number of national parks and reserves and scenic lessor backroads along the Carretera Austral. The route is now known – and being rapidly discovered – as Patagonia’s Ruta de Parques. As a retired professional park planner in the U.S. and other countries, I can say with confidence this collection of protected areas, and the growing capabilities of CONAF (Chile’s Corporación Nacional Forestal) to develop and manage them will make this one of the most popular tourism regions of Chile.

Of course, not everything went quite according to plan. As COVID-19 began its entry into Chile and the country prudently began instituting controls on internal movement, closing its parks and tourist activities, and anticipated closing its borders, we were constantly monitoring the situation and modifying our itinerary. Unfortunately, it became necessary to cut short our tour after 10 days and make our way back to the United States.

However, the good news is that even the shortened loops south of Coyhaique exceeded all our expectations. Cerro Castillo National Park is a huge and dramatically-rugged Andean protected area centered on Cerro Castillo (Castle Mountain) with short but strenuous day hikes – which we did – and multi-day backpacking routes that are as world-class as the fishing around its periphery.

Unpaved backroads south of the park, which the 4WD pickups allowed us access to, led to stunning lakes and forests. Simple but adequate commercial campsites with some facilities were common, but so too were opportunities to stop at a local sheep ranch or homestead and ask permission to camp on private land.

The pickup camper style of travel meant freedom to roam without a fixed itinerary or reservations. A propane stove, hot water shower, refrigerator and furnace in one of the units, and simpler equipment in the other, meant self-sufficiency was easy and relaxed evening sundowners the norm. (Fabulous Chilean wines of course…)

Continuing our southern loop, we boarded a late afternoon ferry across Lago Carerra, South America’s second largest lake (after Titicaca in Peru/Bolivia) and took a full day to skirt its southern shore to rejoin the Carretera Austral at the lake’s western end. This unpaved and sometimes rough shoreline road provides one of the most impressive and spectacular vistas anywhere in southern Chile. We camped overlooking the lake, alongside the track, in complete awe.

Over the course of the following days we moved south along the Carretera making a short hike to overlook the confluence of the raging deep blue Rio Baker and the brownish glacial-fed Neff River.

A short distance further we entered the Chacabuco Valley, part of the newly created Patagonia National Park. As luck would have it, this park and all parks and reserves in Chile, temporarily closed the day before we arrived so our visit was a brief one with quick roadside encounters with the area’s abundant guanacos, an animal closely related to the llama.

So, too, were closed the fabulous Marble Caverns on the northwest shore of the lake, but we ventured out along the Valle Exploradores road for a memorable visit to the toe of the Exploradores Glacier.

From there we returned to the main Carretera Austral at Puerto Tranquillo (which included internet access) and we assessed news of Chile’s increasing concern that foreign visitors should leave or face the likelihood of staying in the county for many months. Attractive as that might have been in Aysen, we reluctantly turned north to Coyhaique and began the complicated but successful return to the U.S. all while planning for a return trip to this most awe-inspiring land of natural beauty.

Resources:

www.fourwheelcamperpatagonia.com/
www.fourwh.com
www.koonoutfitters.com/
www.rutadelosparques.org/

OutdoorX4 Magazine – Promoting responsible vehicle-based adventure travel and outdoors adventure